David G. Horrell, Cheryl Hunt, Christopher Southgate, eds.
T&T Clark, 2010
This collection of essays provides a welcome balance for those who want to read the Bible through green eyes but also recognize that this ancient document does not fit neatly into anyone’s ideological categories. The editors value both faithfulness to the Christian tradition and creativity that speaks to contemporary needs.
In the introduction, the editors do an excellent job of laying out the landscape of recent attempts to read the Bible in light of environmental distress. The section that follows surveys the texts and sections of the Bible that figure most prominently in current discussions. A second section is devoted to the history of interpretation, revisiting figures such as Martin Luther and Thomas Aquinas, whose context was very different but who might still aid our thinking.
Essays in the third section attempt to define an appropriate hermeneutical method for ecotheology. “How, when the exegetical, theological, personal and political tasks are fused in a Christian response to the ecological crisis, can the Bible function to transform human practice, imagination, spirit, in ways that further authentic
peace, authentic hope?” asks Christopher Southgate, who wrote the introduction to this section.
Ecological Hermeneutics is not bedtime reading, but it is an engaging volume for those who preach or those who wish to understand what is going on in the eco-theological wing of biblical studies.§ - Jennifer Schrock
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