Thoughts on faith, culture, and public life.
"They Said No." Acrylic on canvas by Lisle Gwynn Garrity. Inspired by Exodus 1:8-22. If Christians can support climate action on ordinary moral grounds, why do priests, pastors and ministers bring climate change into sermons, prayers, hymns and liturgies at all? Why not leave climate policy to scientists, governments, journalists and citizens, and allow public …
Continue reading "Why bring climate change into Christian worship?"
On reading one of my recent articles on reading Scripture in a climate emergency (Part 1), a friend raised a point many secular bystanders may well be asking: “I would have thought we were way past the point of needing to rely on biblical or ecological hermeneutics to help us understand the dimensions of the …
Continue reading "Why Christians don’t need proof texts for climate action"
Ecological hermeneutics in congregational life Biblical interpretation shapes Christian imagination long before it forges explicit ethical stances on public issues. How Christians understand what Scripture teaches about creation, human identity, salvation, possession, hope and responsibility influences how they inhabit the world. Ecological hermeneutics—the interpretation of texts with attention to the intrinsic value of Earth, the …
Continue reading "Reading Scripture in a Climate Emergency (Part 3)"
Scripture, science, and the risk of eisegesis One difficult task facing ecological hermeneutics is constructing an intellectually responsible relationship between ancient Scripture and contemporary science. Climate modelling, atmospheric chemistry, ecology, hydrology and biodiversity research operate within bodies of knowledge that did not exist when biblical texts were written. Scripture, meanwhile, speaks through narrative, poetry, prophecy, …
Continue reading "Reading Scripture in a Climate Emergency (Part 2)"
On the ecological reading of Scripture Ecological hermeneutics has become an increasingly important field of biblical interpretation. The chief reason for this is that Christians now read Scripture in ecological circumstances substantially different from those known to its original authors. Climate change, biodiversity loss, industrial agriculture, pollution, changing land use and the disruption of ecological …
Continue reading "Reading Scripture in a Climate Emergency (Part 1)"
