HarperOne Goes for the Green
by Bridget Kinsella -- Publishers Weekly, 12/13/2007 8:54:00 AM
Four major titles on environmental issues and a bible intended to be an environmental resource have been signed by HarperOne for release in 2008 and 2009.
Mark Tauber, v-p and deputy publisher of HarperOne, said the company has focused on the environment going back to the ‘80s when as HarperSanFrancisco it published The Whole Earth Catalog. “We see that caring about the environment—whether it’s called creation care, environmentally friendly, or the green movement—all of it is about the individual’s connectedness to the greater world and it is essentially spiritual.”
The new green books acquired by Gideon Weil, HarperOne’s executive editor, include: a to-be-named title by Simran Sethi, environmental correspondent at NBC News and environmental journalism professor at the University of Kansas, which analyzes the consumption of stuff in ordinary lives; You Are Here by Thomas M. Kostigen that connects the global crisis to individual actions; The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones, which calls for people to be truly invested in a greener America; and Green Kitchen Challenge by Mariel Hemingway that connects cooking to nutritional and environmental happy living.
As for The New Revised Standard Version Green Bible, Tauber said it is green both symbolically and as a resource. S
ymbolically, HarperOne is working to make sure all the paper, printing and binding are as environmentally friendly as possible. (Details are still being worked out.) “As a resource it’s a guide to scripture and how it teaches about caring for the environment,” Tauber said.
The NRSV Green Bible will include essays that highlight thoughts of caring for God’s creation, some by theologians including Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. It will also include a guide to green organizations of all kinds—from tree huggers to traditional Christians. What Tauber called a “Green Trail Guide” will lead readers to scripture passages throughout the Bible that refer to taking care of creation. Those passages will be printed in green in The NRSV Bible.
Tauber expects the Green Bible to be widely embraced by not only mainstream Protestants and Catholics, but also Evangelical Christians. Evangelicals have come to the environmental movement in a much greater way since 2006, when Vanity Fair included Richard Cizik, then head of the National Association of Evangelicals, in its Green Issue in which he said Christians were called to take care of the earth. “That is why we think this is the moment to do this,” said Tauber. The bible will be released in November 2008.
