cover image Caring for Creation: An Ecumenical Approach to the Environmental Crisis

Caring for Creation: An Ecumenical Approach to the Environmental Crisis

Max Oelschlaeger. Yale University Press, $42 (296pp) ISBN 978-0-300-05817-8

Many environmentalists have blamed the Judeo-Christian religious teaching that humankind has dominion over the earth for the ecological crisis. Oelschlaeger, professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of North Texas, challenges that argument with the thesis that belief in religion is a necessary condition for the resolution of the ecocrisis. He notes that religion has played a crucial role in national affairs; historically, religiously inspired social movements have had considerable political influence. Oelschlaeger sets out political goals for ecologically responsible Christians and suggests that the local church is the most likely forum for discussion of moral issues that overlap with politics. He explores creation stories to show how they might serve to unite all faiths in setting an environmental agenda. In a work of scholarship, Oelschlaeger provides fresh, valuable thoughts on how to inspire a mass ecological movement. (Apr.)