Product Description

Climate change promises monumental changes to human and other planetary life in the next generations. Yet government, business, and individuals have been largely in denial of the possibility that global warming may put our species on the road to extinction. Further, says Sallie McFague, we have failed to see the real root of our behavioral troubles in an economic model that actually reflects distorted religious views of the person. At its heart, she maintains, global warming occurs because we lack an appropriate understanding of ourselves as inextricably bound to the planet and its systems.

A New Climate for Theology not only traces the distorted notion of unlimited desire that fuels our market system; it also paints an alternative idea of what being human means and what a just and sustainable economy might mean. Convincing, specific, and wise, McFague argues for an alternative economic order and for our relational identity as part of an unfolding universe that expresses divine love and human freedom. It is a view that can inspire real change, an altered lifestyle, and a form of Christian discipleship and desire appropriate to who we really are.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #172296 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780800662714
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
"Global warming is as much a theological challenge as an engineering one. How do we understand God in a world where we're now dominating nature? How do we understand ourselves in such a way that we might shrink our impacts? Sallie McFague offers a lucid and powerful guide to these questions, and helps advance the field of environmental theology a giant step." --Bill McKibben, American environmentalist and writer, Scholar in residence, Middlebury College

"Sallie McFague has brought the fruits of decades of thinking about God and the world, about individual and community, about humanity and nature, about reality and metaphor, about the sacramental and the prophetic, to bear on the critical issue of climate change. She calls Christians to new feeling, new acting, and new thinking. Perhaps as the threat to our world that she describes so well presses more obviously upon us, the church will begin to listen." --John B. Cobb Jr., Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology

"Sallie McFague has brought the fruits of decades of thinking about God and the world, about individual and community, about humanity and nature, about reality and metaphor, about the sacramental and the prophetic, to bear on the critical issue of climate change. She calls Christians to new feeling, new acting, and new thinking. Perhaps as the threat to our world that she describes so well presses more obviously upon us, the church will begin to listen." --John B. Cobb Jr., Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology

About the Author
Sallie McFague was the Carpenter Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School, where she taught for thirty years. She is now Distinguished Theologian in Residence at the Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver, British Columbia. Among her many influential works, all from Fortress Press, are:

Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril (2000)
Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature (1997)
The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (1993)
Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age (1987), which received the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence
Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language (1982)

Customer Reviews

D. Ray
This is an important and timely book. In it, Sallie McFague offers fresh insights into the challenges to contemporary existence posed by global warming, and she develops a theology that responds to those challenges with wisdom, imagination, and courage. Among other things, readers will appreciate the clarity of McFague's thinking, the accessibility of her writing, and the everyday usefulness of her theology.

Absolutely Fantastic!
I cannot recommend this book enough! McFague writes an extremely compelling work on ecological theology and climate change. I have read many a book on the subject, and am writing my masters' thesis on the area, and this is one of the most insightful, relevant and powerful works I have come across, and I don't say this lightly. McFague offers a balanced view of the latest and best science on climate change, and then asserts that, though she cannot offer what scientists, engineers, and various innovators can in the practical application of changing the way we do business, she is responsible to deal with her area - theology - in light of environmental crisis. Thus, she seeks to change the way we think - about ourselves, about God, and about our relationships with the rest of life. Ultimately, she favors a recognition of our interconnection with all of life - it is not "us" and "nature" - we are part of nature...which is ultimately all within the "body of God." She effectively argues not only interconnection of all life, but our call to responsibly live within this interconnection, to act as stewards since we are the ones who have created the problem in the first place! It would be unfair to discuss all McFague's points in this book since part of the beauty of it is to become caught up in the experience of her exploration. Suffice it to say, this is an absolute "must read" for anyone interested in the area - destined to be a classic.

Climate Change - Science, God, Service, Despair and Hope
Sallie McFague's source contends that our personal theology affects who we are and what we do as individuals and as a nation on the issue of global warming. The source provides a theological discussion of our relationship with God in light of global warming and the need for action on climate change for world sustainability. McFague argues that we need to change our global warming actions for God and ourselves but that our hope for that change is in God.

The evidence presented by Sallie McFague on the earth's climate change is based in science. The theology is well grounded and supported by McFague's teaching experiences and research work. Her thoughts are backed up with much science, biblical justification and historical theology.

Sallie McFague's arguments are compelling and detailed. The source looks through the lens of scripture on how to see global climate change and I rated the source highly because of that alternative thought process.