Author: Ken Willard Publisher: ISBN: 9781950899104 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 150
Book Description
Church Ecology invites readers that God has in fact created us to be more than we have become. Called by Christ to discipleship, we are the true heirs of Christ. We are called to share the gifts that God has given to each of us on behalf of the whole community so that we can more effectively be the body of Christ in and for the world today. As a part of that call, we have a responsibility to discover, and sometimes re-discover, those whom God has gifted for leadership and invite them to prIn Church Ecology, the authors lay out a practical step-by-step approach to creating a leadership pathway that is grounded in scripture and prayer. Their creative, reflective process and practical suggestions invite all who participate to remember who they are in Christ. They invite us to be curious about current leadership development processes, curious about what those processes could be, curious about the journey - past, present, and future - and curious about past, present, and future capacity for fruitfulness. They invite us to ask questions and they ask us questions, coaching us to determine the next appropriate action step for our unique church situation. They also remind us that a leadership pathway for a community should not be built or created by one person, but a diverse small group of persons who are passionate about growing a healthy and generative church ministry, outreach, and witness.Church Ecology invites us to anticipate and prepare for future leadership in the church. Instead of leaving the development of church leadership up to happenstance, Ken and Kelly invite us to anticipate and to prepare for future leadership through an intentional process of creating a leadership pathway that empowers us to live a healthy, balanced life with Christ and one another as the church. Developing a leadership pathway serves to open up endless possibilities for us to be one with Christ, one with each other, and one in God's transforming ministry to all the world - not just for the moment but for the future.
Author: Victoria Loorz Publisher: Broadleaf Books ISBN: 1506469655 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner in "Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought" CategoryWinner of the Living Now Book Award, Church of the Wild reminds us that once upon a time, humans lived in an intimate relationship with nature. Whether disillusioned by the dominant church or unfulfilled by traditional expressions of faith, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. Victoria Loorz certainly did. Coping with an unraveling vocation, identity, and planet, Loorz turned to the wanderings of spiritual leaders and the sanctuary of the natural world, eventually cofounding the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild. With an ecospiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Church of the Wild uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it--and calling it church. Through mystical encounters with wild deer, whispers from a scrubby oak tree, wordless conversation with a cougar, and more, Loorz helps us connect to a love that literally holds the world together--a love that calls us into communion with all creatures.
Author: William T. Cavanaugh Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1498283411 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 370
Book Description
In Fragile World: Ecology and the Church, scholars and activists from Christian communities as far-flung as Honduras, the Philippines, Colombia, and Kenya present a global angle on the global ecological crisis--in both its material and spiritual senses--and offer Catholic resources for responding to it. This volume explores the deep interconnections, for better and for worse, between the global North and the global South, and analyzes the relationship among the physical environment, human society, culture, theology, and economics--the "integral ecology" described by Pope Francis in Laudato Si'. Integral ecology demands that we think deeply about humans and the physical environment, but also about the God who both created the world and sustains it in being. At its root, the ecological crisis is a theological crisis, not only in the way that humans regard creation and their place in it, but in the way that humans think about God. For Pope Francis in Laudato Si', the root of the crisis is that we humans have tried to put ourselves in God's place. According to Pope Francis, therefore, "A fragile world, entrusted by God to human care, challenges us to devise intelligent ways of directing, developing, and limiting our power."
Author: Associate Professor and Chair Kathryn D Blanchard Publisher: ISBN: 9781481315005 Category : Languages : en Pages : 230
Book Description
Christians share a common concern for the earth. Evangelicals emphasize creation care; mainline Protestants embrace the green movement; the Catholic Church lists 10 deadly environmental sins; and the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch has declared climate change an urgent issue of social and economic justice. This textbook examines seven contemporary environmental challenges through the lens of classical Christian virtues. Authors Kathryn Blanchard and Kevin O'Brien use these classical Christian virtues to seek a golden mean between extreme positions by pairing each virtue with a pernicious environmental problem. Students are thus led past political pitfalls and encouraged to care for other creatures prudently, to develop new energy sources courageously, to choose our food temperately, to manage toxic pollution justly, to respond to climate change faithfully, to consider humanity's future hopefully, and to engage lovingly in advocacy for God's earth. Readers will emerge from this text with a deeper understanding of contemporary environmental problems and the fundamentals of Christian virtue ethics.
Author: Pope Francis Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor ISBN: 1612783872 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 119
Book Description
“In the heart of this world, the Lord of life, who loves us so much, is always present. He does not abandon us, he does not leave us alone, for he has united himself definitively to our earth, and his love constantly impels us to find new ways forward. Praise be to him!” – Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ In his second encyclical, Laudato Si’: On the Care of Our Common Home, Pope Francis draws all Christians into a dialogue with every person on the planet about our common home. We as human beings are united by the concern for our planet, and every living thing that dwells on it, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. Pope Francis’ letter joins the body of the Church’s social and moral teaching, draws on the best scientific research, providing the foundation for “the ethical and spiritual itinerary that follows.” Laudato Si’ outlines: The current state of our “common home” The Gospel message as seen through creation The human causes of the ecological crisis Ecology and the common good Pope Francis’ call to action for each of us Our Sunday Visitor has included discussion questions, making it perfect for individual or group study, leading all Catholics and Christians into a deeper understanding of the importance of this teaching.
Author: John Chryssavgis Publisher: Fordham Univ Press ISBN: 0823251446 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 509
Book Description
Can Orthodox Christianity offer unique spiritual resources especially suited to the environmental concerns of today? This book makes the case that yes, it can. In addition to being the first substantial and comprehensive collection of essays, in any language, to address environmental issues from the Orthodox point of view, this volume with contributions from the most highly influential theologians and philosophers in contemporary world Orthodoxy will engage a wide audience, in academic as well as popular circles--resonating not only with Orthodox audiences but with all those in search of a fresh approach to environmental theory and ethics that can bring the resources of ancient spirituality to bear on modern challenges.
Author: Cheng-tian Kuo Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1532658176 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 242
Book Description
Most ecotheologies build their arguments on the Bible’s creation-story and resurrection-narrative in the hope to save the ecology through spiritual meditation, reforming capitalism, and/or deliberative democracy. However, based on a Chinese Christian social scientist’s perspective, this book argues that few of these ecotheologies are theologically and empirically valid. Instead, it proposes a neuro-institutional post-ecology theology that builds on the major themes of the Last Judgment to refocus ecotheology toward evangelism and to adapt ecotheology to capitalism and democracy in order to embrace the “already but not yet” impacts of the inevitable total destruction of the ecology in the near future. The vanities in current ecotheologies are divided into religious, economic, and political categories. Among the major ones discussed in this book are the vanities of ecological meditation theology, leftist and rightist economic theologies, as well as ecotheologies of green authoritarianism and deliberative democracy. Even if these ecotheologies work perfectly as they were intended to, global ecological crises have passed the point of no return (i.e., post-ecology) and rendering all of them a global vanity. Based on a Chinese Christian social scientist’s perspective, this book proposes a moderate course of ecological spirituality, economic behaviors, and democratic actions, but with a radical devotion to crisis management and evangelism in preparation for the Doomsdays. This book is unique in its balanced interdisciplinary composition, employing theories from cognitive science, Christian theology, economics, and political science.
Author: Brennan R. Hill Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1725218852 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
Although the environmental crisis has been recognized as an international threat, Christian attempts to reconcile their religious traditions and the earth are just beginning. 'Christian Faith and the Environment' challenges churches to take a stand for environmental concerns. Hill explores how twentieth-century theologians such as Karl Rahner, Bernard Lonergan, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin have taught Christians to build bridges between Christianity and creation. Examining sacramental rites, church documents, and feminist theological insights on ecology, Hill outlines a Christian environmental spirituality and traces the ethical challenges posed by our new awareness of our environment.
Author: William T. Markham Publisher: Berghahn Books ISBN: 9781845454470 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 426
Book Description
German environmental organizations have doggedly pursued environmental protection through difficult times: hyperinflation and war, National Socialist rule, postwar devastation, state socialism in the GDR, and confrontation with the authorities during the 1970s and 1980s. The author recounts the fascinating and sometimes dramatic story of these organizations from their origins at the end of the nineteenth century to the present, not only describing how they reacted to powerful social movements, including the homeland protection and socialist movements in the early years of the twentieth century, the Nazi movement, and the anti-nuclear and new social movements of the 1970s and 1980s, but also examining strategies for survival in periods like the current one, when environmental concerns are not at the top of the national agenda. Previous analyses of environmental organizations have almost invariably viewed them as parts of larger social structures, that is, as components of social movements, as interest groups within a political system, or as contributors to civil society. This book, by contrast, starts from the premise that through the use of theories developed specifically to analyze the behavior of organizations and NGOs we can gain additional insight into why environmental organizations behave as they do.
Author: Ken Willard
Author: Victoria Loorz
Author: William T. Cavanaugh
Author: Associate Professor and Chair Kathryn D Blanchard
Author: Pope Francis
Author: John Chryssavgis
Author: Clive W. Ayre
Author: Cheng-tian Kuo
Author: Brennan R. Hill
Author: William T. Markham