5 Must-Read Books on Faith and Climate – go deeper into the themes of climate, justice and Christianity with this terrific range of books.
Ruth Valerio
Saying Yes to Life lifts our focus from natural, everyday concerns to issues that are having an impact on millions of lives around the world. As people made in the image of God, we are entrusted to look after what he has created: to share in God’s joy and ingenuity in making a difference for good. Ruth Valerio imaginatively draws on the Days of Creation (Genesis 1) as she relates themes of light, water, land, the seasons, other creatures, humankind, Sabbath rest and resurrection hope to matters of environmental, ethical and social concern.
Foundational to Saying Yes to Life is what it means to be human and, in particular, to be a follower of Jesus. Voices from around the world are heard throughout, and each chapter ends with discussion questions and a prayer to aid action and contemplation – perfect for individuals and groups to think, reflect, pray and be challenged together.
Dr Ruth Valerio is Global Advocacy and Influencing Director at Tearfund. An environmentalist, theologian and social activist. Ruth holds a doctorate from Kings College London, and honorary doctorates from the Universities of Winchester and Chichester.
Katharine Hayhoe
Called “one of the nation's most effective communicators on climate change” by The New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe knows how to navigate all sides of the conversation on our changing planet. A Canadian climate scientist living in Texas, she negotiates distrust of data, indifference to imminent threats, and resistance to proposed solutions with ease. Over the past fifteen years Hayhoe has found that the most important thing we can do to address climate change is talk about it—and she wants to teach you how.
In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective action. This is not another doomsday narrative about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology, from an icon in her field—recently named chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy.
Drawing on interdisciplinary research and personal stories, Hayhoe shows that small conversations can have astonishing results. Saving Us leaves us with the tools to open a dialogue with your loved ones about how we all can play a role in pushing forward for change.
United Nations Champion of the Earth, climate scientist, and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe changes the debate on how we can save our future.
Mick Pope
God has a plan for your life: to be a part of a great divine plan to ‘renew our world’ and make ‘all things new’ (Revelation 21:5).
Mick Pope takes the reader on a journey through ‘end times’ theology in Revelation and elsewhere to show that the good world we live is not destined for destruction but renewal. God is calling us to understand the state of our world theologically, to speak and act prophetically and bring the church and world to repentance, and to live hopefully.
This book comes with a study guide for groups or individuals.
Mick Pope has a PhD in Meteorology from Monash University, and is completing a Masters in Theology at the University of Divinity. He is a lecturer in Meteorology, Professor in Environmental Theology at Missional University, and a member of the Centre for Research in Religion and Public Policy (RASP).
Mick is the author of A Climate of Justice, and A Climate of Hope with Claire Dawson.
Steven Bouma-Prediger
Addressing a topic of growing and vital concern, this book asks us to reconsider how we think about the natural world and our place in it. Steven Bouma-Prediger brings ecotheology into conversation with the emerging field of environmental virtue ethics, exploring the character traits and virtues required for Christians to be responsible keepers of the earth and to flourish in the challenging decades to come. He shows how virtue ethics can enrich Christian environmentalism, helping readers think and act in ways that rightly value creation.
Steven Bouma-Prediger is professor of religion at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, and the author of For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care.
Howard A. Snyder with Joel Scandrett
The Bible Snyder argues, promises the renewal of all creation - a new heaven and earth - based on the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In ‘Salvation Means Creation Healed’, Snyder claims that for centuries this promise has been sidelined or misunderstood because of the church's failure to grasp the full meaning of biblical teachings on creation and new creation. Rather, he says, the Bible tells the story of the broken and restored relationship between God, people, and land, not just God and people. This is the full gospel, and it has the power to heal the church's long theological divorce between earth and heaven.
"In an era of dramatic and irreversible destruction of the earth's resources, Salvation Means Creation Healed is a timely call for Christians to recover a biblical vision of the missio dei as the restoration of all creation." - Cheryl Bridges Johns Church of God Seminary
Howard A. Snyder holds the Chair of Wesley Studies at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. . Joel Scandrett is a visiting professor of theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and former academic editor at InterVarsity Press.
