Thursday, May 10, 2018

God is Green: An Eco-Spirituality of Incarnate Compassion Paperback – October 28, 2016 by Robert E. Shore-Goss (Cascade Books)



If I had to recommend a single recently-published text as a “must read” for a course on Christianity and ecology, especially climate change, it would be Robert Shore-Goss’s wide-ranging and clearly-written God is Green: An Eco-Spirituality of Incarnate Compassion. Not only does he include almost all important books from his preferred ‘kenotic theology,’ to rituals for embodiment and practice, but he also delivers a one-volume analysis and critique of the “field.” We all in his debt for a useful and passionate call for a theological “conversion” with accompanying radical action to help save our planet.”
--Sallie McFague, Professor of Theology Emerita, Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Distinguished Theologian in Residence at the Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia. Her most recent book is Blessed are the Consumers.

“Robert Shore-Goss has written a beautiful meditative overview of greening in Christianity. Not simply a fact-following-fact landscape, but a weaving of the reader and author as participants in contemporary Christian ecological locations. Like a Compostela pilgrimage (a reference to Ignatius of Loyola), the journey of reading here is challenging, communal, and playful all the way.”
--John Grim, Co-Director, Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University

”The Rev. Dr. Shore-Goss has pulled together a much needed and beautifully compiled message for Christians on ecological theology. God is Green will give the reader a true understanding of what the human role and relationship is with Earth. He points out Jesus’ call for protection and love for Creation. This is a direct and honest look at God’s intention for the human purpose supported by many theologians and including Francis of Assisi. He argues that we are the gardeners.”
--The Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham
President
The Regeneration Project
Interfaith Power & Light

That an author known for his contributions to Queer Theology not only would, not only could, but did expand his horizons to find something profound to say about what spirituality can do to entice people of faith to embrace a call to Green the Earth is quite astonishing. This work, God Is Green, traces the roots of human contact with the sacred all the way to our mythological roots, literally grounding us. Made from the soil, the humus, and fashioned by God’s all-purposing hands, we embody the sacred’s commitment to a life connected with all living things. Ignoring this rootedness, this connectedness, is a dangerous game played by industrial cultures. Robert calls us all back to the Earth, the ground, the soil. He borrows from the sacred texts of many cultures to show that throughout our time on this planet our spirits have always known that our inter-relatedness to and our interdependence with all living things is essential to a healthy, whole, and full life.

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