About This Book

“Green Discipleship will be a wonderful textbook for teachers and students. Faculty will find that the twenty-one essays cover a wide range of topics for a course on theology and the environment. Undergraduate students will find the essays written in a style that is accessible and with content that is informative. Helpful features that include review and reflection questions, an extensive glossary of terms, a bibliography, and an essay on library research make this volume a first-rate educational resource.”

“Green Discipleship is an exciting text for courses and discussion groups that focus on theology and the environment. Twenty chapters cover such topics as Christian tradition and scripture, moral theology, and social ethics, as well as insights from Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism. The essayists are committed to both their theological disciplines and their ecological concerns. Questions for discussion, a glossary, and a select bibliography are helpful additions, especially for instructors whose expertise is not in these areas. Perhaps the book’’s most useful aid is found in the appendix. Titled ‘From the Reference Librarian: A Practical Guide to Doing Research,”’ it gives the student a step-by-step tutorial in how to conduct further research on topics covered in the text. Because the advice spans a range of research tools (from relevant encyclopedias to online databases of both popular and scholarly articles), this creative guide should give instructors and students confidence in assigning and doing research projects. I hope this book receives the attention it deserves.”

““If you are looking (as I was) for the perfect textbook to teach a Catholic perspective on the environment, buy this book! It is fresh, all-encompassing, accessible, practical, and well-edited. Well-versed in the data of our ecological crisis, they [contributors] offer us their instructive strategies buttressed with the resources of the scriptures and the traditions and animated by a realistic yet hopeful vision. It’’s an empowering project. By the way, if you weren’’t thinking of teaching such a course, buy this book anyway. You’’ll be developing a syllabus on the topic before you get to Winright’’s convincing conclusion.””

“Green Discipleship: Catholic Theological Ethics and the Environment is a wonderful new addition to the growing literature on environmental ethics. Designed as a textbook for undergraduates——with lists of key terms, questions for review, photographs in each chapter, and a glossary, index, and bibliography at the end——this twenty-chapter reader is accessible, engaging, and challenging. Though some chapters are better than others, as is inevitably the case with a collection of writers, throughout the book the research is well-informed and the writing is clear. As the subtitle indicates, this volume focuses on the theological and ethical resources of the Catholic tradition, but the book also includes essays on non-Christian religions as well as chapters on the application of a Catholic ethic to contemporary issues. Many thanks to editor Tobias Winright and his contributors for the gift of this excellent new book. May it find a large readership.”

““Look no further.  .  .  .  A powerful ensemble of articles that is on the cutting edge of religious environmental ethics  .  .  .  The place to start for scholars and ministers who on their own want to bring themselves abreast of the best of the literature. This book will be a centerpiece in the conversation on religious ethics and the environment for some time.””

“In his 1990 World Day of Peace Message, Blessed John Paul II observed, “Christians, in particular, realize that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards nature and the Creator are an essential part of their faith.” The thoughtful and accessible essays of Green Discipleship will appeal to all readers concerned about our fragile ecology. More importantly, the book will help Christians understand that until we recognize that environmental degradation compromises the intrinsic goodness of nature and the life and dignity of the human person——especially of the poor and vulnerable——and until we renew ancient commitments to God’’s Creation, we may be doomed to ecological catastrophe. In light of the increasing ecological challenges our world faces, this book is a timely and invaluable resource for anyone who seeks to authentically understand and live the Christian life in the modern world.”