Down to earth
Subtitle: Christian hope and climate change
By: Richard A. Floyd
Publisher: Cascade Books
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Eugene, Oregon
Language: eng
Number of pages: 132
ISBN-13: 9781498220873
Subjects: Human ecology; Hope; Christianity
Description: In the face of climate change and ecological diminishment, how can we hope that creation itself--good and beautiful, marked by tragedy and chaos--is taken up rather than left behind? Can a Christian vision, which has at times been drunk on eschatological dreams (or nightmares) that consign this world and most of its creatures to destruction, foster an earthly hope? Jurgen Moltmann and Sallie McFague offer two contemporary possibilities for an ecological eschatology. Floyd critiques both of these theological visions and traces an alternative that is both humble (grounded in the humus, the dirt) and hopeful (grounded in divine creativity), arguing that a "down-to-earth" hope is grounded finally in beauty: the beauty of the other that draws out the self, the beauty of the redeemed self coming out to meet the other, and the beauty of God that lures forth ever-new possibilities and gathers up all the beautiful and broken creatures into the deepest possible harmony.--Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 127-132).
Table of contents: title: Introduction: De-creation, re-creation, new creation; title: Silencing the God of the whirlwind: hope and humility in Jürgen Moltmann; title: Subjunctive faith: humility and hope in Sallie McFague; title: Taking our stand with the dirt: humility and the cosmic process - "What beauty is for": hope and the efficacy of beauty; title: Practicing the new creation.