Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment

The main premise of Scharper's book is that culture's definition of human nature often has direct effects on humanity's relation to the environment. For example, Enlightenment concepts that stress human independence from and domination over nature have resulted in the misuse and depletion of natural resources. Scharper attempts to demonstrate the ways in which various Christian religious traditions can articulate a view of a more humble, compassionate and interdependent humanity responsible for both environmental destruction and renewal. To do this, the author provides succinct and well-organized summaries of four major trends in Christian ecological thinking-process theology, new cosmology, ecofeminism and liberation theology-and he examines the promises and pitfalls of each approach. Scharper doesn't offer any new, comprehensive environmental theology of his own. But, even though his book offers no galvanizing original thought, it is a valuable survey of current Christian environmental thinking.(May)