In honor of Earth Day and Rogation Days, the Diocesan Creation Care Task Force offered a webinar, Christianity as an Earth-Honoring Faith: A Call to Public Discipleship, with Dr. Adam Clark, professor of Theology at Xavier University, on Sunday, April 25, 2021. Dr. Clark encouraged us to examine our call to care for God’s creation not just as concerned environmentalists, but as Christians and followers of Jesus.
As we consider the Pope Francis Encyclical Laudato Si’ On Care for Our Common Home and our Eco-discipleship we need to change our paradigm. The current paradigm for many protestants is “fall” and “redemption” view of our relationship to God. Our call is to shift our paradigm to a creation-centered view, where creation is a sacramental expression from God. Realizing that God’s Creation is our neighbor deserving our love allows us to move from a kingdom-centered view toward a Beloved Community.
This event was jointly and joyfully sponsored by the Faith in Life Commission of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, the Creation Care and Environmental Justice Task Group of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, and the Creation Care Ministry Team of All Saints Episcopal Church in New Albany.
Dr. Clark also gave the sermon at All Saints Episcopal Church, New Albany. You can find a recording of the sermon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRGdIiZ_31s
If you’d like to dive deeper into this subject, Dr. Clark offered two book lists.
Here are some book recommendations to start your Eco-Theology library:
- Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis
- Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor by Leonardo Boff
- Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key by Larry L. Rasmussen
- The Great Work: Our Ways Into the Future by Thomas Berry
- Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril by Elizabeth Johnson
- Earth Revealing; Earth Healing: Ecology and Christian Theology by Denis Edwards
- Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating by Norman Wirzba
- Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril by Sallie McFague
- Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth by Ilia Delio
Books to begin your Ecology Library (not religion specific):
- This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
- Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
- Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
- The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Tsing
- Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth by James Lovelock
