Climate Change, Ecology, Environment

Van Wieren, Gretel. Restored to Earth: Christianity, Environmental Ethics, and Ecological Restoration. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013, 208 pages, paperback, $29.95.

H. Paul Santmire. Before Nature: A Christian Spirituality. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014, 253 pages, $39.00

Jenkins, Willis, The Future of Ethics: Sustainability, Social Justice, and Religious Creativity. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013. Paper, viii + 340 pages. $34.95.

As global​ climate change​ increases in its rate and effects, an energetic and faithful conversation about the related ethical issues also grows in urgency. This issue of Journal of​ Lutheran Ethics offers two presentations by Larry Rasmussen to the 2014 Lutheran Ethicists Gathering that explore this challenge. Dr. Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of […]

​Rasmussen writes that scientists have concluded that we have entered a new geological age due to human activity. We are now having a bigger impact on the natural environment than ever before, changing mountains, oceans, even the atmosphere itself. What should the moral or ethical response be when so-called natural disasters are the result of humans, particularly when the people who create the problems are not the people who suffer the worst effects?

After establishing that the Earth is entering a new period, the Anthropocene, Rasmussen uses the legacy of the Reformation, along with the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to explore how humans need to enter a new Reformation in which we truly recognize the planet as sacred and treat it as such.

Twenty years ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted a social statement entitled Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice. As a growing and strong consensus emerges in our world that climate change is endangering the planet, this issue of JLE focuses on the environment. The social statement is reintroduced and various articles explore […]

Copyright 2013, Lutheran University press, reprinted by permission. This essay is one of the papers presented at the 2012 Convocation of Teaching Theologians. All papers are available in the Lutheran University Press book,Eco-Lutheranism. http://www.lutheranupress.org/Teaching-Theologians-books – Editorial note: For the sake of clarity and ease, the author has chosen to simplify citations for two commonly-referenced works […]

Consumption’s impact: A Chocolate Case Study [1] Some of the most significant environmental problems of our time result from the collective impact of individual consumption decisions. We decide what to eat, what to wear, how to heat and cool our homes, how to transport ourselves, and what products to buy. All of these add up […]

[1] In a country that has historically adapted well to the world’s most pressing needs, it is no surprise to see an ecological consciousness emerging among U.S. citizens. The prefix “eco” is now joined with a variety of business endeavors, describing more sustainable business solutions. Green practices such as composting and recycling are widely taught […]