Climate Reading Lists
A booklist (part 1) to help widen your understanding of climate change issues in relation to your faith, and (part 2) to suggest ideas for worship.
With thanks to Margaret Leeming, Manager of St John’s Cornerstone Bookshop, Edinburgh, who helped with this compilation.
Booklist – Part 1
| Title | Author | Publisher | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angels with trumpets - the Church in a time of global warming | Paula Clifford | Darton, Longman and Todd with Christian Aid 2009 | A handy-sized paperback which packs a punch! It could be used as a basis for small group discussion on 'how to move on from re-cycling and light bulbs' to become a more profoundly prophetic community. |
| Care for Creation - a Franciscan spirituality of the earth Ilia Delio | St Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, Ohio 2007. (The Franciscan International Study Centre in Canterbury may have this book in their library) | Franciscan theology has traditionally seen the earth as our sister and mother. It offers a delightful and practical contribution to eco-theology for our times. | |
| Christianity and the Renewal of Nature | Sebastian Kim and Jonathan Draper (eds) | SPCK2011 | |
| Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living | Nick Spencer and Robert White | SPCK 2007 | This book derives from the Ebor Lecture Series and has been developed as a response to the growing need for theology to interact with contemporary public issues. |
| Climate and Christ - a prophetic alternative | Edward P Echlin | The Columba Press Dublin 2010 | Living locally sustainable lives and providing prophetic alternatives to contemporary, individualised economics - a template for parishes to model a lifestyle of quality, earth-care and sharing. |
| Creation - a Biblical Vision of the Environment | Margaret Barker | T&T Clark 2009 | |
| Creation in Crisis | Robert White (ed) | SPCK 2009 | |
| Creation set free: the Spirit as Liberator of Nature | Sigurd Bergnann | Eerdmans 2005 | |
| Eco-Theology | Celia Deane-Drummond | Darton, Longman and Todd 2008 | A wide-ranging and scholarly resource covering such diverse fields as the global nature of ecological reflection, the wisdom tradition, eco-feminist theology and how ecology can be integrated into the heart of Christian faith. |
| Planetwise - Dare to Care for God's world | Dave Bookless | Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) 2008 | For all of us still making token gestures towards global warming, read this and be inspired! Bookless's theology is grounded in a life and ministry utterly committed to developing a Christian response to the environmental crisis. |
| Towards a Theology of the Environment | Paul Haffner | Gracewing 2008 | |
| The Sacred Universe - Earth, Spirituality and Religion in the 21st Century | Thomas Berry | Columbia University Press New York 2009 | Berry wrote that to hear the natural world is to hear the divine. Our modern alienation from nature and all that flows from that, is just one of many prophetic insights from the essays of this author. |
| Transition Movement for Churches: a prophetic imperative for today | Timothy Gorringe and Rosie Beckham | Canterbury Press, Norwich 2013 | Outlines the main principles of Transition, explores how churches can make links to Transition communities - and offers a guide to the visionary and prophetic aspects of Transition. |
| A Christian Guide to Environmental Issues | Martin Hodson and Margot R Hodson | Bible Reading Fellowship | A thoroughly readable and practical book covering eight contemporary eco issues: biodiversity, climate change, water, human population and consumption, energy, soil, food and environment and development. There are plenty of eco tips and useful biblical references for group study and at the end a Covenant for Hope. |
| Places of Enchantment: meeting God in Landscapes | Graham B Usher | SPCK, 2012 | Many people find great spiritual benefit from climbing a mountain or walking in nature. This book describes how God can be experienced “infusing, sustaining and renewing a whole web of interconnections in an enchanted world, of which we as humans are just a part.” It is also a useful resource for preachers and study groups during the Season of Creation in the four weeks leading up to the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. |
| The Earth Will Teach You | Kevin Durrant | Wide Margin, 90 Sandyleaze, GL2 0PX; | This is a delightful book. If you are an environmentally committed lay person who sometimes gets called on to ‘do the sermon slot’ for a family service, you will find it invaluable. It weaves together poetry, art and historical and current events within a Biblical matrix. |
| Earthed: Christian Perspectives on Nature Connection | Eds. Bruce Stanley and Steve Hollinghurst | Mystic Christ Press, 2014 | If you feel, as many people now do, that we need to nurture a spirituality that recognises how far humanity has become disconnected from an understanding of our dependence on nature for our very life, then this book is an excellent place to start. It is written by people with practical and theological experience in this field, including the Right Rev Anne Hollinghurst and her husband Steve who ran a Forest Church in St Albans Diocese for about five years until they moved away when Anne was appointed a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Birmingham. |
| Place, Ecology and the Sacred: the Moral Geography of Sustainable Communities | Michael S Northcott | Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2015 | In his timely exploration of the growing worldwide quest for resilient and sustainable local economies, Northcott argues that “Christianity can be a powerful source of redemption and repair to the pathologies of extreme mobility, placelessness and ecological destruction that characterise contemporary life.” |
| From Teilhard to Omega : co-creating an Unfinished Universe | Ed. Ilia Delio | Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2014 | The French Jesuit and scientist Pierre Teihard de Chardin (1881-1955) devoted his life to bringing Christianity and evolution together in a unified vision. He handed onto future generations the task of developing his ideas about God, Christianity and Science itself. In this book thirteen scholars take the story on from where Teilhard left off, sharing new insights on God and evolution, secularity and spirituality and the wisdom needed to forge the future. |
Booklist – Part 2
Resources for Worship
| Title | Author | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| A Heart for Creation - worship, resources and reflections on the environment | Chris Polhill | Wild Goose Publications 2010 |
| Cherish the Earth - reflections on a living planet | Mary Low | Wild Goose Publications 2003 |
| Lord of Creation - a resource for creative Celtic spirituality | Brendan O'Malley | Morehouse Publishing New York 2008 |
| Praying for the Earth - remembering the environment in our public and private prayers of intercession | Church of England Newcastle Diocese | downloadable here - Newcastle diocese |
