Readings from the Perspective of Earth (The Earth Bible Series)

Rating:
Summary: Readings from the Perspective of Earth (Earth Bible, vol 1)
Review: The Earth Bible Series represents a daring and timely new interpretive approach: listening and responding to Bible texts from the standpoint of Earth. This first volume in the series, with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, explains the six "ecojustice principles" that underly the approach and contains 14 chapters by an international team of biblical scholars that illustrate how Earth-centered readings can yield interesting and challenging new perspectives on selected Bible texts. The selected texts represent the books of Psalms, Amos, Jeremiah, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon, Matthew, Luke, Romans, 1 Timothy, Hebrews, and Revelation. Some results: Terence Fretheim's retelling of the Earth story in Jeremiah 12 leads to an increased appreciation of Earth's central place in the creation theology of the Hebrew Bible. Keith Carley's reading of Psalm 8, by contrast, shows how a biblical text can downplay and devalue Earth so that Earth might want to offer its own counter-Psalm in response! Vicky Babalanski offers an Earth-reading of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 which shows how the prayer focuses on God's kingdom on Earth in such a way that the present time (not just the future) may be an arena for new life-giving possibilities. An inspiring collection, suitable for personal reading, discussion groups, and the classroom. I'm looking forward to the succeeding volumes in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Readings from the Perspective of Earth (Earth Bible, vol 1)
Review: The Earth Bible Series represents a daring and timely new interpretive approach: listening and responding to Bible texts from the standpoint of Earth. This first volume in the series, with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, explains the six "ecojustice principles" that underly the approach and contains 14 chapters by an international team of biblical scholars that illustrate how Earth-centered readings can yield interesting and challenging new perspectives on selected Bible texts. The selected texts represent the books of Psalms, Amos, Jeremiah, Tobit, Wisdom of Solomon, Matthew, Luke, Romans, 1 Timothy, Hebrews, and Revelation. Some results: Terence Fretheim's retelling of the Earth story in Jeremiah 12 leads to an increased appreciation of Earth's central place in the creation theology of the Hebrew Bible. Keith Carley's reading of Psalm 8, by contrast, shows how a biblical text can downplay and devalue Earth so that Earth might want to offer its own counter-Psalm in response! Vicky Babalanski offers an Earth-reading of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 which shows how the prayer focuses on God's kingdom on Earth in such a way that the present time (not just the future) may be an arena for new life-giving possibilities. An inspiring collection, suitable for personal reading, discussion groups, and the classroom. I'm looking forward to the succeeding volumes in the series.