A New Climate for Theology

Climate change promises monumental changes to human and other planetary life in the next generations. Yet government, business, and individuals have been largely in denial of the possibility that global warming may put our species on the road to extinction. Further, says Sallie McFague, we have failed to see the real root of our behavioral troubles in an economic model that actually reflects distorted religious views of the person. At its heart, she maintains, global warming occurs because we lack an appropriate understanding of ourselves as inextricably bound to the planet and its systems. A New Climate for Theology not only traces the distorted notion of unlimited desire that fuels our market system; it also paints an alternative idea of what being human means and what a just and sustainable economy might mean. Convincing, specific, and wise, McFague argues for an alternative economic order and for our relational identity as part of an unfolding universe that expresses divine love and human freedom. It is a view that can inspire real change, an altered lifestyle, and a form of Christian discipleship and desire appropriate to who we really are. Table of Contents Preface Part One: The Science and its Significance for Theology Chapter 1: Climate Change: The Evidence and Consequences Chapter 2: Global Warming: A Theological Problem Part Two: Exploring God and the World within Climate Change Chapter 3: Who Are We? Ecological Anthropology Chapter 4: Who Is God? Creation and Providence Chapter 5: How Shall We Live? Christianity and Planetary Economics Part Three: Serving God and City Living within Climate Change Chapter 6: Why We Worship: Praise and Compassion as Intimations of Transcendence Chapter 7: Where We Live: Urban Ecotheology Part Four: Despair and Hope within Climate Change Chapter 8: Is a Different World Possible? Human Dignity and the Integrity of Creation in a Time of Global Warming Chapter 9: ?The Dearest Freshness Deep Down Things: The Holy Spirit and Climate Change Notes