The Tangled Bank

Description:
In response to the confluence of moral uncertainty with the increase of human power to alter nature, and through critical integration of the philosophical naturalism of Hans Jonas and the critical religious naturalism of James M. Gustafson, The Tangled Bank argues for an ecotheological ethics of responsible participation. By making the case that the moral pressures of our time call for a vision that is as deeply naturalistic as it is deeply theological, a critical perspective is advanced that is attuned to human embeddedness within nature as well as to human distinctiveness. In support of this, a moral anthropological method is deployed as a creative new way to integrate the comparative, critical, and constructive tasks of theological ethics. The insights of Hans Jonas and James M. Gustafson, interpreted comparatively for the first time, are critically drawn together to suggest new directions for scholarship and teaching in theology and religion and science studies.

Endorsements:
""In this elegantly written book, Michael Hogue insightfully compares two leading figures dedicated to reconstructing ethics in the light of our environmental situation, the philosopher Hans Jonas and James M. Gustafson, a Christian theologian. . . . This book is a welcome addition to religious and philosophical reflection on ecology and ethics. I heartily commend it to anyone and everyone engaged with the pressing moral challenges we all now face.""
--William Schweiker
Author of Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics


""Michael Hogue takes the interaction between environmental and Christian ethics to a new and satisfying level. . . . He writes with clarity, grace, depth, and humor.""
--John Opie
Author of Nature's Nation


""Michael Hogue breaks down the usual stereotypes about the value of philosophy and theology and challenges his readers to expand our ideas about how to live on Earth. Scholarly yet lucidly written and engaging, this book charts new territory in environmental thinking.""
--Jerome A. Stone
Author of The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence


About the Contributor(s):
Michael S. Hogue is Assistant Professor of Theology at Meadville Lombard Theological School (Chicago, IL). He is the author of Varieties of Religious Ethics and the Vulnerability of Life (2009).