Something is bound to go terribly wrong when so many Christians see the planet as an unimportant holding place where we await salvation; or when preachers and teachers of the faith place too much emphasis on humanity's privileged status without also explaining our responsibilities to tend the garden; or when Christians see God as transcendent but not immanently present in creation. The result, according to religious studies professor Daniel Deffenbaugh, is twofold: an ecological crisis and an 'evident exodus' of ecologically sensitive individuals from churches across the country.
Sojourners
Deffenbaugh calls Christians back to a reverence for place instead of the traditional eschewing of time on earth coupled with a yearning to be with God in heaven. . . . [He] brings ecology down to earth and challenges the Christian community to develop a new spirituality of place.
Spirituality and Practice
Learning the Language of the Fields would be more than adequate as a book about a Christian view of ecology and environmental stewardship. And heaven knows we need to be reading those kinds of creation-care books. But it is more. As the back cover states, it 'connects ecology with ritual and spirituality with community.' Deffenbaugh writes in gentle, flowing prose even as he argues forcefully that our aggressive agricultural models have been disastrous. It is a very nice book.
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