God is Green. Green is Good. Green is the new Liberation.

God is Green. Green is Good. Green is the new Liberation.

- R.E. Slater

Green is good. Green is godly. It stands against sin and evil

proposing beneficial ways of wellbeing for humanity and creation.

- R.E. Slater

Pictured here are Native Americans whose recent legacies have shown to the rest of the world the importance of earthcare and restoration. We honor them for their wisdom and vision. - re slater

Along with several ecological links I've posted today and yesterday I would like to suggest several books on ecotheology and social justice across a diverse series of international thinking and input. As a Process Christian I consider Earthcare as much a biblical subject and necessity as a theology of God. Not the least of which is my notice of how deeply intertwined recent Earthcare communities have become with worldwide earth restoration projects which are leveraging geographic localities and biotic regions for the wellbeing of nature. Each Earthcare group has been attempting in their own way to oppose and restrict commercial development and economic powers from further denigrating the land, water, and lungs of the earth. Teaching green-minded citizenry how to behave and construct differently within a post-industrial societal context as we become more committed to the earth than ever before.

Generally, as the earth dies so do we. Economic competition has long been a tribalized force throughout history. Wars have been waged over water scarcity, fertile green lands, and mineral resources. We have raped the land; stolen oil, fishing grounds, and ores from one another; and have pillaged communities from their rightful property rights. Earth justice and ecosocial liberation is no joke. It is the rightful response of the oppressed to their Christian, religious, and secular oppressors having acted unfairly, inequitably, and with intent to profit from oppressed communities.

As Green Christians and Citizens of the Earth we stand for rightful management of the Earth wherein both man and beast may share in its wealth as well as in its responsible management. That the 21st century see an attitudinal and behavioral shift across humanity which integrates God's love for creation against mankind's former practices of ecousuary, ecoharm, and ecotheft.

Green is good. Green is godly. It stands against sin and evil and proposes beneficial ways of wellbeing for humanity and creation. - R.E. Slater

As an extension of the ideas presented in Gustavo Gutiérrez’s A Theology of Liberation, Daniel Castillo proposes the embrace of a green liberation theology. Such a theology recognizes the need for political and ideological paradigm shifts in relation to globalization, and Castillo grounds this call to conversion in the Christian mystery of salvation. He places Gustavo Gutiérrez in dialogue with a diverse array of theological, ecological, and socio-scientific discourses, paying special attention to Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. The central question of this project is: What is the relationship between salvation, human liberation, and care for creation?

"Essential reading in these extraordinarily troubling times." Race and Knitter have put together a collection of interesting essays on a compelling cutting-edge approach to theology of religions that is well worth the effort to read. - Hartford Seminary, CT Lucinda Mosher

"Melanie Harris has written an engaging and provocative book that deserves to be widely read. She underscores the significance of African cosmology and African-American history to ecowomanist ways of being in the world. Her articulation of these broad cosmological and historical frameworks for effective environmental justice is brilliant and timely.” - Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, and co-author Journey of the Universe

Scholarship on African American history and culture has often neglected the tra­dition of African American women who engage in theological and religious reflection on their ethical and moral responsibility to care for the earth. Melanie Harris argues that African American women make distinctive contributions to the environmental justice movement in the ways that they theologize, theorize, practice spiritual activism, and come into religious understandings about our re­lationship with the earth. Incorporating ele­ments of her family history to set the stage for her argument, Harris intersperses her academic reflections with her own personal stories and anecdotes.

This unique text stands at the intersection of several academic disciplines: womanist theol­ogy, eco-theology, spirituality, and theological aesthetics.

About the Author

Melanie L. Harris is Founding Director of African American and Africana Studies and Professor of Religion and Ethics at Texas Christian Univer­sity,. Dr. Harris also serves as an American Council of Education Fellow at the University of Denver. She is author of Gifts of Virtue, Alice Walker, and Womanist Ethics, and co-editor of Faith, Femi­nism and Scholarship (both Palgrave Macmillan). She holds a PhD from Union Theological Semi­nary, New York.

Prominent theologians, ethicists, scientists, and activists explore specifically Christian responses to the Universe Story and its implications for the contemporary environmental crisis. Beginning with excerpts from recent statements by Pope Francis and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the book includes contributions by John Haught, Ilia Delio, Catherine Keller, Larry Rasmussen, and more.

About the Author

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are codirectors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale. They were students of Thomas Berry and have devoted themselves to his legacy by editing his books and producing the Emmy-award-winning film, Journey of the Universe with Brian Swimme. They co-edited Thomas Berry: Selected Writings on the Earth Community.

This book asks (and answers) an important question: How do we encourage and empower activists and scholars to work for environmental sustainability? Lothes Biviano combines empirically-based focus group data with interdisciplinary research and theological interpretation to offer a unique analysis of what encourages and what discourages sustainable decision making, including the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional conflicts inherent in confronting climate change. A must-read for anyone searching for the spark that drives spiritual Americans to feel the environmental crisis as a sacred loss, and who are re-imagining their faith and life through environmental advocacy.

Just Water explores the necessity and availability of a supply of fresh water from the perspective of Christian ethics. This revised edition includes new data and updates on social developments related to water crises, as well as insights from Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si' and a discussion of water justice from the perspective of the events at Standing Rock. About the Author Christiana Zenner is an associate professor of theology, science, and ethics at Fordham University. She is the co-editor of Expanding Horizons in Bioethics (Springer) and Just Sustainability (Orbis).

Elizabeth McAnally strikes a remarkable balance in this academically rigorous and spiritually rich approach to the myriad global issues related to water. She draws from Christianity’s sacramental consciousness of baptism, loving service of the Yamuna River in Hinduism, and the compassionate wisdom of the bodhisattva to develop “an integral approach to water ethics.” Building on but distinct from the foundation laid by Christiana Zenner’s Just Water, this book is a welcome addition to the growing field of concern surrounding global water crises.

Elizabeth McAnally, PhD is the newsletter editor and website manager for the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University. She has taught in the areas of environmental ethics, comparative religion, and philosophy of religion.