Creation's Diversity: Voices from Theology and Science

Description

This collection of substantial essays explores the question of how to relate environmental engagement in the context of religious convictions. In the first part of the book, 'A Diversity of Visions of Creation', six essays address various views of creation. In the second part of the book, 'Sustaining Creation's Diversity', the concept of sustainability is analyzed critically, given the dynamic character of natural reality as unveiled by the sciences. This is followed by some reflections on ethical and theological considerations regarding the idea that we ought to sustain diversity.

Willem B. Drees is professor of philosophy of religion and ethics at Leiden University, the Netherlands, President of ESSSAT, and author of Religion, Science and Naturalism (Cambridge UP, 1996), and Creation: From Nothing until Now (Routledge, 2001). Hubert Meisinger, Ph.D., is director for environmental affairs at the Center Social Responsibility in Mainz, associate director of studies for science and theology at the Protestant Academy Arnoldshain, associate lecturer in Systematic Theology at Darmstadt University of Technology and Vice-President of ESSSAT. He wrote a study on theological and sociobiological views of altruism: Liebesgebot und Altruismusforschung (Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht, 1996) and co-edited Physik, Kosmologie und Spiritualitat (Lang, 2006). Taede A. Smedes is research fellow at the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, and Scientific Programme Officer of ESSSAT, and the author of Chaos, Complexity, and God: Divine Action and Scientism (Peeters, 2004) and God en de menselijke maat: Gods handelen en het wetenschappelijk wereldbeeld (Meinema, 2006).

"A useful contribution to the continuing dialogue between theologies and the sciences on environmental issues." - Reviews in Science and Religion "This collection of essays is the fruitful outcome of a conference on science and theology...Timely and relevant with thoughtful and balanced arguments. The question of sustainable living is not only a religious one but a cultural and political one as well. Drees and colleagues highlight the imminent need for theological reflection and dialogue, as the future of sustaining creation's diversity becomes more tenuous." -Ilia Delio, Worship, Vol. 83, July 2009