Description
In a time of rapid climate change and species extinction, what role have the world's religions played in ameliorating-or causing-the crisis we now face? One can point to Christianity's otherworldly theologies, which privilege our spiritual aspirations over our natural origins, as bearing a disproportionate burden for creating humankind's exploitative attitudes toward nature.
And yet, buried deep within the Christian tradition are startling portrayals of God as the beaked and feathered Holy Spirit-the "animal God" of historic Christian witness. Through biblical readings, historical theology, continental philosophy, and personal stories of sacred nature, this book recovers the Christian God as a creaturely, avian being promiscuously incarnated within all things.
This beautifully and accessibly written book shows that "Christian animism" is not a contradiction in terms but Christianity's natural habitat. Challenging traditional Christianity's self-definition as an otherworldly religion, Wallace paves the way for a new Earth-loving spirituality grounded in the ancient image of an animal God who signals the presence of spirit in everything, human and more-than-human alike.
Author: Mark I. Wallace
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Published: 11/20/2018
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.20w x 0.40d
ISBN13: 9780823281312
ISBN10: 0823281310
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Christian Theology | General
- Science | Philosophy & Social Aspects
- Philosophy | Mind & Body
About the Author
Mark I. Wallace is Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies at Swarthmore College and core faculty for the U.S. State Department's Institutes on Religious Pluralism at Temple University. His books include Green Christianity: Five Ways to a Sustainable Future and Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature.