Add these books to your summer reading list

Dr. Peter W. Bakken, coordinator of outreach for Au Sable Institute, is coauthor of Ecology, Justice, and Christian Faith: A Critical Guide to the Literature (Greenwood Press, 1995). Coauthors are Joan Gibb Engel, a freelance editor and writer, and J. Ronald Engel, professor of social ethics at Meadville-Lombard Theological School and chair of the Ethics Working Group of the World Conservation Union.

This volume is the first comprehensive and critical overview of Christian perspectives on the relationship between social justice and ecological integrity. The annotated bibliography focuses on works that include ecological issues, social-ethical values and problems and explicitly theological or religious reflection on ecological and social ethics. It will be of interest to those involved in religious education, research, liturgical renewal, public policy, community action, lay witness and personal lifestyle transformation.

What distinguishes Christian environmentalism from secular environmentalism Au Sable professors Joe Sheldon and Fred Van Dyke, Associate Director David Mahan and retired Wheaton College professor Raymond Brand answer, 'Worship."

In Redeeming Creation-Biblical Basis for Environmental Stewardship (Intervarsity Press, 1996), the four authors write, "This worship is the worship of our Creator, but it is not an escape from the world. Worship is that point at which we stand in the world, right in the center of it, receive it thankfully and offer it back with gratitude to God. In worship we recognize that the world is God's, and that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ will not only change our lives, but the very cosmos and creation in which we will live them...In worship we recognize that salvation is not simply about taking us to God's world, but a preparation for God's coming to our world and claiming it for Himself, by right of creation."

The authors aimed to write "a book at once readable yet serious...which would not reduce three-dimensional problems to two-dimensional homilies or issues of depth to talk-show shallowness. At the same time, we desired to write well for it is a story we offer to our readers, not a research report."

The Greening of Theology is part of the American Academy of Religion's "Academy Series." The author, Dr. Steven Bouma-Prediger, assistant professor of religion at Hope College, Holland, Mich., examines the contributions of theologians Rosemary Radford Ruether, Joseph Sittler and Jurgen Moltmann to the development of Christian ecological theology It discusses their views, offers critical appraisals of each and presents 16 theses for an adequate Christian ecological theology.

World Vision and the Evangelical Environmental Network offer a church curriculum kit, Let the Earth Be Glad.
The kit contains activities for children, retreat groups and adult study groups. It lists practical ways churches can help the poor by caring for God's creation and ideas for sermons on environmental stewardship and managing church property in an ecologically sound way.

New Life to the Earth (American Bible Society) is a booklet which uses Scriptures (Today's English Version) to encourage and guide Christians in their efforts as stewards of God's creation. Questions at the end of each chapter help readers focus their thoughts and efforts toward practical, realistic solutions.