A Christian perspective on environmental stewardship is at the heart of three forthcoming books by Dr. Steven Bouma-Prediger of the Hope College religion faculty.
A revised second edition of “Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement” will be published on Tuesday, Sept. 12, by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. of Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, England. Bouma-Prediger co-authored the book with Brian J. Walsh, now retired campus minister and adjunct professor of theology at the University of Toronto.
“Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is an Essential Christian Practice” is being published by Baker Academic of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and will be available on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
“Ecoflourishing and Virtue: Christian Perspectives Across the Disciplines” will be published on Friday, Nov. 10, by Routledge of London, England. Bouma-Prediger co-edited the book with Dr. Nathan Carson, who is associate professor and program director of philosophy at the Fresno Pacific University, where he also directs the Sierra Program.
Bouma-Prediger, who is the Leonard and Marjorie Maas Professor of Reformed Theology, is an award-winning author who has spent the past four decades studying and writing about the connections between Christian faith and creation care.
“Christians should be concerned about caring for the earth because it is integral to what it means to follow Jesus,” writes Bouma-Prediger. “We’re called to be caretakers of creation.”
This responsibility is particularly crucial now, he notes, as the effects of climate change intensify and humankind’s window of time for reducing its negative impact shrinks.
“We live in increasingly perilous times,” he insists, “as we see around the world and personally experience for ourselves hotter temperatures longer in the year, rising ocean levels and flooding rivers, more frequent droughts, increasing food insecurity and wilder wildfires.”
“Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement” discusses various forms of homelessness and demonstrates how Christian faith offers a path toward homecoming and homemaking.
“Most people who think about homelessness focus on socioeconomic homelessness, which we do address,” Bouma-Prediger says, “but we also explore ecological homelessness — not feeling at home on our home planet — and also a third type we call postmodern homelessness, in which people have a house but don’t feel at home.”
Bouma-Prediger and Walsh have updated and expanded the book, originally published in 2008, with new content including a new preface and 10,000-word postscript. In the postscript, he says, “We deal mostly with race, gender, ethnocentrism and LGBTQ+ issues that weren’t as prominent when we were writing back in the early 2000s.”
The two authors not only offer a diagnosis of different forms of homelessness but also show how the resources of Christian faith can healingly address these ailments of our age. For example, they argue that social policies that do not adequately help those in need, practices that damage and destroy the environment, and an individual sense of isolation all reflect the need for a return to a biblical understanding of home that emphasizes living in community with others and responsible care of creation.
“Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is an Essential Christian Practice” is a guide that progresses from biblical vision, through Christian tradition, through ecumenical insights from around the world, to practical advice for those who want to put their faith into action in their everyday lives. The chapters are bracketed by biblical meditations on passages such as the Creation story, Noah’s flood, and Jesus’s seven “I ams” from the Gospel of John.
Bouma-Prediger hopes that the book inspires its readers to see themselves within the story of God’s global community and thus as agents of love and justice who acknowledge that what they do really matters.
Those wondering where to begin, he advises, can start with some simple actions, such as turning off the lights when leaving a room, turning the thermostat down one degree in the winter, making sure one’s car’s tires are properly inflated, and reducing food waste. Then move on to purchasing a fuel-efficient car, or replacing appliances with energy-efficient models. Along the way, he says, don’t forget to join with others in advocating for community action in one’s city, county, state and country. He notes that such community advocacy in Holland, for example, has resulted in a comprehensive community energy plan, LEED-certified buildings, recognition as a Tree City, and wind turbines at the Civic Center and Outdoor Discovery Center.
“The most common rejoinder I hear,” he says, is “‘What good can one person do?’” But, he replies, “this question presumes that results or consequences are the only things that matter. But why should we assume that? We ought to simply do the right thing regardless of how likely there will be good consequences. Don’t despair at the magnitude of the problems. Do the right thing by caring for our home planet.”
“Ecoflourishing and Virtue: Christian Perspectives Across the Disciplines” explores how human vices drive many ecological problems and how human virtues foster ecological solutions. Drawing on insights from 20 Christian scholars across many academic disciplines — the humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social sciences — this book addresses issues such as environmental racism, interfaith dialogue, ecological philosophies of work, marine pollution, ecological despair, hope and humility.
“The question behind this book is: How can particular disciplinary perspectives help us think about virtues and vices?” Bouma-Prediger said. “More precisely: Which virtues do we need to cultivate, and which vices to we need to eliminate, for the earth to flourish?”
Bouma-Prediger notes that the book is also something of a historical chronicle and multigenerational. The opening section includes reflections from scholars he describes as “elders of the Christian earthkeeping family” — people who were writing in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — with the book continuing with experts who are nearer the beginning of their careers.
Bouma-Prediger has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1994. He chaired the Department of Religion from 2006 to 2013, and from 2013 to 2017 was the associate dean for teaching and learning. He also oversees the college’s Environmental Studies minor and co-chairs the Campus Sustainability Advisory Committee, otherwise known as the Green Team. In addition to his classroom teaching, he has taught a May Term course in the Adirondacks, “Ecological Theology and Ethics,” for 40 years. He is also an adjunct professor at Western Theological Seminary, and teaches in Belize and New Zealand for the Creation Care Study Program.
His numerous publications include five previous books concerning ecology and theology: “The Greening of Theology: The Ecological Models of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Joseph Sittler, and Juergen Moltmann”; “Assessing the Ark: A Christian Perspective on Nonhuman Creatures and the Endangered Species Act,” which he co-authored with Virginia Vroblesky; “Evocations of Grace: The Writings of Joseph Sittler on Ecology, Theology, and Ethics,” which he co-edited with Peter Bakken; “For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care”; and “Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic.”
He co-authored two chapters in the book “Living the Good Life on God’s Good Earth” and is also the author of numerous published scholarly articles and essays. He has presented many papers and invited addresses.
“For the Beauty of the Earth,” won an Award of Merit from Christianity Today in the theology/ethics category of the magazine’s 2002 Book Awards program, and in December 2000 “Evocations of Grace” was one of only five books named “editor’s picks” book of the year by the journal Christian Century.