Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living • Nick Spencer & Robert White SPCK, 2007, £9.99 • ISBN 978-0-281-05833-4
If you want a clear, straightforward guide to climate change and a Christian response, this is the place to start. The first section looks at climate change, the science, and the global impact, particularly on the poorest on the planet. The writing style is excellent: immediately accessible, yet with suitable depth and addressing the latest reports and scientific data.
The second section looks at a Christian perspective: it addresses practical considerations of sustainable and just living, using principles of jubilee and sabbath. The sections on wealth and trade are the weakest, as there is no reference to theologians from the global South, and remains in a free market paradigm. However, issues of our local rootedness and our response to the vulnerability of the poorest are considered, if briefly.
Section three outlines a practical Christian response emphasising joy, a holistic approach, resisting confusing wealth and value, and the demands of justice regarding access to the global commons. Whilst not challenging globalisation, there is at least a recognition that natural, human and social capital be taken into account, and that regulation of the market is needed.
The book ends with the usual practical options for individuals. There is a nod in the direction of community responses although it lacks stories of what churches are doing around the country. But sustainable options are clearly presented. National, international and technical options are considered, briefly.
As a first foray into the issue for someone with no technical or theological background, this is an excellent way in.
Jo Rathbone, National Co-ordinator, Eco-Congregation
A Moral Climate - the ethics of global warming Michael S. Northcott Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd., 2007, £12.95 ISBN 978-0-232-52668-4
This is a readable book and yet not one that is easy to read, as it is both thought provoking and challenging. It is also one that perhaps everyone ought to read as the subject of climate change is rarely out of the news and is something that affects us all to a greater or lesser degree already. Northcott covers a very wide range of issues concerning climate change and shows the gulf between vote-catching political speak and liberal economic thinking. The disconnection between humanity and creation and between modern living and Biblical principals is also explored. The theological attitudes and ethical implications of climate change are very comprehensively covered and show how a fairer world would be a happier and safer one.
Susan Atkinson UK Christian Bookshops Directory
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