Living With Other Creatures

Living With Other Creatures

This is a scholarly book packed with information. For anyone who wants to work out a serious approach to the relationship of Christians to the natural world, this is a good place to begin.
In his book, Bauckham brings together many articles and chapters he has written before, adds some new material and weaves the whole into a useful compendium. This is not a book to be read necessarily chapter by chapter or all in one go. It can be used as a resource for thinking about particular topics – and the chapter headings give a good idea as to what is in each. Having said that, I would read chapter 1 first: The Human Place in Creation – a Biblical overview; and perhaps chapter 2 as well: Dominion Interpreted – a Historical Account. After that you can pick the theme. This is just a flavour:
Reading the Synoptic Gospels Ecologically
Jesus and Animals
Reading the Sermon on the Mount in an Age of Ecological Catastrophe
Creation Mysticism in Matthew Fox and Francis of Assisi
Biodiversity – a Biblical-Theological Perspective
I share Bauckham's passion that we must take seriously the issues that green theology is concerned with, although I don't necessarily agree with all his conclusions. But he is right to say that Christian thinking has too often gone astray because we think of ourselves as over against nature and not part of it. The whole book serves to correct that by taking us back to some biblical truths about God valuing all his creation and its creatures, great and small.

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