Nature and Creation
Biblical Perspectives on Life Here on Planet Earth
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Published: 2023
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Publisher's Description
People have lived on Earth since before recorded history, depending on nature to provide for, and clean up after them. But Nature cannot do it all anymore. Too many people, too much trash, and too much toxic waste. People have long lived in interdependence with other living things. Yet humans now degrade and destroy the global environment that nurtures all species--including human beings. Human activities contaminate earth, air, and sea, causing thousands of species to go extinct. Rising global heat produces vicious cycles of catastrophic drought, fires, horrific storms, floods, famines, and massive migrations by desperate climate refugees. We don't hear much anymore about man's "conquest of nature." Nature--God's creation--now clearly has the last word. Contrast the theocentric faith and ethics embedded in the Old and New Testaments. Here the good world that God created, and continues to create, was made to be shared with all other living things. All alike are made from the earth and destined to return to it. Humans were meant to till the soil, appreciate, enjoy, and care for life around them, and trust their Creator for what is yet to be.
Endorsements (4)
“In this detailed, well-written book, Richard H. Hiers explores the meaning of the creation, the sovereignty of God, humans’ place in the world and relations with other creatures and landscapes, and ethical guidelines for treatment of nature that emerge from biblical texts. Nature and Creation is important reading for biblical scholars, environmental ethicists, and people of faith interested in a careful, critical evaluation of what biblical texts have to say about human relations and obligations to the rest of nature.”
“In Nature and Creation, Richard H. Hiers offers a thorough treatment of the Bible’s account of creation, other creatures, and their relation to both God and humanity. There are breakthrough readings here, including on the contested issue of human dominion over creation. Overall, Hiers shows that the Bible offers a treasure trove of resources for Christian ecological ethics. I highly commend this crucial work.”
“In this book, the accomplished biblical scholar Richard H. Hiers expertly searches the entire Bible to prove the thesis that God’s creation gives a value and importance to all created terrestrial life and not just human life.”
“Richard H. Hiers goes behind contemporary policy discussions about environmental ethics, offering both lay and professional students of the Bible a carefully catalogued and annotated compendium of passages revealing the unique triangle of relationships between God, the wider creation, and human beings. Exploring texts from diverse Christian canons in short, accessible sections, Hiers thoughtfully reflects on environmental issues from creation as a divine agent to the land sabbatical and humane treatment of animals.”
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