Earth & Word
Classic Sermons On Saving the Planet
Edited by David Rhoads

With temperatures warmer than they have been in decades and major hurricanes and storms occurring with increasing frequency, the fragility of the environment is on everyone's mind these days. For centuries, the Christian religion has preached a dominion of the earth, which has turned into one community's exploitation of the environment in the name of religion. As the sermons in Earth & Word demonstrate, a vast portion of the Christian community does not endorse or condone the destruction of the environment in the name of God. This singular collection gathers the voices of many environmentalists, theologians, preachers, and activists who have spoken in support of saving the planet. Included in this collection are compelling and provocative sermons from such influential figures as Wendell Berry, Thomas Berry, John Cobb, William Slone Coffin, Bill McKibben, Sallie McFague, Joseph Sittler, and Barbara Brown Taylor. In each of these sermons, the authors explore the deep relationship between thinking religiously and thinking ecologically.

Rhoads has performed a great service in drawing together in one place these timeless and classic sermons on a vital topic for today.

David Rhoads is Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago.

To order, call Continuum at 1-800-561-7704

Earth & Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet
Edited by David Rhoads
ISBN-10: 0826428282 / ISBN-13: 9780826428288
320 pages, paperback, $24.95
Available April 2007

Continuum International Publishing Group
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704
New York, NY 10038

INCLUDING:
Neddy Astudillo: "The Right to Love the Land"

Karen Baker-Fletcher: "To Live as People of Dust and Spirit"

Peter Bakken: "Landscape of Grace: Home, Commons, Sanctuary"

Tanya Marcovna Barnett: "Expanding Our Circle of Compassion"

Dianne Bergant: "A New Understanding of Our Place in Creation"

Thomas Berry: "Moments of Grace"

Wendell Berry: "Christianity and the Survival of Creation"

Elizabeth Bettenhausen: "Jesus Vistis the Zoo: A Sermon for Children and Adults"

Sally G. Bingham: "If Not Us, Then Who?"

Margaret Bullitt-Jonas: "Conversion to Eco-Justice

Steven Charleston: "The Isaiah Factor: Prophetic Words the People Can Hear"

John Chryssavgis: "The Cry of the Earth: The Cry of the Heart"

John Cobb: "Scales Fell From His Eyes"

William Sloane Coffin: "Passion for the Possible: A Message to US Churches"

James Cone: "Whose Earth Is It Anyway?"

Ellen F. Davis: " . . . And In Him All Things Hold Together."

J. Ron Engel: "Who Will Speak for the Spirit of These Waters"

Dieter Hessel: "The Lord's Prayer for Earth Community"

Theodore Hiebert: "First Things First"

Laurel Kearns: "Knowledge, Buildings, and Trees"

Catherine Keller: "The Spirit Sighing for the New Creation"

Barbara Lundblad: "Matter Matters"

James B. Martin-Schramm: "Marriage as a 'Yes' to God's Earth"

Sallie McFague: "Can These Dry Bones Live?"

Bill McKibben: "The Comforting Whirlwind: God and the Environmental Crisis"

Cynthia Moe-Lobeda: "Dry Bone . . .Breath Came into Them and They Lived"

Ched Myers: "'The Cedar Has Fallen': The Prophetic Word vs. Imperial Clear-Cutting"

John Paarlberg: "The Glad Soil Rejoices"

Larry Rasmussen: "First and Everlasting Covenant"

David Rhoads: "Blessing the Animals"

Barbara Rossing: "Healing Our Affluenza: Jesus, the Rich Man, and Eternal Life"

Rosemary Radford Ruether: "The Biblical Vision of Eco-Justice"

H. Paul Santmire: "The Earth is Your Neighbor"

Joseph Sittler: "The Care of the Earth"

Barbara Brown Taylor: "Rest for the Land: Rogation Day"

George Tinker: "Creation as Kin: An American Indian View"

Appendix
"God's Earth is Sacred: An Open Letter to Church and Society in the United States"