The successes and significance of religious environmentalism are manifest in statements by leaders of virtually all the world's religions, in new and green forms of prayer and ritual, in comprehensive religiously motivated criticisms of modern society's economy, politics and culture, and in solid contributions to real world environmental struggles. This book chronicles the promises of this movement, illuminating its fundamental ideas, describing the work of its leading prophets, and detailing its important contributions to a global environmentalism.
Introduction: Religion and the Human Meaning of Environmental Crisis; 1. Religion, Nature, Environment; 2. Religious Environmentalism and Secular Society; 3. Sustainable Religion; 4. Religious Environmentalism in Action; 5. Environmentalism as Spirituality; 6. Opening the Heart: The Ritual Life of Religious Environmentalism; 7. Five Faces of Religious Environmentalism; 8. Obstacles, Prospects, Hope
For those who connect ecological writing with prohecies of doom and gloom, Gottlieb's book A Greener Faith comes as something of a tonic. Tony Hodgson Rural Theology This book provides a valuable review of religious engagement with the environment...This book is written in a lively style, airing counter arguments followed by replies to such arguments in a way that helps build up the position the author is trying to make. Celia Deane-Drummond, Science and Christian Belief nicely produced and attractively priced...A Greener Faith indicates that what is required now is to offer fuller accounts of the practical differences that religious environmentalism might make. That is, we need now to develop the religio-politics of religious environmentalism. That this book manages this double achievement is an indication of its importance and will ensure that is widely read. Peter Scott, Ars Disputandi ...this book is a provocatively useful contribution to the green public square, calling for its denizens to welcome the emergence of religion in their midst, and implicitly notifying religion scholars of its increasing importance. Willis Jenkins, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Gottlieb's beautifully written and carefully researched work is essential reading for people of faith, environmentalists, scholars and anyone who is concerned about our planet's future. Morning Star It is valuable reading for environmentalists, scholars and the many among us who are concerned about the future of our planet. International Journal of Environment and Pollution ...a very hopeful message and puts a whole new slant on the meaning of fundamentalism. Northern Echo