Creation Care: Reading More Deeply

Back to Resources for Prayer and Study

Below you will find literature resources for Creation Care that read more deeply into this ministry.

From Churches

• An Episcopal Vision for Creation Care  — The Episcopal Church’s goals and a vision for Care of Creation, developed by the Presiding  Bishop’s Office and leaders of the Advisory Council on Stewardship of Creation, and in alignment with actions by the 79th General Convention.
• “To Serve Christ In All Creation: A Pastoral Letter from the Episcopal Bishops of New England” (2003) — a letter to the Episcopal Churches of Province One of The Episcopal Church (New England) from the bishops in the province acknowledging the environmental crisis, articulating our responsibility to care for creation, committing themselves “to pray and take action to restore a right relationship between humankind and creation,” and encouraging every Episcopalian in the province to do the same.
• “A Catechism of Creation: An Episcopal Understanding,” Prepared for Study in Congregations by The Committee on Science, Technology and Faith of The Executive Council, June, 2005.  A catechism, written in a traditional question-and-answer format like the “Outline of the Faith, or Catechism” in the Book of Common Prayer, which outlines the doctrine of creation, drawing upon the Bible and the theology of the early Church, presents basic information about modern scientific discoveries and theories about the history of the universe and of life and gives examples showing how science has informed and inspired a new theological understanding of God’s relationship to the creation, and presents the biblical basis for the church’s commitment to an ethic of caring for creation, suggesting ways in which individuals and congregations might live out this ministry.
• “A Pastoral Teaching from the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church,” Quito, Ecuador, September 2011.  A pastoral teaching from the bishops of The Episcopal Church that calls Episcopalians to repent and amend their lives and to work for environmental justice and for more environmentally sustainable practices, to actively seek to create more compassionate and sustainable economies that support the well-being of all God’s creation, and to speak and act on behalf of God’s good creation.
• “Declaration of Climate Emergency” by the bishops of the Episcopal dioceses in Massachusetts, March 2021.  A letter from the bishops of the Diocese of Massachusetts and the Diocese of Western Massachusetts acknowledging that not enough is being done to address the climate crisis and urging “congregations across Massachusetts to pray, learn, act, and advocate as we build a bold and faith-filled response to the greatest moral challenge of our time.”

Other

• Encyclical Letter “Laudato Si” of The Holy Father Francis on Care For Our Common Home — a pastoral teaching from Pope Francis on caring for God’s creation, published in 2015.

Non-Fiction

• How Can I Care for Creation? by Stephanie McDyre Johnson. by Stephanie McDyre Johnson.  A short book geared toward Episcopalians that clearly explains the why and how of caring for creation.
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The author, an indigenous scientist, makes the case that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

Theology

• Ecotheology: A Christian Conversation, Kiara A. Jorgenson and Alan G. Padgett, editors. In an engaging effort to fully describe eco-theology, four theologians explore creation care through the frameworks of natural science, biblical studies, systematic theology, and Christian ethics in a roundtable format.
• The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology, by H. Paul Santmire. A historical survey of the attitudes within the Christian tradition toward nature.
• Nature Reborn:  The Ecological and Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology, by H. Paul Santmire. As a follow-up to The Travail of Nature, Santmire explores the insights of classical and contemporary theologians and ethicists and pulls them together in a theology of nature that reclaims traditional Christian themes and reenvisions them in light of the global environmental crisis.
• The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry. A landmark text from a Catholic priest, eco-theologian and cultural historian Thomas Berry considers our ecological fate from a species perspective and points toward a transformation of consciousness that is needed if we and the planet are to survive.
• From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World by Norman Wirzba.  Offering a captivating argument for reimagining the natural world as God’s creation, Wirzba demonstrates how we as humans can live as creatures within an interconnected creation that embodies the love and goodness of the Creator.
• The Green Good News: Christ’s Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life, by T. Wilson Dickinson. A novel interpretation of the gospel which sees Jesus as a teacher of — and incarnation of — a vision of sustainable living.

Action

• Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change by Jim Antal.  Citing climate change as the greatest moral challenge humanity has ever faced, Antal calls for the church to embrace a new vocation through congregational action so that future generations can live in harmony with God’s creation.
• Claiming the Earth as Common Ground: The Ecological Crisis through the Lens of Faith by Andrea Cohen-Kiener.  A call to action to work across denominational lines to care for creation, drawing insights from ecological coalitions, emerging theologies, and spiritual and environmental activists.
• The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here, by Hope Jahren.  A scientist/teacher asks, how can we learn to live on a finite planet? and uses clearly understandable facts to illuminate the link between human habits and a planet imperiled by climate change.

Spirituality

• The Creation Care Bible Challenge, edited by Marek P. Zabriskie. Fifty days of reflections by spiritual leaders and writers from around the world explore ways that we can be faithful, loving stewards of the earth and all of its riches.
• Rooted & Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis, Leah D. Schade and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, editors.  An anthology of essays from faith leaders, scientists, community organizers, theologians, and grassroots climate activists who share their stories of grief, hope, fear, and faith with those of us who are worried about climate change.
• God in the Wilderness: Rediscovering the Spirituality of the Great Outdoors with the Adventure Rabbi by Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold.  An adventurous and outdoor-loving rabbi shows people of all faiths that it is vital to reclaim the lessons of the Bible and of the wilderness and to awaken our spiritual nature.
• The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology by Douglas E. Christie.  A contemplative approach to ecological thought and practice can help restore one’s sense of the earth as a sacred place.
• Super, Natural Christians: How we should love nature by Sallie McFague.  A spiritual approach to loving the earth by seeing it as the body of God, emphasizes ecological relationality and sees humankind’s relationship with creation as one of subject to subjects instead of subject to objects.

Fiction

• Of Green Stuff Woven, by Cathleen Bascom.  A novel from the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas about a cathedral dean’s dilemma as a developer’s offer to purchase a portion of the cathedral property being used to restore a patch of native prairie forces a choice for her and the cathedral members between their passion for prairie restoration and the needs of the parish.