Customer Reviews

Befriending the Earth: A Theology of Reconciliation Between Humans and the Earth

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In purchasing this book I was looking for a theological basis for my Church Ecological Justice group. I am pleased to say I found it in the awesome combination of the earth spirituality of Thomas Berry CP and the traditional theology of the cross that Thomas Clarke SJ expounds so eloquently.

Berry says that originally Christianity had two sources of revelation the Bible and Nature but that over time the Church has gradually abandoned the latter. He poses the question how do we achieve reconciliation? Clarke argues persuasively that the Christian story with its powerful message of redemption told through the passion and suffering of Christ should be the means of that reconciliation. The Jesuit speaks of 'cultural disparagement' that is the denial of dignity of the 'poor'(ie the outcasts of society, women, indigenous people and members of Eastern religions) Not only are we called on to be compassionate to the poor but that 'in a very mysterious way the power for the redemption of humanity has been placed within the poor' and they are 'the key to the redemption of the planet, the key to the redemption of all species' (#61)