Review
This is an important book on an under-researched topic about which scholars and the general public urgently need to be better informed. McKeown offers a lucid, thorough and persuasive critique of Christian natalist theologies and ideologies, exploring their historical roots and showing why they exert such influence today. His work supplies a missing piece of the jigsaw of Christian environmental ethics, and deserves to be widely read.-- Rachel Muers, Senior Lecturer in Christian Studies, University of Leeds
McKeown does a fine job of showing how the modern natalist position misreads scripture. His study of the movement is all the more illuminating for its deep historical and theological perspectives.-- John Bimson, Lecturer in Old Testament, Trinity College Bristol
In this fascinating study, McKeown offers the reader a lucid exploration of the ways in which 'biblical' notions of fruitfulness and procreative fecundity have been used and misused within the Christian theological tradition down through the ages. In doing so, McKeown makes a significant contribution to the field of theological ethics, but also adds a stimulating chapter to the ever expanding story of the Bible's reception from antiquity down to the present day.-- David Shepherd, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Trinity College Dublin
In this original, scholarly book the author carefully analyses the theological foundations for natality and finds them wanting. He skilfully exposes not just faulty biblical exegesis supporting such a view, but also the way in which the Christian tradition has been misaligned to such a position. He argues convincingly that such issues are not of mere theoretical importance, but have significant ramifications for environmental ethics. ...-- Celia Deane-Drummond, Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
God's first words to Adam and Eve recorded in Genesis 1 v 28 were 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth....' McKeown takes these words and the many related references in the Bible ... and carefully discusses how Christians should apply them today in our increasingly crowded and damaged world. It is a subject of important relevance that we Christians today need to take on board. [This] thorough and careful treatise provides a good basis from which to begin.-- Sir John Houghton CBE FRS, formerly chairman of Scientific Assessment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
About the Author
John McKeown is a JRI Associate. He was a Lecturer at the University of Gloucestershire up to 2010, leading modules in Christian History, Theology, and Ecological Christianity. He completed his PhD in Old Testament Reception at Chester University in 2012. He was an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, in History. Before that he was Research Associate in Learning Technologies for Geography, at Leicester University. He currently works in IT support at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Cornwall campus, University of Exeter.
