The Ecological Challenge to Biblical Studies

Abstract

The increasing prominence of environmental issues, together with the suspicion that the Bible, both through its creation stories and its eschatological expectations, may discourage a sense of Christian environmental responsibility, raise a challenge to which biblical scholars have responded in various ways. Some attempt to recover a positive ecological message from the Bible, while others read the Bible critically through the framework of a set of ecojustice principles. This essay reviews some of these contributions and argues for a theological approach to interpretation which avoids some of the weaknesses of either of these two alternatives.