Developing an ecotheology of critical hope in Cascadia
Today marks my first day as scholar in residence at Reedwood Friends in Portland, OR. I'll be offering a six-week series on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings on the topic "Quakers & Creation Care: ecotheology & action from a Quaker perspective." I'm excited to begin tonight by sharing my story of how I came to …
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A couple book reviews I wrote went live last week on the Wabash Center for Teaching & Learning in Theology & Religion's Reflective Teaching site. One reviewed Discerning Critical Hope in Educational Practices (eds. Vivienne Bozalek, Brenda Leibowitz, Ronelle Carolissen, and Megan Boler), and the other reviewed Listening to Teach: Beyond Didactic Pedagogy (ed. Leonard J. Waks). Both were excellent books! …
Continue reading "Book reviews: Discerning Critical Hope; Listening to Teach"
Last November, I had the opportunity to preach at my Friends meeting, North Valley Friends. I was asked to share about Query 19 in our Faith & Practice document, which has to do with being a Christian steward of God's creation. A re-visioning of the Parable of the Tenants came to me then, and I …
Today at our GreenFaith retreat included a presentation and discussion with Erin Lothes Biviano, professor at the College of St. Elizabeth, about what motivates faith-based individuals and congregations to act on their environmental beliefs. This was fascinating and I want to read more of her work. We did read two of her articles: "Worldviews on …
I'm currently in Garrison, NY, serving as a GreenFaith fellow. This is our second of three retreats together, and this one is at a beautiful and simple former monastery called the Garrison Institute, about an hour and a half from New York City. GreenFaith is an organization that encourages and facilitates interfaith action on environmental …
My article, "Climatologists, Theologians, & Prophets: Toward an Ecotheology of Critical Hope," was published in the peer-reviewed journal Cross Currents and appeared online today. I am excited to share my work with interested readers. According to the copyright policy, I cannot post the PDF here, but I can send it to you if you request it, …
After spending some time explaining the words for and concepts surrounding "hope" in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the ancient Greek story of Pandora, and in Aristotle, I'm now ready to share with you what I found out when I did a study of the word we translate "hope" in the Christian Testament. This is the same …
Continuing in my study of the term "hope," I also ran across a really interesting article on Aristotle's understanding of the term hope: "Aristotle on Hope," by G. Scott Gravlee, which appeared in the Journal of the History of Philosophy in October 2000. I previously wrote about hope in Hebrew as well as the Greek …
Continue reading "Hope in Ancient Greek: Aristotle on hope, optimism, and courage"
In developing an ecotheology of critical hope, one of the things that is important is to understand what the biblical authors mean when they're discussing hope in the Bible. After doing research on the concept of hope in psychology, I found this framework of hope useful, but not a sufficient understanding of hope from a …
Continue reading "“Hope” in ancient Greek: Pandora and the Greek goddess Elpis"
I enjoyed last week's Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture Conference at Harvard Divinity School! I got to present my poster and talk to interested conference-goers about my research, gaining valuable feedback and connections. My poster is moving on to a second life at next week's Antioch University New England 15th Annual Student Research Symposium on April …
