The Cambridge Companion to Christianity and the Environment

How one of the world's most important religions, Christianity, shaped one of the important issues of our time, the environment.

To understand the existential issue of our age, the environmental crisis, we must consider the central and formative role Christianity has played, and will continue to play in shaping our relationship to the planet. This companion elucidates central concepts, explicates the environmental history of Western Christianity, and engages key issues.Christianity has understood the environment as a gift to nurture and steward, a book of divine revelation disclosing the divine mind, a wild garden in need of cultivation and betterment, and as a resource for the creation of a new Eden. This Cambridge Companion details how Christianity, one of the world's most important religions, has shaped one of the existential issues of our age, the environment. Engaging with contemporary issues, including gender, traditional knowledge, and enchantment, it brings together the work of international scholars on the subject of Christianity and the Environment from a diversity of fields. Together, their work offers a comprehensive guide to the complex relationship between Christianity and the environment that moves beyond disciplinary boundaries. To do this, the volume explains the key concepts concerning Christianity and the environment, outlines the historical development of this relationship from antiquity to the present, and explores important contemporary issues.