Earthkeeping in the Nineties: Stewardship of Creation

Ever since its original publication over a decade ago, Earthkeeping has presented a thought-provoking, biblically based call for responsible stewardship. In view of the continuing environmental crisis worldside and in light of the increased ecological awareness in recent years, the book's message regarding "earthkeeping" is now more pertinent than ever.

This greatly revised and augmented edition of Earthkeeping updates the original edition while retaining the same breadth of perspective, reflecting the combined insights of Christian scholars in biology, physics, economics, literature, and philosophy. The book begins by laying out, with scientific precision, the state of the planet. Several chapters then carefully examine various historical and contemporary views of creation. Next the authors survey biblical and theological teaching relative to humanity's use of creation. The book concludes by offering helpful, practical guidelines for an earthkeeping ethic.

Besides providing an updated "state of the planet" analysis, this revised edition of Earthkeeping deals with recent cultural and religious developments, incorporating new material, for example, on the "Deep Ecology" and "new age" movements, the Gaia hypothesis, and ecofeminism. This edition also takes into account the recent wealth of Christian thinking about the earth, including the recovery of important but neglected voices from the Christian tradition, such as Hildegard of Bingen and Celtic spirituality. At the end of the book, an expanded and updated annotated bibliography, organized according to subject area, and new indexes (of names and subjects and of Scripture references) enhance the value of Earthkeeping as a significant resource fostering better human stewardship of God's creation.