© Columbia University Press
Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology and Natural Selection: Suffering and Responsibility
Paper, 328 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12661-8
$31.00
/ £18.00
August, 2003
Cloth, 328 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-12660-1
$77.50
/ £45.50
"This book offers a detailed, thoughtful exploration of alternative scientific and theological conceptions of the environment." — Amy K. Wolfe, Environment
"Readers of this journal should pay special attention to a book such as this. It is as clear a demonstration as exists of the import of scientific theorizing and the fusion between the culture of the sciences and that of the humanities." — Michael P. Nelson, Environmental ConservationUniversity of Idaho
"This critique ought to generate debate and responses...for the questions it asks are crucial to our common project." — Anna L. Peterson, Environmental Ethics
"There is much to commend in this admirably clear and readable book." — Michael S. Northcot, Ecotheology
"Here is the most searching critique yet of ecological theologies, particularly of their compatibility with Darwinian evolutionary natural history. Sideris's incisive analysis opens up new possibilities for a more profound theology of nature and a more powerful, and appropriately loving, environmental ethic." — Holmes Rolston III, University Distinguished Professor and professor of philosophy, Colorado State University
"Lisa Sideris's book presents a new, clear, and persuasive case for viewing ecological ethics in the light of human participation within patterns of interdependence. Her analysis is always fair, intelligent, and interesting. She extends in a very creative yet rigorous way the ecological insights of important thinkers like James Gustafson and Mary Midgley. She engages an impressive array of interlocutors, secular as well as religious, without ever loosing her own voice and constructive agenda. Her ability to balance scientific, philosophical, and theological concerns makes this book a model of ecological ethics. Her voice is one that will teach academics, policy makers, and practitioners alike. This is one of the best books on environmental ethics to have been written in the last ten years." — Stephen J. Pope, chair of the theology department, Boston College
"Sideris's book provides us with an extremely useful analysis of a wide range of ecotheological and secular ecological ethical literature. She admirably critiques romanticized accounts of the natural world and our relationship to it that are sometimes used to support vague recommendations about loving and liberating nature. She argues that only by taking seriously Darwinian and post-Darwinian emphases on the centrality of natural selection in the evolutionary process can ecological ethics and theology engage a realistic account of nature and thus be able to develop an adequate sense of our ecological responsibilities. This book offers a balanced survey of the major voices in the field even as it digs deeply into a number of important critical issues." — Bill French, associate professor of theology, Loyola University, Chicago