LibGuides: Christianity and Ecology: Overview & Scope

-- Orthodox Icon, Christ at the Creation of the World

Overview

Welcome to BPL's Christianity and Ecology Research Guide!

This guide is designed to help students and researchers find library materials and research pathways on ecology from the perspective of Christian theology, ethics, and practice. The topics reflected in the guide express the breadth of potential engagement between Christianity and ecology, including fields such as environmental ethics, eco-feminism, and ecology & the Bible. Each page is designed as a starting point for further exploration.

How to Use this Guide

Where possible, this guide includes "starting point" resources on each topic. Often, each page contains a short list of overview resources to help researchers get started learning about that field of inquiry. Additionally, sections include “key works” which are representative of major scholarly perspectives in that field. These works are frequently the most influential in their area, and so have sparked a continued scholarly conversation.

There are also finding aids in each section. These aids list subject headings relevant to that topic. Students and researchers should use those subject headings as search terms within the library catalog to retrieve only the most relevant results. Additionally, there is a list of call numbers that can aid in browsing the stacks, which is another great way to discover resources on a topic.

Meet with a Librarian

Librarians are here to partner with you at any stage of your project.

The BPL Library Staff is always eager to aid students and researchers in this area. Librarians can help you identify resources for your topic or develop a search strategy to find the best materials. To contact a librarian, email paynelib@vts.edu. The library staff is here to serve and resource your studies.

Introductory Works

Christianity and Ecology by Dieter T. Hessel (Editor); Rosemary Radford Ruether (Editor)
Call Number: BT695.5 .C555 2000
What can Christianity as a tradition contribute to the struggle to secure the future well-being of the earth community? This collaborative volume, the third in the series on religions of the world and the environment, announces that an ecological reformation, an eco-justice reorientation of Christian theology and ethics, is prominent of the ecumenical agenda.
Holy Ground by Lyndsay Moseley (Editor)
Call Number: BL 65 .N35 H65 2008
Here, leaders from many faith traditions, along with writers who hold nature sacred, articulate the moral and spiritual imperative of stewardship and share personal stories of coming to understand humans' unique power and responsibility to care for creation.
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature by Laura Hobgood (Editor); Whitney Bauman (Editor)
Call Number: BL 65.N35 B56 2018
Divided into four parts--Earth, Air, Fire, and Water--this book takes an elemental approach to the study of religion and ecology. It reflects recent theoretical and methodological developments in this field which seek to understand the ways that ideas and matter, minds and bodies exist together within an immanent frame of reference.
Ecology and Religion by John Grim; Mary Evelyn Tucker
This primer explores the history of religious traditions and the environment, illustrating how religious teachings and practices both promoted and at times subverted sustainability.
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology by Roger S. Gottlieb (Editor)
Call Number: BL 65 .E36 O94 2006
This handbook gives a definitive overview of new theological developments across religions in response to the ecological crisis.
The Cambridge Companion to Christianity and the Environment by Alexander Hampton (Editor); Douglas Hedley (Editor)
Call Number: BT 695.5 .C355 2022
A set of introductory essays on topics relating to Christianity and the environment. The essays lean toward the more theological or philosophical and deal with Christianity's relationship with the environment in the (mostly) abstract.