Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology, and Natural Selection: Suffering and Responsibility

by Lisa Sideris

Overview

In the last few decades, religious and secular thinkers have tackled the world's escalating environmental crisis by attempting to develop an ecological ethic that is both scientifically accurate and free of human-centered preconceptions. This groundbreaking study shows that many of these environmental ethicists continue to model their positions on romantic, pre-Darwinian concepts that disregard the predatory and cruelly competitive realities of the natural world. Examining the work of such influential thinkers as James Gustafson, Sallie McFague, Rosemary Radford Ruether, John Cobb, Peter Singer, and Holmes Rolston, Sideris proposes a more realistic ethic that combines evolutionary theory with theological insight, advocates a minimally interventionist stance toward nature, and values the processes over the products of the natural world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231126618
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2003
Series:	Columbia Series in Science and Religion
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lisa H. Sideris is an assistant professor at the McGill School of Environment and the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, Montreal.

Table of Contents

Introduction
This View of Life: The Significance of Evolutionary Theory
For Environmental Ethics
The Best of All Possible Worlds: Ecofeminist Views of Nature and Ethics
The Ecological Model and the Reanimation of Nature
Darwinian Equality for All: Secular Views of Animal Rights and Liberation
Philosophical and Theological Critiques of Ecological Theology: Broadening Environmental Ethics from Ecocentric and Theocentric Perspectives
A Comprehensive Naturalized Ethic
Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

Stephen J. Pope

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

Bill French

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

Holmes Rolston III

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

Editorial Reviews

This book offers a detailed, thoughtful exploration of alternative scientific and theological conceptions of the environment.

Environment - Amy K. Wolfe

This critique ought to generate debate and responses...for the questions it asks are crucial to our common project.

Environmental Ethics - Anna L. Peterson

There is much to commend in this admirably clear and readable book.

Ecotheology - Michael S. Northcot

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.

Environmental Conservation - Michael P. Nelson

There is much to commend in this admirably clear and readable book.

— Michael S. Northcot

Ecotheology

This critique ought to generate debate and responses...for the questions it asks are crucial to our common project.

— Anna L. Peterson

Environmental Ethics

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, University of Idaho

Environmental Conservation

This book offers a detailed, thoughtful exploration of alternative scientific and theological conceptions of the environment.

— Amy K. Wolfe

Environment