Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition

I am in the middle of the Protestant chapter of Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition. This was published by the Acton Institute and contains four sections. The first section is The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship. The next three sections are essays from Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives on environmental stewardship.

The Protestant section starts out with the Theological foundations of environmental stewardship. It then goes on to show the ethical reasons for stewardship. It is a well referenced essay with both biblical references, and 77 footnotes of research and publications.

This essay had six editors, four of whom are professors at colleges and seminaries. Just reading through quickly can be done, but I will want to go back and follow some of the biblical references, which is how I recommend other's read it, too.

(to be continued...)

Effective Stewardship: Wisdom on the Environment

The Acton Institute sent me a copy of Effective Stewardship: Wisdom on the Environment which I watched yesterday. This is a twenty minute film that is very well done. It is both well paced but packed with great insights into the complex problem of caring for the environment.

One of the points they brought out was our responsibility to the world’s poor. That environmental policy would be felt most by the poor. In fact, those that are the poorest may die because of policy choices. "Ideas have consequences."

They also dealt with global warming. They asked four questions:

1. Is the earth really warming?
2. Is it man-made?
3. Is it harmful or beneficial?
4. Do the policies do what they are intended to do?

To be good stewards we have a responsibility to look at these questions seriously, and, when we can understand the consequences then move forward.

You can get the video to find out a brief overview of the answers to the questions above. For people locally, you can borrow the video from me.

In His Love,

Paul

P.S. They also sent a collection of essays on "Environmental Stewardship" which I will blog about later.