A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming

Climate change promises monumental changes to human andother planetary life in the next generations. Yet government,business, and individuals have been largely in denial of thepossibility that global warming may put our species on the roadto extinction. Further, says Sallie McFague, we have failed to seethe real root of our behavioral troubles in an economic modelthat actually reflects distorted religious views of the person. At its heart, she maintains, global warming occurs because we lack anappropriate understanding of ourselves as inextricably bound tothe planet and its systems.

A New Climate for Theology not only traces the distorted notionof unlimited desire that fuels our market system; it also paints analternative idea of what being human means and what a just andsustainable economy might mean. Convincing, specific, and wise,McFague argues for an alternative economic order and for ourrelational identity as part of an unfolding universe that expressesdivine love and human freedom. It is a view that can inspire realchange, an altered lifestyle, and a form of Christian discipleshipand desire appropriate to who we really are.