Ecoflourishing and Virtue

Steven Bouma-Prediger is Professor of Religion at Hope College in Michigan, USA. He is best known for his book – For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care and his most recent book Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring A Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic. At Hope he oversees the Environmental Studies program and co-chairs the Campus Sustainability Advisory Committee.Nathan P. Carson is Associate Professor and Program Director of Philosophy at Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, California, USA, directing also its Sierra Program which integrates wilderness, conservation, and community with environmentally thematized courses. His philosophical publications have appeared in Dao, Philosophy and Literature, International Philosophical Quarterly, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and Journal of Chinese Philosophy.

"This book is essential reading for every student and scholar alike. By focusing on one of the most important themes of our generation – articulating the place of virtue in ecological flourishing – it challenges the reader to weave together the insights of diverse disciplines both practically and creatively. The overall intent is to build a more constructive approach to thinking and acting differently in a rapidly changing and globalized world. The editors can be congratulated for bringing together a superlative line up of essayists whose approaches to earthkeeping from a variety of disciplines serve to complement each other. A predominance of essays by Christian scholars alongside a handful of poems in this collection, reinforces the argument in a way that will touch both hearts and minds." - Celia Deane-Drummond, Director, Laudato Si’ Research Institute, and Senior Research Fellow, Campion Hall, University of Oxford.​​"This rich anthology shows the down-to-earth power of Christian virtue ethics in this time of global ecojustice crisis. Carry this book with you. Dip into it often. Be inspired." - Paul Santmire, author of seven books on ecological theology, including The Travail of Nature and EcoActivist Testament. "Few books in the study of Christian environmental virtue ethics engage such a far-ranging set of issues from multiple disciplinary perspectives – and by each field’s leading scholars and writers on top of it. This volume will be a guide for years to come for those intentional about reflecting on what it means to be better caretakers of planet earth." - Gretel Van Wieren, Professor of Religious Studies and Philosophy, Michigan State University.

• Foreword; Introduction; I. Gifts in Retrospection: Mentors in Ecoflourishing – 1 From Shenandoah to the Mountain West; 2 Crossing Lehigh Gap: Discerning Christian Contributions and Misdirection in Wilderness Preservation; 3 Beholding Earth through the Eye of its Maker; 4 Prophets and Poets: The Capture of the Creative Vision; 5 A Table and a Planet: From Hearthkeeping to Earthkeeping; II. Grounding Narratives of Ecoflourishing and Virtue: Stories Worth Telling – 6 When Good Christians Destroy the Earth: The Virtue of Limits and the Limits of Virtue; 7 "Ecoflourishing" and Story: Fantasy, Science Fiction and Hope; 8 ‘I all-creation sing’: Christina Rossetti’s Cosmic Liturgy and Challenge to Anthropocentrism; 9 John Muir, Deep Time, and the Hope of Ecoflourishing; III. Biblical and Theological Soundings: Ecological Ruin, Restoration, and Community Virtues – 10 Subverting Metaphor, Transforming Identity: An Eco-Anthropological Analysis of Job’s Shift from Ruler to Member of the Creation Community; 11 Paul, Generosity, and Ecological Flourishing; 12 Ecoflourishing: Life, Death and Natural Disasters; IV. Global Ecoflourishing: Biospheric, Intercultural, and Interreligious – 13 Interdisciplinary Voices of the Ecoflourishing ‘Glocal’ Dialogue from Non-Western Cultural and Literary Perspectives; 14 Becoming Citizens of the Biosphere: Character, Ecoflourishing, and Control in Our Newfound Common Home; 15 Becoming Human, Intercultural, and Inter-creational: Movements toward Achieving Ecoflourishing; V. Philosophical Remedies: Relationship, Work, Economy – 16 Primary Encounters: Relational Ontology and Ecoflourishing; 17 Toward a Christian Ecological Philosophy of Work; 18 Fairy Tales and True Stories: Economic Talk for Ecological Flourishing; VI. Virtue and Vice in Ecological Practice: Confronting Current Challenges – 19 The Christian Ethics of Waste, Contaminants, and Emerging Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems; 20 Reconciling the Food Chain with the Great Chain of Being: A Philosopher’s Reflection on Raising Sheep for Meat; 21 Justice, Biocentrism, and White Supremacy: John Muir’s Romantic Christian Ethics; 22 The Virtue of Intersectionality in Environmental Ethics.