Reading the Bible amid the Environmental Crisis

Sébastien Doane is professor in biblical studies at Université Laval, Québec.

In Reading the Bible Amid the Environmental Crisis, Doane showcases innovative ways to read the Bible in the Anthropocene. The book consists of six innovative, stand-alone essays that interpret Biblical texts using a wide range of ecological methods of interpretation. Doane showcases understudied Biblical passages. Four of the six essays deal with the Hebrew Bible; two focus on passages from the New Testament. Readers gain an appreciation for concrete, thought-provoking ways to read the Bible without the limiting framework of an anthropocentric focus. The author draws on a diverse range of disciplines: e.g., trauma theory, affect theory, ethics, animal studies, posthumanism philosophy, and environmental humanities. Doane offers deft, clear guidance to realms of transdisciplinary scholarship in the field of environmental humanities that readers may find challenging. This erudite work will appeal to students of biblical ecotheology and ecocriticism, as well as to Christians who wish to find innovative ways to use Biblical resources to address the ecological crisis of our time. Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: The Witness of the Stone that Heard: An Ecological Interpretation of Joshua 24Chapter 2: Interconnected Mourning and Rejoicing: Joel 1-2 and More-than-human Affect TheoryChapter 3: Expanding the Realm of the Grievable with Jeremiah 4 and 12 as Geo-traumaChapter 4: The Song of Songs as Multi-Species Rhizomatic AssemblageChapter 5: The Lamb That Therefore I Am: The Indistinction of the Becoming-Disciple in the Gospel According to JohnChapter 6: Patient Farming (James 5:7-11) as Eschatological/Ecological PostureConclusionReferences