Between God & Green How Evangelicals Are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate Change

by Wilkinson, Katharine K.

• ISBN13: 9780199895885
• ISBN10: 0199895880
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Despite three decades of scientists' warnings and environmentalists' best efforts, the political will and public engagement necessary to fuel robust action on global climate change remain in short supply. Katharine K. Wilkinson shows that, contrary to popular expectations, faith-based efforts are emerging and strengthening to address this problem. In the US, perhaps none is more significant than evangelical climate care. Drawing on extensive focus group and textual research and interviews, Between God and Green explores the phenomenon of climate care, from its historical roots and theological grounding to its visionary leaders and advocacy initiatives. Wilkinson examines the movement's reception within the broader evangelical community, from pew to pulpit. She shows that by engaging with climate change as a matter of private faith and public life, leaders of the movement challenge traditional boundaries of the evangelical agenda, partisan politics, and established alliances and hostilities. These leaders view sea-level rise as a moral calamity, lobby for legislation written on both sides of the aisle, and partner with atheist scientists. Wilkinson reveals how evangelical environmentalists are reshaping not only the landscape of American climate action, but the contours of their own religious community. Though the movement faces complex challenges, climate care leaders continue to leverage evangelicalism's size, dominance, cultural position, ethical resources, and mechanisms of communication to further their cause to bridge God and green.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Abbreviations	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
An Alternative Voice	p. 2
Contested Terms	p. 5
A New Story	p. 7
Chronicling Evangelical Climate Care	p. 9
Undulating Activity	p. 10
Evangelical Ecotheology	p. 15
From Theology to Activism	p. 18
Warming Up	p. 21
Inescapably Embedded	p. 25
Beginning with the Word	p. 27
Bearing Witness	p. 28
Confronting the Evidence	p. 31
A Matter of Faith	p. 35
Multifaceted Solutions	p. 39
From Language to Action	p. 42
Advancing Climate Care in Word and Deed	p. 44
A Net Cast	p. 45
Advocates on the Ground	p. 50
Theological Mortar	p. 57
Green in Spirit	p. 61
Negotiating Climate Cares Opposition	p. 65
Conservative Backlash	p. 66
Leadership Shifts	p. 71
Breaking Away, Building Anew	p. 74
Harkening Back, Moving Forward	p. 79
Beyond Leadership	p. 83
Engaging People in the Pews	p. 85
Sharing the Good News?	p. 86
Scientific Skepticism	p. 92
Competing Interests	p. 97
Political Divides	p. 100
Constricting Scale and Structure	p. 105
The Elusive Grass Roots	p. 108
Sowing Seeds of a Movement	p. 111
Growing Fissures	p. 114
Promise or Peril?	p. 122
Spaces of Agreement	p. 125
Lingering Questions	p. 130
Conclusion	p. 133
Appendices
"On the Care of Creation: An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation" (1994)	p. 141
"Oxford Declaration on Global Warming" (2002)	p. 145
"Sandy Cove Covenant and Invitation" (2004)	p. 148
An Excerpt from "For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility" (2004)	p. 150
"Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action" (2006)	p. 152
"An Urgent Call to Action: Scientists and Evangelicals Unite to Protect Creation" (2007)	p. 157
"Principles for Federal Policy on Climate Change" (2007)	p. 159
"A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change" (2008)	p. 163
"Vineyard Churches: Seven-Year Plan for American Evangelicalism" (2009)	p. 167
Key Figures and Affiliations	p. 169
Notes	p. 173
Bibliography	p. 203
Index	p. 219
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