The Green Bible was published by HarperCollins in association with the so-called environmentalism’s proposals. It has three major sections. In the first section, it provides a number of articles that address environmental issues from various viewpoints--personal and communal, Protestant and Catholic, theological and practical. These articles are summarized and evaluated by the reviewer, with a claim that they would have helped much more if they had been interconnected theologically in order to suggest a thesis that can promote the book’s environmental intentions. The second part presents the biblical text, the New Revised Standard Version. It is interesting that the verses classified as supportive of the environmental thesis are printed in green. Of significance to this reviewer is the criterion of classification. It seems certain that the criterion was whether a verse has a particular word that can represent a part of nature, for example, land, earth, sun, moon, locust, etc. This etymological approach is not good enough to investigate how the Bible approaches environmental issues. This reviewer argues that the two most important themes in the Bible, creation and redemption, should be integrally understood. In other words, creation theology, when sufficiently studied in relationship with the history of redemption, is capable of providing a viewpoint that supports how humanity can take good care of the creation. Environmental needs we now face should be viewed from a theological perspective that strongly purports to encourage believers to take care of creation as redeemed people of God. The third section consists of Green Bible Trail Guides and some practical advices for the readers. Despite the foregoing critiques, the Green Bible should be acknowledged as an attempt to help Bible readers to pay attention to one of the most urgent issues that Christians are asked to seriously ponder upon in the years to come.
The Green Bible was published by HarperCollins in association with the so-called environmentalism’s proposals. It has three major sections. In the first section, it provides a number of articles that address environmental issues from various viewpoints--personal and communal, Protestant and Catholic, theological and practical. These articles are summarized and evaluated by the reviewer, with a claim that they would have helped much more if they had been interconnected theologically in order to suggest a thesis that can promote the book’s environmental intentions. The second part presents the biblical text, the New Revised Standard Version. It is interesting that the verses classified as supportive of the environmental thesis are printed in green. Of significance to this reviewer is the criterion of classification. It seems certain that the criterion was whether a verse has a particular word that can represent a part of nature, for example, land, earth, sun, moon, locust, etc. This etymological approach is not good enough to investigate how the Bible approaches the environmental issues. This reviewer argues that the two most important themes in the Bible, creation and redemption, should be integrally understood. In other words, creation theology, when sufficiently studied in relationship with the history of redemption, is capable of providing a viewpoint that supports how humanity can take good care of the creation. Environmental needs we now face should be viewed from a theological perspective that strongly purports to encourage believers to take care of creation as redeemed people of God. The third section consists of Green Bible Trail Guides and some practical advices for the readers. Despite the foregoing critiques, the Green Bible should be acknowledged as an attempt to help Bible readers to pay attention to one of the most urgent issues that Christians are asked to seriously ponder upon in the years to come.