Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture Book of the Week

Christian slant on vital issues

byGuest Contributor
8 April 2007
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

THROUGH ECOLOGICAL EYES: REFLECTIONS ON CHRISTIANITY’S ECOLOGICAL CREDENTIALS

By Robert Barry Leal, St Pauls, $29.95

Reviewed by Br Brian Grenier CFC

MUCH has been written on environmental issues from a secular (and often purely ideological) point of view, which is assumed by some people to be the only worthwhile approach.

In cogently arguing for a specifically Christian perspective in which wonder and enchantment have their place, Barry Leal’s new book provides a necessary corrective.

It nicely complements his earlier volume, The Environment and Christian Faith: An Introduction to Ecotheology, and reveals the same admirable qualities.

Through Ecological Eyes is an interesting and highly informative work which bears the impress of an original and imaginative thinker.

Making good use of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, it presents in logical sequence in nine wide-ranging chapters, 29 thematically grouped reflections.

The writing is clear, gender inclusive and, revealing its homiletic origins, somewhat conversational in tone.

Mercifully free of gobbledegook and technical language, it should not make heavy demands on the author’s stated audience�educated lay readers.

Related Stories

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

Why you should go on a pilgrimage — more than once

There is much in Barry Leal’s text that challenges even as it illuminates – the ecological implications of the Incarnation, the linking of the whole natural world with God’s covenant love, the connection between ecology and the Sabbath, the exposure of the false dichotomy between ecology and social justice, the acknowledgment of the rights of future generations, the imaginative treatment of Jesus’ parables from an environmental viewpoint, and the biblical reflections on the four elements (water, earth, air and fire).

I especially liked the writer’s critique, supported by diagrams, of the hierarchical and anthropocentric approach to creation (dominance) versus the “web of life” approach (interdependence).

The richness of the book’s content is implicit in its chapter and sectional headings which point to topics as diverse as the theological importance of water; the ecological wisdom of Job; ecological aspects of the Prodigal Son; the Christian tradition as represented by Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi and Albert Schweitzer; animals, birds and vegetation in the Bible; and Jesus and the natural world.

Readers of Through Ecological Eyes should find it personally enlightening. It is an excellent book which could also be used with profit by a study group and by teachers and homilists as a resource.

Suggestions for further reading are included in a brief bibliography.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

FREEDOM WRITERS – Freedom Writers

Next Post

Caritas aiding thousands

Guest Contributor

Related Posts

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families
News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

27 June 2022
US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

27 June 2022
Spirituality

Why you should go on a pilgrimage — more than once

25 June 2022
Next Post

Caritas aiding thousands

East Timor counts blessings

School goes cheep

Popular News

  • Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

    Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families
News

Look to the future, not the past, pope tells families

by CNS
27 June 2022
0

Christian families are called to embark on a journey of love and service that will lead them...

US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

US states start banning abortion following historic Supreme Court ruling

27 June 2022

Why you should go on a pilgrimage — more than once

25 June 2022
Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

25 June 2022

Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

24 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping