Together For The Harvest
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Week of Prayer 2009
Book Review
“The Re-
by Alister McGrath
Reviewer: John Cavanagh
Alister McGrath is professor of historical theology at Oxford and prolific author
(this is his 15th title since early 2001, and another is due in October 2005). Like
Nero for the fire of Rome, those in the environmental movement lay the blame for
the ecological problems of our time firmly and squarely on Christians. So says McGrath,
who traces the root of this to a 1967 work by Lynn White in which he says, "We shall
continue to have a worsening ecological crisis until we reject the Christian axiom
that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man". Somehow this has become
the mantra for many in their criticism of Christianity. McGrath then goes on to show
the fallacy of this, laying the blame fairly and squarely on the Enlightenment. He
argues cogently that it is the ruinous legacy of this that can no longer be ignored.
McGrath argues that historically it is not Christianity but prosaic, reductionistic
godlessness that has led to the destruction, domination and exploitation of nature.
He talks about the ecological vision of historic Christianity, such as the Celtic
Church, and contrasts it with the vision of domination and control emanating from
the godless world-
Hodder & Stoughton ISBN 0-
