The Ecological Challenge to Biblical Studies

© 2009 by SAGE Publications. Post-print version.The increasing prominence of environmental issues, together with the suspicion that the Bible, both through its creation stories and its eschatological expectations, may discourage a sense of Christian environmental responsibility, raise a challenge to which biblical scholars have responded in various ways. Some attempt to recover a positive ecological message from the Bible, while others read the Bible critically through the framework of a set of ecojustice principles. This essay reviews some of these contributions and argues for a theological approach to interpretation which avoids some of the weaknesses of either of these two alternatives