Hope in The Age of Despair: The gospel and the future of life on earth
In the face of climate change and other environmental trends, it is easy to be pessimistic about the future. Philosophers, film-makers, environmentalists, politicians and even senior scientists increasingly resort to apocalyptic rhetoric to warn us that a so-called 'perfect storm' of factors is coming together in a way that threatens the future of life on earth.
Do these dire predictions amount to nothing more than ideological scaremongering, perhaps typed up for political or personal ends? Or are there good reasons for thinking that we may indeed be facing a crisis unprecedented in its scale and in the severity of its effects?
Jonathan Moo and Robert White encourage us to assess the evidence for ourselves. Their own conclusion is that there is in fact plenty of cause for concern. Climate change may be the most publicized threat that our planet faces in the coming decades, but there is a wide range of other interrelated and damaging impacts that are ever-growing number of people, consuming more and more, are having on the planet upon which we all depend.
Yet if the Christian gospel fundamentally reorientates us in our relationship with God and his world, there ought to be something radically distinctive about our attitude and approach to such threats. Moo and White therefore reflect on just what difference the Bible's vision of the future of all of creation makes to how we live now and respond to the challenges facing life on earth.
Publication Details
- Published: 2013
- Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
- ISBN-10: 1844748774
- ISBN-13: 9781844748778
- Dewey Decimal: 234.25
- ECHO Library: 234.25 MOO Staff