Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism's Colonial Legacy

by Andrew Thompson

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2023

Christian environmentalism's dominant traditions have for too long avoided decolonial thought's critical gaze. Reconsider the Lilies introduces readers to the ways environmental issues are shaped by dynamics of racism and colonialism and orients readers to Christian approaches to environmentalism. By recounting the history of environmental justice, Thompson shows how even well-intentioned Christian environmentalism incorporates racist and colonialist assumptions. Challenging Christian environmentalism's colonial roots requires incorporating the insights of decolonial thought toward a more pluralist, pragmatic approach to environmentalism, one that learns from communities struggling against environmental injustice in the face of ecological collapse. Reconsider the Lilies focuses on different conceptions of justice and structural sin and offers a constructive cosmic Christology that traces Christ's presence in the concrete relationships that exist among all living things. But for this Christ-centered conception of ecological community to be decolonial, it must focus less on doctrine and ideology, and more on incarnation and embodiment. It must welcome a broad range of knowledge and expression. Environmental theology can be decolonized. Ecological communities can be restored through healing broken relationships and power disparities by equalizing access to ecological power.

,

Product Details

• Title: Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism's Colonial Legacy
• Author: Andrew Thompson
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Print Publication Date: 2023
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781506471761, 1506471765
• Resource ID: LLS:9781506471761
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-18T23:38:08Z

About Andrew Thompson

The Reverend Canon Andrew Thompson MBE is senior chaplain of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Abu Dhabi. He has served the church in the United Kingdom and throughout the Middle East and the Gulf. Previously a youth worker, he was featured recently in the documentary One on Christian-Muslim dialogue shown at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. He was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to human rights and interfaith dialogue. He is a Canon of Bahrain Cathedral in the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf.