THE ENVIRONMENT:
A talking points book
By Dave Gobbett
Good Book Company. 94 pages. £4.99
ISBN 978 1 784 987 916
This great little book is part of a short series of books by The Good Book Company that attempts to help ordinary Christians think constructively about a range of issues.
Although it won’t answer all your questions, it is a wonderfully clear, simple and accessible introduction to a subject very much put on our agenda by the likes of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.
Chapter 1 starts with a brief but helpful overview of the green movement from 19th-century Romanticism to COP26, citing evidence for people’s environmental concerns. This is followed by three possible responses that help the reader think through the issues.
In Chapters 2 and 3, Gobbett gets to work on bringing what the Bible has to teach us on the subject. For example, in Chapter 2 he writes: ‘Planet Earth is God’s intellectual property. Just as James Dyson owns the rights of his stunning cordless vacuum cleaner, so God owns the rights of his stunning world … Love for God demands I take His creation seriously’.
In Chapter 3 he outlines our responsibility and how Jesus, the second Adam, steps in to make up for our failures through the first Adam. A clear understanding of this Biblical theology will guard us, argues Gobbet, from both the panicked and passive responses we are tempted to adopt, making us better stewards of God’s world.
Chapter 4 focuses on heaven and the new creation by asking the question ‘Is this world your home?’ Living with this future focus brings our accountability, witness, time-scales and continuity into sharper focus. For each of these Gobbett helpfully gives us a principle that should help guide our actions.
The book ends with a postscript that attempts to inspire by helping us to reflect upon what prudent engagement in all things green might look like in practice. All in all a very timely and welcome addition to the series.
