Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology, and Natural Selection

Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology, and Natural Selection

Suffering and Responsibility

In the last few decades, religious and secular thinkers have tackled the world's escalating environmental crisis by attempting to develop an ecological ethic that is both scientifically accurate and free of human-centered preconceptions. This groundbreaking study shows that many of these environmental ethicists continue to model their positions on romantic, pre-Darwinian concepts that disregard the predatory and cruelly competitive realities of the natural world. Examining the work of such influential thinkers as James Gustafson, Sallie McFague, Rosemary Radford Ruether, John Cobb, Peter Singer, and Holmes Rolston, Sideris proposes a more realistic ethic that combines evolutionary theory with theological insight, advocates a minimally interventionist stance toward nature, and values the processes over the products of the natural world.
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • 1. This View of Life
  • 2. The Best of All Possible Worlds
  • 3. The Ecological Model and the Reanimation of Nature
  • 4. Darwinian Equality for All
  • 5. Philosophical and Theological Critiques of Ecological Theology
  • 6. A Comprehensive Naturalized Ethic
  • CONCLUSION Finitude and Responsibility
  • Notes
  • Works Cited
  • Index

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