For decades, Sallie McFague lent her voice and her theological imagination to addressing and advocating for the most important issues of our time. In doing so, she influenced an entire generation and empowered countless people in their efforts to put religion in the service of meeting human needs in difficult times. In this final book, finished in the year before her death in 2019, McFague summarizes the work of a lifetime with a clear call to live in "such a way that all might flourish." The way, she argues, is the "kenotic interpretation of Christianity: the odd arrangement whereby in order to gain your life, you must lose it. The way of the cross is total self-emptying so that one can receive life, real life, and then pass this life on." A masterful and life-giving summing-up of a theology that makes a profound difference for us, our communities, and our planet.

Climate change promises monumental changes to human and other planetary life in the next generations. Yet government, business, and individuals have been largely in denial of the possibility that global warming may put our species on the road to extinction. Further, says Sallie McFague, we have failed to see the real root of our behavioral troubles in an economic model that actually reflects distorted religious views of the person. At its heart, she maintains, global warming occurs because we lack an appropriate understanding of ourselves as inextricably bound to the planet and its systems. A New Climate for Theology not only traces the distorted notion of unlimited desire that fuels our market system; it also paints an alternative idea of what being human means and what a just and sustainable economy might mean. Convincing, specific, and wise, McFague argues for an alternative economic order and for our relational identity as part of an unfolding universe that expresses divine love and human freedom. It is a view that can inspire real change, an altered lifestyle, and a form of Christian discipleship and desire appropriate to who we really are.

For decades, Sallie McFague lent her voice and theological imagination to advocating for the most important issues of our time. In this final book, finished before her death in 2019, McFague summarizes the work of a lifetime with a clear call to live in such a way that all might flourish.

What does climate change have to do with religion and spirituality? Even though a changing environment will have a dire impact on human populations--affecting everything from food supply to health to housing--the vast majority of Americans do not consider climate change a moral or a religious issue. Yet the damage of climate change, a phenomenon to which we all contribute through our collective carbon emissions, presents an unprecedented ethical problem, one that touches a foundational moral principle of Christianity: Jesus's dictate to love the neighbor. This care for the neighbor stretches across time as well as space. We are called to care for the neighbors of the future as well as those of the present. How can we connect the ethical considerations of climate change--the knowledge that our actions directly or indirectly cause harm to others--to our individual and collective spiritual practice? Christianity in a Time of Climate Change offers a series of reflective essays that consider the Christian ethics of climate change and suggest ways to fold the neighbors of the future into our spiritual lives as an impetus to meaningful personal, social, and ultimately environmental transformations.

This book offers the first comprehensive systematic theological reflection on arguably the most serious issue facing humanity and other creatures today. Responding to climate change is often left to scientists, policy makers and activists, but what understanding does theology have to offer? In this collection, the authors demonstrate that there is vital cultural and intellectual work for theologians to perform in responding to climate science and in commending a habitable way forward. Written from a range of denominations and traditions yet with ecumenical intent, the authors explore key Christian doctrines and engage with some of the profound issues raised by climate change. Key questions considered include: What may be said about the goodness of creation in the face of anthropogenic climate change? And how does theology handle a projected future without the human? The volume provides students and scholars with fascinating theological insight into the complexity of climate change.

In this splendidly crafted work, McFague argues for theology as an ethical imperative for all thinking Christians. It can help Christians assess their own religious story in light of the larger Christian tradition and the felt needs of the planet. She shows readers how articulating their personal religious stories and credos can lead directly into contextual analysis, unfolding of theological concepts, and forms of Christian practice.

Global realities of human inequality, poverty, violence and ecological destruction call for a twenty-first-century Christian response which links cross-cultural and interreligious cooperation for change to the Gospel. This book demonstrates why just action is necessarily a criterion of authentic Christian theology, and gives grounds for Christian hope that change in violent structures is really possible. Lisa Sowle Cahill argues that theology and biblical interpretation are already embedded in and indebted to ethical-political practices and choices. Within this ecumenical study, she explores the use of the historical Jesus in constructive theology; the merits of Word and Spirit Christologies; the importance of liberation and feminist theologies as well as theologies from the global south; and also the possibility of qualified moral universalism. The book will be of great interest to all students of theology, religious ethics and politics, and biblical studies.