“Old Literature” is an occasional feature that highlights long-forgotten books, articles, speeches or poems that still speak to us today. As it happens, there’s some new material that also deserves our attention. Today, Tending to Eden by Scott Sabin, Director of Plant with Purpose (formerly Floresta).
Scott Sabin and I met about 7 years ago at a conference in Kenya. He tells about that conference in his new book,Tending to Eden that was just released two weeks ago:
Edith and I took several pastors to a conference on creation care in Kenya. I was one of the presenters, and in the course of my presentation I showed a slide of the devasted forests around Mt Kilimanjaro National Park. Pastor Lyamuya approached me later and, with an embarassed smile, explained how convicting it was to see the photo from his own community. “God entrusted it to us to take care of, and we aren’t doing our job.” Read more »
About a month ago we posted a story on frogs quoting a video segment from Planet Earth that I use in my seminars in which we are told “I think we’re facing the loss of half the world’s frogs.”
Had some pushback on that one from people who are struggling with the balance between people and nature. In this equation, frogs are kind of like insects – it might be nice to keep them around, but what’s really the big deal if we lose them? This week’s report on endangered primates – our closest natural cousins and the cutest things in the jungle – is more bad news and its hard to think of any excuse for not being upset about this:
Of the world’s 634 primate species, 48 percent are threatened with extinction, according to the report, issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Switzerland-based group calls itself the world’s oldest global environmental organization. Read more »
Flourish Online Magazine has been running a feature celebrating the 30th anniversary of the publication of Wendell Berry’s essay, “The Gift of Good Soil”. This essay draws lessons on “ecological and agricultural responsibility” not from Genesis 1 or 2 or even Romans 8, but from the Old Testament story of God’s gift of the Promised Land to Abraham and his descendants: “a divine gift to a fallen people.” And that certainly applies to us, doesn’t it?
Read the essay here, and comments from many leaders in the field of creation care here. Below is my contribution to this collection…
On being introduced to the world of Christian environmental stewardship about ten years ago, I found early on that I had a lot of catching up to do. Wendell Berry was one of the authors I was directed to who has taught and continues to teach me. Evidently, this is true of many of my colleagues as well. It is a privilege to be counted among those who have sat at Wendell’s feet and learned from him, and I am sure I am not the only one who wishes that that learning could have been in person rather than through the pages of his books. Read more »
It was big news last week that there was snow in 49 of 50 states. Today we learn that, no, that’s not actually true. There is now confirmation of snow in all 50 states at the same time:
Patrick Marsh received photos of snow on the ground in every state in just more than 24 hours, but it took him about 36 hours to realize it.
The Hawaii photos were lost in a deluge of incoming snow shots — which arrived at a rate of about one every two minutes. It took a second query from the photographer before he realized it, he said. Read more »
Tu B’Shvat in the Jewish calendar begins this evening at sunset – New Year’s Day for Trees. Here’s a bit of an explanation from Rabbi Yehuda Prero:
The Gemora, when discussing cures for ailments, writes that “a tree that loses its fruits before they ripen should be dyed with a red paint.” What is the point of dying the tree with red paint? How does the red paint prevent the tree from losing its fruits before they ripen? Read more »
We’re fiddling with the look of Our Father’s World to try to make it a bit more readable - thanks for your patience, especially if you happen to be visiting while some of the changes are taking place!
“Old Literature” is an occasional feature that highlights long-forgotten books, articles, speeches or poems that still speak to us today. As it happens, there’s some new material that also deserves our attention. Today, Tending to Eden by Scott Sabin, Director of Plant with Purpose (formerly Floresta).
