Reading the Bible Amid the Environmental Crisis - by Sébastien Doane (Hardcover)

About the Book

Reading the Bible Amid the Environmental Crisis challenges traditional interpretations by intertwining biblical texts with trauma theory, affect theory, ethics, and animal studies. Sébastien Doane invites readers to reimagine discipleship, eschatology, and the Bible's role in ...

Book Synopsis

Reading the Bible Amid the Environmental Crisis: Interdisciplinary Insights to Ecological Hermeneutics ventures into the realms of love, loss, despair, and compassion, demonstrating the profound interconnectedness of ecology with every facet of human existence. Drawing from diverse disciplines such as trauma theory, affect theory, ethics, animal studies, posthumanism philosophy, and environmental humanities. Sébastien Doane intertwines biblical texts and theoretical frameworks to challenge traditional methodologies, presenting a fresh perspective on the ecological crisis of our time. This book argues for a vital role of biblical studies in addressing the ecological challenge, acknowledging the Bible's profound influence on Western cultures. Doane advocates for critical examination of anthropocentrism in biblical texts, exploring innovative ways to read the Bible in the Anthropocene.

Review Quotes

"In Reading the Bible Amid the Environmental Crisis, Doane showcases innovative ways to read the Bible in the Anthropocene. The book consists of six innovative, stand-alone essays that interpret Biblical texts using a wide range of ecological methods of interpretation. Doane showcases understudied Biblical passages. Four of the six essays deal with the Hebrew Bible; two focus on passages from the New Testament. Readers gain an appreciation for concrete, thought-provoking ways to read the Bible without the limiting framework of an anthropocentric focus. The author draws on a diverse range of disciplines: e.g., trauma theory, affect theory, ethics, animal studies, posthumanism philosophy, and environmental humanities. Doane offers deft, clear guidance to realms of transdisciplinary scholarship in the field of environmental humanities that readers may find challenging. This erudite work will appeal to students of biblical ecotheology and ecocriticism, as well as to Christians who wish to find innovative ways to use Biblical resources to address the ecological crisis of our time. Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals." --Choice Reviews

"Ground-breaking, thought-provoking, stirring, and magnificently well-read. This book gushes with life, connecting landscapes, living beings, and natural forces, with the divine enmeshed in Scripture. Doane explores concrete new ways of reading the Bible that may refresh and reroute our commitments in the midst of environmental disaster and denial of it. Pioneering inspirational work!" --Rodolfo Felices Luna, Oblate School of Theology

"In this expertly-crafted volume, Sébastien Doane reads the Bible in light of the urgent ecological issues of our day. Exploring diverse texts from the Old and New Testaments, he offers interpretations which are innovative, thought-provoking, and compelling. He draws on wide-ranging theorists in accessible and creative ways, gently drawing his readers beyond traditional and stale interpretive practices into new ways of thinking and reading ecologically. Furthermore, Doane remains aware of the transformative power of reading and never neglects the imperative - in our time of climate crisis - to move from text to action." --Suzanna Millar, University of Edinburgh

"Sébastien Doane's theoretically erudite and exegetically incisive book is the most ambitious product to date of the transdisciplinary turn in biblical ecotheology and ecocriticism that began a decade ago, succeeding the intradisciplinary phase that began with the Earth Bible series. It exemplifies what biblical studies needs to be, and needs to do, in our Anthropocenic age of climate change, agribusiness, and mass extinction." --Stephen D. Moore, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies, The Theological School, Drew University

"If you want to know where the wind is blowing, not just in ecological hermeneutics, but in biblical hermeneutics general, you'll want to read this book. Sébastien Doane has thrown open the windows of ecological hermeneutics to the interdisciplinary field of environmental humanities and its engagements with trauma theory, affect theory, animal studies, and posthuman philosophy. Such interdisciplinary scholarship is challenging, perhaps scary, but Doane has read broadly and is a reliable and congenial guide. He provides fresh readings of passages from the books of Joshua, Joel, Jeremiah, John, and James that show the value of the environmental humanities for ecological biblical hermeneutics." --Arthur Walker-Jones, The University of Winnipeg, author of Hebrew for Biblical Interpretation

"Reading the Bible amid the Environmental Crisis marks an exciting shift in ecological analysis of biblical texts, expanding interpretive conversations to include interdisciplinary insights beyond those typically employed by biblical scholars. With a strong focus on justice, Doane's important and timely work skilfully weaves together exegetical offerings which are both creative and courageous, helping readers to make sense of the Bible anew in the context of climate crisis. This is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in ecological hermeneutics." --Emily Colgan, Trinity Theological College

"In this well-written and perceptive book, Sébastien Doane responds critically to the challenges of reading the Bible from an ecological perspective. The book offers novel and insightful exegesis that challenges anthropocentric readings of the Bible and invites biblical scholars to consider more carefully the role of the non-human in biblical texts." --Hilary Marlow, Girton College, University of Cambridge

"In this important contribution to biblical studies, Sébastien Doane skilfully brings a variety of ecocritical frameworks into conversations that open up the Bible for the long moment of environmental crisis in which we live. Combining a genuine orientation to more-than-human worlds with sensitivity to biblical texts, Doane steps back from and offers sound alternatives to human-centred reading practices. His book invites readers to engage with hermeneutic modes that seed a storied recognition of our Earthy interconnectedness. I strongly recommend this carefully researched, clearly written, and encouraging book." --Anne Elvey, Honorary Research Fellow, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity, Australia, author of Reading with Earth: Contributions of the New Materialism to an Ecological Feminist Hermeneutics

About the Author

Sébastien Doane is professor in biblical studies at Université Laval, Québec.