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The Promise of Nature: Ecology and Cosmic Purpose
The ecological crisis faced by our planet may have the effect of transforming religious ideas. Religions were born and took their distinctive shapes by the need of people to find harmony in their internal and external worlds. In our day that harmony is being challenged by a breakdown in the relationship between human beings and their global environment.
Do the religious views held by most believers today provide an adequate basis for interacting with nature? Theologian John Haught believes they do not. Nor, he says, do stereotyped religious attitudes about the natural world enable believers to dialogue with physical scientists, many of whom are nonbelievers. To make the dialogue work we need a common language about nature and how it works.
Haught maintains that process language will not only assist the ecological dialogue but help to transform religion itself. Nature is "holy" not because it originated at the hand of a creator or because it transparently reveals God now. It is holy primarily because of its it is promise. This "future dimension" of nature lets us deal intelligently with the present crisis without forsaking the mysterious power that nature has for us.
Do the religious views held by most believers today provide an adequate basis for interacting with nature? Theologian John Haught believes they do not. Nor, he says, do stereotyped religious attitudes about the natural world enable believers to dialogue with physical scientists, many of whom are nonbelievers. To make the dialogue work we need a common language about nature and how it works.
Haught maintains that process language will not only assist the ecological dialogue but help to transform religion itself. Nature is "holy" not because it originated at the hand of a creator or because it transparently reveals God now. It is holy primarily because of its it is promise. This "future dimension" of nature lets us deal intelligently with the present crisis without forsaking the mysterious power that nature has for us.
156 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1993
6 people want to read
About the author
John F. Haught
50 books37 followersJohn F. Haught is a Roman Catholic theologian, specializing with systematic theology. He has special interests in science, cosmology, ecology, and reconciling evolution and religion.
Haught graduated from St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore,, and he received a PhD in Theology from The Catholic University of America in 1970.
Haught received the 2002 Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion, the 2004 Sophia Award for Theological Excellence, and, in 2009, the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Leuven.
He is Senior Research Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. There, he established the Georgetown Center for the Study of Science and Religion and was the chair of Georgetown's theology department between 1990 and 1995.
Haught graduated from St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore,, and he received a PhD in Theology from The Catholic University of America in 1970.
Haught received the 2002 Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion, the 2004 Sophia Award for Theological Excellence, and, in 2009, the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Leuven.
He is Senior Research Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. There, he established the Georgetown Center for the Study of Science and Religion and was the chair of Georgetown's theology department between 1990 and 1995.
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