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A Worldly Spirituality: The Call to Redeem Life on Earth
By Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1984. 2 10 pp. $12.95.

The author of this book on theological ecology brings to it a broad background of experience. For eight years he was chief legislative assistant to Senator Mark Hatfield, who contributes an appreciative foreword. He has traveled widely and studied the ecological situation in various parts of the world. He is now president of the New Creation

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Institute, a Christian study and research center committed to the application of Christian faith to social and environmental issues. He also teaches journalism at the University of Montana, a profession for which his own writing shows him to be well qualified.

Granberg-Michaelson identifies himself as an evangelical and distinguishes himself as such from Catholics and liberal Protestants, but he writes in no sectarian spirit. His concern is to arouse believers of all persuasions-evangelicals, fundamentalists, and all the rest-from construing their faith in exclusively personal terms ("God and the soul" in the Augustinian formula) and to make them aware of its application to the world as God's creation. He seeks to articulate a biblically-based theology and does not hesitate to call in the assistance of modern biblical scholarship from all quarters.

The author begins with a detailed description of the plight of the earth, which has been brought about by humanity's irresponsible misuse of its resources, its soil, air, water, and energy; and he stresses the urgency of a radical change in our attitude if disaster is to be averted. His objective is a redirection of our spirituality (for which I think piety would be a better term) away from our own souls and toward the earth. Summarily stated, his thesis is that the earth is the Lord's, and we human beings are appointed, not to exercise dominion over it as lords, as the first account of creation in Genesis has been taken to suggest, but to care for it as stewards, as the second account indicates.

The greater part of the book is occupied by a survey of the biblical material, especially the Old Testament, but also the New Testament, which shows that Jesus Christ, whom evangelicals often urge their hearers to accept as their "personal Savior," is also the Savior of the world, the inaugurator of the new creation, which is also the renewal of the old. In like manner, the author stresses the cosmic or universal aspect of the mission of the Spirit, which is not aimed solely at the bestowal of spiritual gifts on individuals, especially gifts of the more exotic sort, but at the continuation and consummation of the purpose of God, at the beginning of which the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.

As regards the church's responsibility in this situation, the author offers a number of constructive suggestions. He offers a sketch of an ecological economy, touches on the question of an appropriate life-style, and even says something pertinent on the down-to-earth matter of our church-buildings. Further, he considers how the church may fulfill its mission to counteract the major threats of the present time to the integrity and survival of creation, such as the threat of nuclear annihilation, the idolatry of economics, the abuse of land, and the disposal of waste. Finally, he touches on the question of genetic engineering, which he holds to be radically incompatible with faith in God's creation. He is aware that changes in species have occurred in the long process of evolution, but he holds that the wisdom behind these changes belongs to the Creator and may not be claimed by God's creatures.

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The value of the book as a contribution to theological ecology is that it comes out of personal involvement and wide observation; it is full of significant detail; and it develops a perspective on the Bible which is largely overlooked.

George S. Hendry
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton, New Jersey