When was the last time that we heard some good news? For those tuned in to the ecological crisis and the daily chronicle of injustice, the declaration of good news might seem synonymous with denial and avoidance. The gospel of Jesus Christ helps us to face the suffering of the world and live in love and hope. The only catch is, it requires that we change. It is only by losing our consumeristic, profit-seeking, and isolated lives that we may save them.
The Green Good News finds a fresh take on the Gospels, painting a picture of Jesus as a humorous and subversive teacher, an organizer of alternative communities and food economies, as a healer of bodies and relationships, and as a prophet who sought to overturn an empire and restore a more just and joyful way of life. Christ teaches and incarnates a vision for sustainable life and provides practices that mark the path toward it. By exploring this always-inspiring sustainable gospel, we can find ways to transform our lives, communities, and even creation.
T. Wilson Dickinson is a writer, pastor, and organizer who lives in his hometown of Georgetown, Kentucky. He teaches theology and directs the Doctor of Ministry and Continuing Education Programs at Lexington Theological Seminary. He is the director of the Green Good News, an organization that works with churches and schools to integrate sustainability, justice, and discipleship. He is the author of Exercises in New Creation from Paul to Kierkegaard.
"Amid the explosion of literature concerning 'going green,' Wilson Dickinson has written an 'adult' book that requires adult attention from serious people. The book demands not only to be read but to be studied. Dickinson weaves together a shrewd, discerning understanding of Jesus, his gospel, and the realities of political-economic empire of a neo-liberal variety, both ancient and contemporary. Happily this book finishes with a winsome study guide of seven units that will serve well for sustained reflective study."
--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
"Here is a fresh and powerful telling of the gospel good news: Jesus would indeed be a radical environmentalist because he is a radical believer in the possibilities of the human spirit."
--Bill McKibben
"In The Green Good News, T. Wilson Dickinson does not settle for platitudes of hope. He does not affirm, as is so tempting for Christians, that all will be fine because of faith in God. Instead, Dickinson finds good news in the possibility of a beautiful and joyful set of responses to ecological breakdown. With humble writing grounded in stories of his own life, Dickinson offers a reading of Scripture that does not separate the liberation of creation from the liberation of the poor but follows the vision of Jesus, in whom all creation--human and more-than-human--holds together. In a refreshing move, The Green Good News sheds the romanticism of creation care in favor of a biblically based environmental justice from the margins."
--Sojourners
"This compelling and accessible book offers a fresh interpretation of Jesus's life and ministry. The "Green Good News" is that only by losing our lives--our lives of empire, the Gospel of Work, neoliberalism, efficiency, cleanliness, and consumerism--can we save them. Dickinson builds an ambitious vision for how an understanding of the environment challenges the way we read and understand the entirety of the Christian life. . . . Dickinson's book employs a braided essay format as he brings together interpretation and analysis of the Bible, contemporary theological resources, and his own experience as a teacher and community organizer. His personal experiences give the book a gritty texture, connecting the biblical interpretation and theological analysis to the hard work, the trial and error, and the relationships that form covenantal communities. This format makes the book a good fit for educated lay readers, seminary students, pastors, and scholars alike."
--Interpretation
Related Titles
