The Tangled Bank

"In this elegantly written book, Michael Hogue insightfully compares two leading figures dedicated to reconstructing ethics in the light of our environmental situation, the philosopher Hans Jonas and James M. Gustafson, a Christian theologian. With care and yet with genuine urgency, Hogue deepens understanding of these thinkers, but, more importantly, outlines the shape of an ethics capable of addressing the 'tangled bank' of life in our age. This book is a welcome addition to religious and philosophical reflection on ecology and ethics. I heartily commend it to anyone and everyone engaged with the pressing moral challenges we all now face."



--William Schweiker

Author of Theological Ethics and Global Dynamics





"Michael Hogue takes the interaction between environmental and Christian ethics to a new and satisfying level. He describes and clarifies the parallel worlds of nature and spirit in which we humans participate. Hogue also insists on action. As humans we have a larger moral imperative--deliberately exercising our unique powers and opportunities of choice--to properly integrate modern society into the larger world of nature. Hogue admits to today's high levels of uncertainty, but argues for a definitive ethics drawn from both Christianity and nature. Michael Hogue writes with clarity, grace, depth, and humor."



--John Opie

Author of Nature's Nation





"Part of the wealth of this book is its exploration of the exciting significance for our environmental future of the approaches of two major current thinkers. Hans Jonas is one of the most important but as yet little-known environmental philosophers of the twentieth century. James Gustafson is an outstanding and relevant theological ethicist. Hogue breaks down the usual stereotypes about the value of philosophy and theology and challenges his readers to expand our ideas about how to live on Earth. Scholarly yet lucidly written and engaging, this book charts new territory in environmental thinking."



--Jerome A. Stone

Author of The Minimalist Vision of Transcendence