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Baylor University
Institute for Faith and Learning
  • About
    • Staff
  • Conferences and Symposiums
    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture
      • 2022 Art Seeking Understanding
      • 2021 Living Accountably
      • 2019 The Character of the University
      • 2018 Stewardship of Creation
      • 2017 The Bible and the Reformation
      • 2016 Higher Learning
      • 2015 The Spirit of Sports
      • 2014 Faith and Film
      • 2013 Kierkegaard: A Christian Thinker for Our Time?
      • 2012 Technology and Human Flourishing
      • 2011 Educating for Wisdom in the 21st Century University
      • 2010 Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care
      • 2009 Secularization and Revival
      • 2008 Bottom-Up Approaches to Global Poverty
      • 2007 Friendship
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
      • Bailey Lecture Video Archive
    • Other Conferences and Events
      • IFL@25
      • 2019 LFP National Conference
      • Art & Soul
      • Pruit Memorial Symposium
      • Baylor University Medical Ethics Seminar
      • One-Time Conferences
  • Programs
    • Communio: A Retreat for Baylor Educators
    • William Carey Crane Scholars Program
      • Additional Information
    • Missio
    • Forming Character in the Classroom
      • About the Program: Called to Character
      • Past Workshops
    • Reading Groups and Guest Speakers
    • Soundings Project
  • Media and Resources
    • Faith Animating Online Education
      • Starting Points
      • A Christian Imagination about Online Education?
      • Cultivating Character and Online Learning
      • Additional Resources
    • Institute for Faith and Learning Video Archive
    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture Video Archive
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
    • Recommended Reading
    • External Resources
    • The Christian Reflection Project
      • Acedia
      • Advent Ethics
      • Aging
      • Anger
      • Apocalyptic Vision
      • Attentive Patience
      • The Book of Acts
      • Caring for Creation
      • Catechism
      • Chastity
      • Children
      • Christianity and Islam
      • Christmas and Epiphany
      • Cities and Towns
      • Cloning
      • Consumerism
      • Death
      • Disability
      • Easter
      • Food and Hunger
      • Forgiveness
      • Freedom
      • Friendship
      • Gambling Culture
      • Generosity
      • Global Wealth
      • Health
      • Heaven and Hell
      • Hospitality
      • Immigration
      • Inklings of Glory
      • Lent
      • The Letter of James
      • Marriage
      • Membership
      • Monasticism Old and New
      • Moral Landscape of Creation
      • Mysticism
      • Parables
      • Patterns of Violence
      • Peace and War
      • Pentecost
      • Pornographic Culture
      • Prayer
      • Prison
      • Prophetic Ethics
      • Racism
      • Sabbath
      • Schools in a Pluralist Culture
      • Scripture
      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Singing Our Lives
      • Sports
      • Suffering
      • Traveling Well
      • Virtual Lives
      • Vocation
      • Where Wisdom Is Found
      • Women and the Church
      • Women in the Bible
      • Work
Baylor BU Institute for Faith and Learning Media and Resources The Christian Reflection Project Caring for Creation
  • Faith Animating Online Education
  • Institute for Faith and Learning Video Archive
  • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture Video Archive
  • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
  • Recommended Reading
  • External Resources
  • The Christian Reflection Project
    • Acedia
    • Advent Ethics
    • Aging
    • Anger
    • Apocalyptic Vision
    • Attentive Patience
    • The Book of Acts
    • Caring for Creation
    • Catechism
    • Chastity
    • Children
    • Christianity and Islam
    • Christmas and Epiphany
    • Cities and Towns
    • Cloning
    • Consumerism
    • Death
    • Disability
    • Easter
    • Food and Hunger
    • Forgiveness
    • Freedom
    • Friendship
    • Gambling Culture
    • Generosity
    • Global Wealth
    • Health
    • Heaven and Hell
    • Hospitality
    • Immigration
    • Inklings of Glory
    • Lent
    • The Letter of James
    • Marriage
    • Membership
    • Monasticism Old and New
    • Moral Landscape of Creation
    • Mysticism
    • Parables
    • Patterns of Violence
    • Peace and War
    • Pentecost
    • Pornographic Culture
    • Prayer
    • Prison
    • Prophetic Ethics
    • Racism
    • Sabbath
    • Schools in a Pluralist Culture
    • Scripture
    • Sermon on the Mount
    • Singing Our Lives
    • Sports
    • Suffering
    • Traveling Well
    • Virtual Lives
    • Vocation
    • Where Wisdom Is Found
    • Women and the Church
    • Women in the Bible
    • Work

Caring for Creation

Through the biblical idea of the interwoven created order - in both its cultivated and uncultivated parts - we recognize nature's significance and worth, and our membership in it. Our contributors commend practices to help us faithfully care for creation.

Jame Schaefer explains how early theologians valued creatures intrinsically for their unique goodness and instrumentally for the sustenance they provide to others, yet valued most highly their complex interrelation in the world. Elizabeth Theokritoff develops the ancient Christian idea that the natural world may reveal the ways and will of God, if we are prepared to read it rightly. "From the scenic wonders of designated wilderness areas to the ordinary oak forests and cattail marshes adjoining suburbs that link them in a natural tapestry," Susan Bratton agrees, "the entire network is an important spiritual resource, an interactive exercise in understanding God's will and original intentions for creation."

Caring for all of creation must begin close to home, in the particular places that we come to know and love, Jeff Bilbro emphasizes. Indeed, "The food we eat, both what we eat and how we eat it, may be the most significant witness to creation care we perform," Norman Wirzba writes. We can become more mindful of creation through activities as simple as a community garden. Elizabeth Sands Wise chronicles her congregation's first attempt at gardening to provide fresh vegetables and herbs for members, neighbors, and the poor in the community.

The study guides and lesson plans integrate Bible study, prayer, and worship to help us care for creation. The guides can be used in a series or individually. You may download and reproduce them for personal or group use.

Download the entire Caring for Creation issue and the set of five Study Guides. Or, download individual pieces by clicking the titles below.

Articles

  • "Valuing the Goodness of the Earth," by Jame Schaefer
  • "The Book of the Word: Reading God's Creation," by Elizabeth Theokritoff
  • "Appreciating Wilderness," by Susan P. Bratton
  • "Faithful Eating," by Norman Wirzba
  • "Doing Good Work," by Jeffrey Bilbro
  • "Becoming More Mindful of Creation," by R. Wesley Smith

Art

  • "In Harmony with Nature," by Heidi J. Hornik, on Thomas Cole, The Oxbow
  • "Enjoying a Wintry Park," by Heidi J. Hornik, on George Bellows, The Palisades
  • "A Mirror to Nature," by Heidi J. Hornik, on Asher B. Durand, Dover Plains, Dutchess County, New York

Hymn and Worship Service

  • "Chosen in Creation's Plan," by Burt L. Burleson
  • Worship Service by Burt L. Burleson

Inspirational Pieces

  • "Allelon Community Garden," by Elizabeth D. Sands Wise
  • "Women's Broken Bodies in God's Broken Earth," by Melissa Browning
  • "Other Voices," Quotations on Caring for Creation

Book Reviews

  • "Reading Scripture Greenly," by Presian Burroughs
    • Richard Bauckham, The Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation
    • Ellen Davis, Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible
    • David G. Horrell, Cherryl Hunt, and Christopher Southgate, Greening Paul: Reading the Apostle Paul in a Time of Ecological Crisis
  • "Christian Vision for Creation Care," by David C. McDuffie
    • Steven Bouma-Prediger, For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care (second edition)
    • Fred Van Dyke, Between Heaven and Earth: Christian Perspectives on Environmental Protection
    • Noah J. Toly and Daniel I. Block, eds., Keeping God's Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical Perspective

Study Guides and Lesson Plans (Download the set of five Study Guides)

  • "Valuing the Goodness of the Earth"
  • "The Book of the Word: Reading God's Creation"
  • "Appreciating Wilderness"
  • "Faithful Eating"
  • "Doing Good Work"

Further Reading:

  • The Moral Landscape of Creation issue
  • "Eating Well: Seven Paradoxes of Plenty," by Mary Louise Bringle (Health)
  • "Pura Vida is Way Cool: Conversations with Chris Dearnley and John Sage," by Clark Baker (Food and Hunger)
  • "We Are How We Eat," by Lori Brand Bateman (Food and Hunger)
    • Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
    • Sara Covin Juengst, Breaking Bread: The Spiritual Significance of Food
    • Holly Whitcomb, Feasting with God: Adventures in Table Spirituality
  • "The Culture of Food," by Norman Wirzba (Food and Hunger)
    • Douglas H. Boucher (ed.), The Paradox of Plenty: Hunger in a Bountiful World
    • Marion Nestle, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
    • Michael Schut (ed.), Food & Faith: Justice, Joy, and Daily Bread
  • "Sabbath, a 'Little Jubilee,'" by Richard H. Lowery (Sabbath)
  • "Imagine a Sabbath Economy," by Norman Wirzba (Sabbath)
Baylor BU Institute for Faith and Learning Media and Resources The Christian Reflection Project Caring for Creation
  • About
    Back
    • Staff
  • Conferences and Symposiums
    Back
    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture
      Back
      • 2022 Art Seeking Understanding
        Back
        • Call for Proposals
        • Conference Schedule
        • Key Information and Frequently Asked Questions
        • Plenary and Featured Speakers
      • 2021 Living Accountably
        Back
        • Plenary and Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2019 The Character of the University
        Back
        • Plenary and Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2018 Stewardship of Creation
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2017 The Bible and the Reformation
        Back
        • Co-Sponsors
        • Featured Speakers and Panels
        • Video Archive
      • 2016 Higher Learning
        Back
        • Featured Speakers and Panels
        • Video Archive
      • 2015 The Spirit of Sports
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2014 Faith and Film
        Back
        • Video Archive
      • 2013 Kierkegaard: A Christian Thinker for Our Time?
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2012 Technology and Human Flourishing
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2011 Educating for Wisdom in the 21st Century University
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2010 Human Dignity and the Future of Health Care
        Back
        • Featured Speakers
        • Video Archive
      • 2009 Secularization and Revival
        Back
        • Video Archive
      • 2008 Bottom-Up Approaches to Global Poverty
      • 2007 Friendship
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
      Back
      • Bailey Lecture Video Archive
    • Other Conferences and Events
      Back
      • IFL@25
        Back
        • Select Pictures from IFL@25
      • 2019 LFP National Conference
        Back
        • Presenters
      • Art & Soul
      • Pruit Memorial Symposium
        Back
        • 2001 Celebrating Augustine's Confessions
        • 2002 Christianity and Economics
        • 2003 The Schooled Heart
        • 2004 Slavery, Oppression, and Prejudice
        • 2005 Global Christianity
      • Baylor University Medical Ethics Seminar
        Back
        • 2016 Medical Ethics Seminar
        • 2017 Medical Ethics Seminar
        • 2018 Medical Ethics Seminar
      • One-Time Conferences
  • Programs
    Back
    • Communio: A Retreat for Baylor Educators
    • William Carey Crane Scholars Program
      Back
      • Additional Information
    • Missio
    • Forming Character in the Classroom
      Back
      • About the Program: Called to Character
      • Past Workshops
    • Reading Groups and Guest Speakers
    • Soundings Project
  • Media and Resources
    Back
    • Faith Animating Online Education
      Back
      • Starting Points
      • A Christian Imagination about Online Education?
      • Cultivating Character and Online Learning
      • Additional Resources
    • Institute for Faith and Learning Video Archive
    • Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture Video Archive
    • Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture in Christian Ethics
    • Recommended Reading
    • External Resources
    • The Christian Reflection Project
      Back
      • Acedia
      • Advent Ethics
      • Aging
      • Anger
      • Apocalyptic Vision
      • Attentive Patience
      • The Book of Acts
      • Caring for Creation
      • Catechism
      • Chastity
      • Children
      • Christianity and Islam
      • Christmas and Epiphany
      • Cities and Towns
      • Cloning
      • Consumerism
      • Death
      • Disability
      • Easter
      • Food and Hunger
      • Forgiveness
      • Freedom
      • Friendship
      • Gambling Culture
      • Generosity
      • Global Wealth
      • Health
      • Heaven and Hell
      • Hospitality
      • Immigration
      • Inklings of Glory
      • Lent
      • The Letter of James
      • Marriage
      • Membership
      • Monasticism Old and New
      • Moral Landscape of Creation
      • Mysticism
      • Parables
      • Patterns of Violence
      • Peace and War
      • Pentecost
      • Pornographic Culture
      • Prayer
      • Prison
      • Prophetic Ethics
      • Racism
      • Sabbath
      • Schools in a Pluralist Culture
      • Scripture
      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Singing Our Lives
      • Sports
      • Suffering
      • Traveling Well
      • Virtual Lives
      • Vocation
      • Where Wisdom Is Found
      • Women and the Church
      • Women in the Bible
      • Work
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