This course is not about determining whether the Bible demands an ethic of Earth care since “no issue can be resolved by appeal to the Bible.” How then, might we engage the biblical text in conversation with environmental issues and concerns? A guiding principle of this course is that our reading of the Bible should engage and be informed by modern understandings of environmental science, ecology, and evolution. As Brown asks, “What is it like to read the Bible in one hand and the journal Science in the other?” To that end, as an upper level Bible class, this course will focus on developing environmental hermeneutics and applying those as we engage biblical texts and their views of the environment. To use the language of Norman Habel, we will ask, ‘Is a “green’ reading of this text possible or does it remain ‘grey’?”

Seminary: Bethany Theological Seminary
Syllabus: Environmental Biblical Interpretation
Keywords: Evolution, environmental science, ecology