Ritualizing Nature: Renewing Christian Liturgy in a Time of Crisis

H. Paul Santmire has been a leader in the field of ecological theology for more than thirty-five years, beginning with his ground-breaking book, Brother Earth: Nature, God, and Ecology in a Time ,of Crisis (1970). His historical study of Christian theologies of nature, The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology (1985), was praised by critics and leaders in the field such as Lynn White, Jr. And John B. Cobb, Jr. Santmire outlined his own theology of nature in Nature Reborn: the Ecological and Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology (2000).

Harvard educated, Dr. Santmire served thirteen years as Chaplain and Lecturer in Religion and Biblical Studies at Wellesley College and in a variety of parish settings, academic, inner-city, and metropolitan. Now retired, he resides in Watertown, MA.

The book

Is the Christian faith ecologically bankrupt? H. Paul Santmire has responded forcefully that that frequently voiced critical question. He has maintained that, notwithstanding ambiguities, a single Christian tradition of long standing has something profoundly promising to say about nature and human life in nature. Now, in Ritualizing Nature, he shows how that rich tradition is itself deeply rooted in Christianity’s own historic ritual practices. He then argues that those practices, when they are rightly interpreted, powerfully shape theological "habits" or ways for Christians to engage nature, signaled by the words wonder, service, and partnership.

Ritualizing Nature will claim the attention of inquiring environmentalists and professional theologians, students of theology and clergy, and also thoughtful laity and serious seekers, who are eager to understand more fully – or perhaps for the first time – how the ecological promise of the Christian faith is enlivened and sustained by its ritual practices.

Ritualizing Nature has already been endorsed by leading theologians, Larry Rasmussen, Union Theological Seminary, New York City, author of Earth Community Earth Ethics (1997), Krister Stendahl, formerly Dean of Harvard Divinity School, and Gordon Lathrop, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and author of Holy Ground: A Liturgical Cosmology (2003).

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