Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word

by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson (Editor), Tsvi Blanchard (Contributor), Eliezer Diamond (Contributor)

Jewish ecological discourse has shown that Judaism harbors deep concern for the well-being of the natural world. However, the movement has not articulated a Jewish theology of nature, nor has it submitted the sources of Judaism to a systematic, philosophical examination.

This volume intends to contribute to the nascent discourse on Judaism and ecology by clarifying diverse conceptions of nature in Jewish thought and by using the insights of Judaism to formulate a constructive Jewish theology of nature. The twenty-one contributors consider the Bible and rabbinic literature, examine the relationship between the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of revelation in the context of natural law, and wrestle with questions of nature and morality. They look at nature in the Jewish mystical tradition, and they face the challenges to Jewish environmental activism caused by the tension between the secular nature of the environmental discourse and Jewish religious commitments.

Genres: Judaism, Religion, Environment

515 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2003

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit to skipping the last couple of chapters; eventually I just felt I had had my fill of the particular conversation.

The book is a collection of the papers (including response papers) presented at a conference held by the Forum on Religion and Ecology.

Highlights:

Michael Fishbane's "Toward a Jewish Theology of Nature."
Theology should always be like this - inspiring as well as well-thought out.

Evan Eisenberg's "The Ecology of Eden."
Part natural history, part myth, this piece is based on Eisenberg's book of the same title and is a wonderful reflection on the history of our interaction with the earth.

Lenn E. Goodman's "Respect for Nature in the Jewish Tradition."
Goodman's 'ontic theory of just deserts' represents the line of thinking I find most promising for creating meaningful philosophic as well as legal space for non-human animals, plants, and other features of nature. And even though the essay is dense, I found it to be clear and precise.

[Marit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me a long time to wade through because of the the density of many of the articles. There were even some articles that I skimmed very cursorily because they were just too tangled, in their wordiness, high-brow language, or deep philosophy/religious references. However, I did learn quite a bit about how "nature" (more than ecology, per se) has been treated with in Jewish biblical and rabbinical discourse over the ages. And there were some very interesting modern takes on how to interpret even the ancient tale of Creation when looking through the lens of conservation ecology. Overall, the take-home message, for me, was that if conservation, nature, and ecological ethics are to take place within a Jewish context, much of the language and religious foundation will have to heavily re-envisioned.

[Bill Dilworth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word (Religions of the World and Ecology) by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson (2003)