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Kingfisher's Fire: A Story Of Hope For God's Earth
Hope is often the missing element in the environmental story. Over the last quarter century the Christian conservation organisation A Rocha has been protecting and restoring threatened sites. Their engagement with local communities, bringing new life to urban and rural areas, has made a profound impact in many lives and places. Peter Harris delightfully blends his personal story with that of A Rocha, describing a passionately-held vision and how it has worked out in the life of his own family.
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 18, 2008
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30 people want to read
About the author
Peter Harris
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There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 30, 2021
Peter Harris started a field center in Portugal as a Christian pastor longing to to see Christians care for creation (which after all is the creation of God, however you want to say it came about). This eventually became A Rocha with many people working all over the world. Part autobiography (of A Rocha anyway), part defense of Christians caring for planet Earth. I enjoyed Peter Harris's retelling of the second phase of A Rocha's life and it made me long to see more Christians engaged in this work.
November 16, 2015
It was really encouraging to read a Christian perspective on environmental conservation (and what that means on a wider level), and now I want to learn more about creation care theology, and why it is I care about creation, and how to explain that biblically.
"One tried and tested way we deal with inconvenient animals is to domesticate them, and Western Society has been domesticating Christians for centuries." (29)
"If people are involved for relatively short periods, their departure and the end of the funding usually means the end of all the project aimed to achieve." (79)
"Even when we are trying to aid the environment, we are not willing as individuals to leave the system that we know in our heart of hearts is the cause of our problems." (102)
"The search for human well-being at any cost has always been an inadequate criterion for environmental decision-making. It is that kind of reductionist logic that has already led us to make a desert of large areas of God's good earth." (104).
"It is in the poorer communities of the south that the most grievous impact is felt, yet the wealthier societies whose emissions are causing the problem may even benefit by higher temperatures and the other short-term changes taking place. It will be counter-intuitive for societies that retain their own well-being at heart to change their ways unless they are given more fundamental reasons for doing so than enlightened self-interest." (105)
"The care of creation, like compassion for people, is the true consequence of knowing that we share a loving Creator... We care for God's creation because he does and because we live in his ways, not just because we need it." (105)
"At its truest, religion represents the one force in our society that can postulate some goal other than accumulation. In an idolatrous culture, religion can play a subversive role. Churches, mosques, and synagogues almost alone among our official institutions can say, It's not the economy, stupid. It's your life. It's learning that there's some other center to the universe." (Bill McKibben, 166)
"One tried and tested way we deal with inconvenient animals is to domesticate them, and Western Society has been domesticating Christians for centuries." (29)
"If people are involved for relatively short periods, their departure and the end of the funding usually means the end of all the project aimed to achieve." (79)
"Even when we are trying to aid the environment, we are not willing as individuals to leave the system that we know in our heart of hearts is the cause of our problems." (102)
"The search for human well-being at any cost has always been an inadequate criterion for environmental decision-making. It is that kind of reductionist logic that has already led us to make a desert of large areas of God's good earth." (104).
"It is in the poorer communities of the south that the most grievous impact is felt, yet the wealthier societies whose emissions are causing the problem may even benefit by higher temperatures and the other short-term changes taking place. It will be counter-intuitive for societies that retain their own well-being at heart to change their ways unless they are given more fundamental reasons for doing so than enlightened self-interest." (105)
"The care of creation, like compassion for people, is the true consequence of knowing that we share a loving Creator... We care for God's creation because he does and because we live in his ways, not just because we need it." (105)
"At its truest, religion represents the one force in our society that can postulate some goal other than accumulation. In an idolatrous culture, religion can play a subversive role. Churches, mosques, and synagogues almost alone among our official institutions can say, It's not the economy, stupid. It's your life. It's learning that there's some other center to the universe." (Bill McKibben, 166)
May 30, 2012
This is a great introduction to the A Rocha movement and a good apologia for active Christian conservationism (as opposed to Christian environmental ethics), of which there are few ... or none I have ever seen! The writing is a little hard to follow at points and the narrative jumps from one site to another, but the timeframe and enormity of the globe covered in this little book offers just excuse. A definite read for any Christians interested in activating their faith in their conservationism.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews