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Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living by Nick Spencer and Robert White. Published by SPCK, pp224 ISBN: 9780281058334 £9.99

When you see more than one major issue in the title of a book you know the author has set themselves a challenging goal, and at present there is no more challenging goal than this one! This book seeks to bring together the Christian faith, the science of climate change, and the technological and moral demands of sustainable living.

The book is split into roughly three equal parts which: define the problem of global warming and its root in unsustainable lifestyles and lack of well-being; argue for Christians to care for the environment and provide biblical vision and practice for sustainable living; and finally offers current practice and vision for sustainable living which concludes with a vision of a new creation. I found the first and last sections the most helpful. They were clear and gave a good balance of information and personal challenge. The middle section felt hard-going as I kept hoping it would present more of the history and theology of the numerous biblical passages it was quoting. The focus throughout is on Isaiah 40-66 as a vision for sustainable living, with a very future orientation to it. That said it does provide a clear biblical justification for sustainable living and practice even though I would have preferred the section on why ‘should Christians care’ to be deeper and broader in scope and speak more about the nature of our Creator God. It is clearly written from an evangelical understanding of Christianity and draws heavily on the biblical social vision of the Jubilee Centre.

This is a valuable piece of work to introduce these issues, enable Christians to pull together their faith and the stories they hear on the news, and consequently take action. Grappling with our understanding of God’s Creation and our part in its ongoing story is never going to be a simple endeavour. This book gives a coherent overview of the global situation and points towards individual actions that can play their part in implementing solutions that will need the engagement of individuals and governments to meet the challenges ahead.

David Coaker is coordinator of Creation Challenge and serves as a URC minister in Warrington.

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