“In the end, ethical interpretation of the Bible means to think critically about how our practices of textual engagement might help us to become both more human and more humane. We are constantly crafting and recrafting ourselves, and the goal is to do so in such a way that we contribute, even if only incrementally, more to the good in the world than to the bad. We think of the point made by Tim Beal (2011, 184), who notes that the etymological root of the word “religion” is typically taken to be the Latin religare, from the verb ligare, meaning “to bind” or “to attach” (ergo our word “ligament”). Religion, in this line of thinking, has to do with being bound to certain doctrines, ideas, or practices. But Beal points out that there is another etymology, suggested by the ancient Roman politician and philosopher Cicero, who proposed that religion derives from the Latin relegere, itself a form of the root legere, “to read” (ergo our words “legible” and even “lectionary”). “Re-ligion” becomes then a process of “re-reading,” and the shaping of a religious life (or more broadly a moral life, or more broadly still just a life) is a continual process of engagement with tradition in the context of present realities. We spoke early on in this book about the “traditioning” process that lies behind the biblical text, the way in which earlier texts and traditions are taken up in later contexts in which they are both preserved and transformed. As a result, Scripture itself presents a rich variety of voices, and sometimes one author or text disagrees with the other. It is an ongoing conversation rather than a set of settled doctrines. And it is our privilege to be invited into that conversation, to become ourselves part of the traditioning process, seeking to bring an unfolding understanding of the good into our present reality.”
Source: An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination
“There are some who, if you propose to examine into anything, immediately set you down as an unbeliever in that thing. A man who wants to find out what the Bible really means, is, by those who do not believe in it a tenth part as much as he, set down as an unbeliever in the Bible; whereas it is a proof of the very strongest probability to the contrary.”
Source: Donal Grant
“To claim the world as created is to claim God's care for it and our responsibility to care for it.”
Source: The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder
“But the [Eden] story takes a dramatically different turn: it tells of the couple succumbing to fear, blame, and the will to power, which from Cain and Lamech to today continues to engulf the world.”
Source: The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder
“Science alone cannot provide the impetus for changing human conduct. It does not provide a compelling warrant for acknowledging the intrinsic value of life or its sanctity.... If, however, we take our cue from Genesis, damaging creation is tantamount to defacing God's sanctuary, an act of utter sacrilege.”
Source: The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder
“Read ecologically, the psalm [Ps 104] claims God's biophilia as a model for humanity's role and presence in the world. Delighting in creation has nothing to do with exploiting the world for the common greed. Rather, it has all to do with receiving the world's abundance for the common good, a sufficiency to be shared, not hoarded.”
Source: The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder
“No subordination pertains in the garden. The adam's service to the garden is rooted in his kinship with the ground. Marriage, according to the Yahwist, is founded on the kindship intimacy of partnership and companionship (2:24). Life in the garden is one of fruitful work, abundance, and intimate companionship. In the garden there is neither fear nor shame, even before God. These are 'lacks' that are meant to endure. But, alas, they do not.”
Source: The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder
“As God in Genesis 1 is no imperious warrior, so human beings are not conquerors of creation. The language of dominion lacks all sense of exploitation (1:26, 28). The hoarding of resources is implicitly forbidden in the account: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees are granted to animals and humans alike (1:30). Absent is any hint of the savage competition for resources. God's gift of sustenance is one of abundance, not scarcity, to be shared, not hoarded.”
Source: The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder
“So instead we continue our backward journey through time into the high Middle Ages of the thirteenth century. At one time thought of as an intellectual backwater of history, when the darkness of mysticism, magic and astrology spent centuries stifling the emergence of true scientific enquiry, it is now increasingly seen as the nursey of Renaissance thought, a bridge from the creative thinking of the ancients to science in its modern form.”
Source: Faith and Wisdom in Science
“A tiny 'bubble' of the new created world order nucleates at the first Easter. But it does not sweep all nature before it in passivity. Instead there is an implicit invitation to participate in the coming into being of renewed creation. The gospel message contains the same beckoning finger that was extended to Job on his ash heap, extending an invitation to explore the possibilities of a new nature.”
Source: Faith and Wisdom in Science