David DeCosse, Paul Fitzgerald, S.J., and Betsy Reifsnider offered helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

1. This is a rapidly emerging field; for an introduction, see Gottlieb, Roger, A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006 CrossRefGoogle Scholar); and Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Grim, John, “The Greening of the World's Religions,” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 9, 2007, 25–27 Google Scholar. For a comprehensive overview, see Taylor, Bron R., ed., The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (Bristol: Continuum, 2005 Google Scholar).

2. As environmental values began to take hold of American institutions in the 1970s, academics and church leaders began to wrestle with Christianity's ambiguous stance toward the natural world. At first, many Christian leaders were suspicious of environmentalists due to the perception that they espoused a critique of anthropocentrism and organized religion. They reacted against the arguments of Lynn White, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” Science 155 (March 10, 1967): 1203–7. White argued that how people think about their relationship to the natural world shapes their behavior toward the environment and that the Bible and medieval Christianity set Western civilization out on a path of environmental degradation. He also claimed that “Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen” (1204). This set off a firestorm of debate about the role of religious attitudes in contemporary environmental problems. For many years, White's arguments were the obligatory point of departure for any discussion of religion and the environment, although this is no longer the case. For some early theological analysis, see Granberg-Michaelson, Wesley, A Worldly Spirituality: The Call to Take Care of the Earth (New York: Harper and Row, 1984)Google Scholar; and Baird Callicott, J., “Genesis and John Muir,” in Covenant for a New Creation: Ethics, Religion, and Social Policy, ed. Robb, Carol S. and Casebolt, Carl J. (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1991)Google Scholar. After Pope John Paul II's The Ecological Crisis and the increased visibility of environmental problems sparked by Earth Day 1990, U.S. Christian denominational leaders began to consider the possibilities of constructing programs guided by a theology of the environment. The most visible was the National Religious Partnership for the Environment; see Somplatsky-Jarman, William, Grazer, Walter, and LeQuire, Stan L., “Partnership for the Environment among U.S. Christians: Reports from the National Religious Partnership for the Environment,” in Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans, ed. Hessel, Dieter T. and Ruether, Rosemary Radford (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 573–90Google Scholar.

3. Goodstein, Laurie, “Evangelical's Focus on Climate Draws Fire of Christian Right,” New York Times, March 3, 2007, A9Google Scholar; Goodstein, Laurie, “Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming Initiative,” New York Times, February 8, 2006, A12Google Scholar; Cooperman, Alan, “U.S. Evangelical Group Firm on Climate Stance,” Washington Post, March 11, 2007 Google Scholar.

4. Gottlieb, A Greener Faith.

5. Practical theologies develop principles to guide the actions of individuals and communities. Practical theology begins and ends with practical concerns. It uses communal inquiry processes to determine a course of action in light of new social situations. I use the term practical theology to mean the application of wisdom from one's religious tradition to guide present action. For background, see Browning, Don S., A Fundamental Practical Theology: Descriptive and Strategic Proposals (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991 Google Scholar).

6. Duties to the environment and future generations now appear in statements by popes and bishops in many countries. By 1996, fortyeight statements by bishops’ and regional bishops’ conferences worldwide had been issued. S.J., Drew Christiansen, and Grazer, Walter, eds., “And God Saw That It Was Good”: Catholic Theology and the Environment (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1996), 18 n. 4.Google Scholar An updated collection and comparison of all the episcopal statements on the environment is much needed.

7. U.S. Catholic Conference, Renewing the Earth: An Invitation to Reflection and Action on Environment in Light of Catholic Social Teaching (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1991).

8. Mich, Marvin L., Catholic Social Teaching and Movements (Mystic, Conn.: Twenty-Third Publications, 1998 Google Scholar).

9. Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens, par. 4.

10. Mich, Catholic Social Teaching, 277.

11. Ibid.

12. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All: A Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1986).

13. Many analyses of the economic pastoral letter exist. See Mich, , Catholic Social Teaching, 313–45Google Scholar, and Weakland, Rembert G., “The Economic Pastoral Letter Revisited,” in One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Thought, ed. Coleman, John (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1991), 198–209 Google Scholar.

14. Mich, , Catholic Social Teaching, 323 Google Scholar.

15. Weakland, Rembert G., “The Economic Pastoral: Draft Two,” America 153 (September 21, 1985)Google Scholar: 132, cited in Mich, , Catholic Social Teaching, 315 Google Scholar–16.

16. Weakland, Rembert G., “‘Economic Justice for All’ Ten Years Later,” America 196 (March 22, 1997)Google Scholar.

17. The work of Catholic Charities is described in Mich, , Catholic Social Teaching, 333–37Google Scholar.

18. In the wake of the riots, several bishops called for a “national Catholic crusade against poverty.” Quoted in Mich, , Catholic Social Teaching, 338 Google Scholar. The campaign is unusual in that it only funds projects in which the poor themselves have a dominant voice over their purpose. It represents an effort to help the poor help and speak for themselves.

19. For case studies examining the impact of the Campaign for Human Development, see Hogan, John P., Credible Signs of Christ Alive: Case Studies from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003 Google Scholar).

20. Weakland, “The Economic Pastoral Letter Revisited.”

21. Weakland, “‘Economic Justice for All’ Ten Years Later,” 9–10.

22. World Council on Economic Development, Our Common Future (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).

23. For a discussion of the contradictions of the sustainability discourse and the concept of sustainable development, see Allen, Patricia, ed., Food for the Future: Conditions and Contradictions of Sustainability (New York: Wiley and Sons, 1993)Google Scholar; Allen, Patricia and Sachs, Carolyn, “The Social Side of Sustainability: Class, Gender, and Ethnicity,” Science as Culture 4, no. 13 (1991): 569–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Redclift, Michael, Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions (London: Routledge, 1987 CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

24. Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens, 21.

25. See Patrick Allitt, “American Catholics and the Environment, 1960–1995,” Catholic Historical Review 84 (April 1998): 263–81.

26. Major sources on the environmental teachings of John Paul II include: Marjorie Keenan, R.S.H.M., ed., From Stockholm to Johannesburg: An Historical Overview of the Concern of the Holy See for the Environment, 1972–2002 (Vatican City: Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2002); Ancilla Dent, O.S.B., ed., Ecology and Faith: The Writings of Pope John Paul II (Berkhamsted, England: Arthur James, 1997). Laborem Exercens provides an exegesis of Genesis as the basis for his theological anthropology, emphasizing the vocation of human work and co-creation. John Paul II's Solicitudo Rei Socialis, issued in 1987 on the twentieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's Populorum Progressio (an encyclical about economic development), analyzed the challenge of development through the lenses of scripture and his own theological anthropology.

27. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, n. 15–16.

28. Ibid.

29. John Paul II, “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility,” in “And God Saw That It Was Good,” ed. Christiansen and Grazer. 30. He appealed to the cooperation of all social and political actors, much as Pope John XXIII did in Pacem in Terris. For analysis, see Mich, , Catholic Social Teaching, 99–106 Google Scholar.

31. John Paul II, “The Ecological Crisis,” 15.

32. Renato Martino, “Intervention by the Holy See at the World Summit on Sustainable Development,” Johannesburg, South Africa, September 2, 2002.

33. Pope John Paul II and the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, “Joint Statement at the Fourth Symposium on Religion, Science and the Environment, Rome/Venice,” June 10, 2002.

34. U.S. Catholic Conference, Economic Justice for All, n. 12.

35. Ibid., n. 227. The economic pastoral used the term “sustainable” twice, once to refer to environmental stewardship and once to sustainable agriculture.

36. U.S. Catholic Conference, Renewing the Earth. Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles, then chair of the bishops’ international policy committee, recommended the creation of this letter. See Somplatsky- Jarman, Grazer, and LeQuire, “Parnership for the Environment,” 580.

37. John Paul II's letter provoked responses in other Christian traditions as well. In 1992, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, the National Council of Churches in Christ, the Evangelical Environmental Network, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops came together to form the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, which has become the central organizational structure for fostering environmental education and advocacy by religious leaders in the United States. This partnership is described in Christiansen and Grazer, eds., “And God Saw That It Was Good,” 4–5, and Somplatsky- Jarman, Grazer, and LeQuire, “Parnership for the Environment.”

38. For discussion and background, see Allitt, “American Catholics and the Environment.” Allit argues that, in the aftermath of Vatican II, socially engaged American laity initially framed their work in terms of analysis of structural injustice and poverty alleviation initiatives. The broader social awareness of the pervasiveness of environmental problems during the late 1980s coincided with papal teachings and U.S. bishops’ statements. Leading traditional American laity, however, had objected to the economic justice initiatives, as well as liturgical and catechetical reforms, criticizing them as novel. Socially engaged laity in developing countries could not escape perceiving the linkages between environmental protection and resource availability for the poor and economically marginalized. 39. The creation of this report and its role in the environmental justice movement is described in Vernice Miller-Travis, “Social Transformation through Environmental Justice,” in Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans, ed. Hessel and Ruether, 559–71.

40. Bullard, Robert D., “Anatomy of Environmental Racism and the Environmental Justice Movement,” in Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots, ed. Bullard, Robert D. (Boston: South End Press, 1993), 15–39 Google Scholar.

41. Miller-Travis, “Social Transformation through Environmental Justice.”

42. Cole, Luke W. and Foster, Sheila R., From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2001), chap. 1.Google Scholar

43. “Renewing the Earth,” in “And God Saw That It Was Good,” ed. Christiansen and Grazer, 225.

44. It used the terms “sustainable economy” or “sustainable world community” or “sustainable development” eight times. It used “sustainable” to modify agriculture or agricultural policies three times, and policies and technologies three times. It called for “a change of heart to preserve and protect the planet for our children and for generations yet unborn.”

45. “Renewing the Earth,” 225.

46. Ibid., 240–42.

47. This emerging Catholic environmental ethic does not yet take seriously the scale of the human population's impact on the environment. Statements by John Paul II and the U.S. bishops generally acknowledge a southern hemisphere “demographic problem which creates difficulties for development.” Renewing the Earth proposed that “sustainable social and economic development” is the key factor for dealing with population problems. According to most demographic experts, this is necessary but not sufficient to manage the earth and its resources in a sustainable way. Both John Paul II and the U.S. bishops have raised questions about the developmental trajectory of technology and capitalism in contemporary society, but they have not identified specific actors responsible for taking alternative actions, shy of “public officials” or “industrial leaders.”

48. Christiansen, and Grazer, , eds., “And God Saw That It Was Good,” 2 Google Scholar, and Somplatsky-Jarman, , Grazer, , and LeQuire, , “Partnership for the Environment,” 579 Google Scholar.

49. Somplatsky-Jarman, , Grazer, , and LeQuire, , “Partnership for the Environment,” 583 Google Scholar.

50. U.S. Catholic Conference, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 2001).

51. Martin-Schramm, James B. and Stivers, Robert L., Christian Environmental Ethics: A Case Method Approach (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2003)Google Scholar.

52. Speth, James Gustave, Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004)Google Scholar.

53. Scientific skeptics of global climate change have generally been funded by private industry; see Gelbstan, Ross, Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis—and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster (New York: Basic Books, 2004)Google Scholar.

54. U.S. Catholic Conference, Global Climate Change, 4.

55. Raffensperger, Carolyn and Tickner, Joel, Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999)Google Scholar.

56. U.S. Catholic Conference, For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food: Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers, and Farmworkers (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Catholic Conference, 2003), 11–12.

57. Somplatsky-Jarman, Grazer, and LeQuire, “Partnership for the Environment.”

58. The Florida Catholic Conference issued “Companions in Creation” on January 1, 1991, exactly one year after Pope John Paul II's The Ecological Crisis. The bishops of New Mexico published a brief letter about the environment in the context of an environmental justice conference: New Mexico Catholic Conference, Partnership for the Future: Caretaking New Mexico's Life-Giving Rivers, River Stewardship Conference (Albuquerque: New Mexico Catholic Bishops, 1998). The Boston province of Catholic bishops published And God Saw That It Was Good in 2000. It included an examination of the specific New England concerns of agriculture and fisheries. Four times it recalled the responsibility of the present for the future and future generations. The New Jersey Catholic Conference created the New Jersey Catholic Coalition for Environmental Justice; see Patricia Lafevere, “The Push for Ecological Conversion,” National Catholic Reporter, August 15, 2003. 59. This is especially true of “Care for the Earth,” written by the Indiana Catholic Conference in 2000. The bishops of Montana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have also addressed stewardship in light of the farm crisis.

60. Catholic Bishops of Appalachia, At Home in the Web of Life (Webster Springs, W.Va.: Catholic Committee of Appalachia, 1995).

61. Beth Dotson, “Sustaining Life and Faith in Appalachia,” St. Anthony Messenger, September 1997, 13–17.

62. Ibid., 13.

63. William S. Skylstad, “Waters of Life,” America, November 24, 2003, 13–15.

64. Columbia River Pastoral Letter Project, The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good (Seattle: Washington Catholic Conference, 2001), 1.

65. Pamela Schaeffer, “Restoring the Sacred in Nature,” National Catholic Reporter, June 4, 1999, 18–20.

66. For an excellent analysis of this letter, see Douglas Burton- Christie, “The Spirit of Place: The Columbia River Watershed Letter and the Meaning of Community,” Horizons 30, no. 1 (2003): 7–24. I am indebted to Burton-Christie for his interpretation of this letter.

67. Ibid.

68. Columbia River Pastoral Letter Project, The Columbia River Watershed: Realities and Possibilities (1999).

69. Burton-Christie, “The Spirit of Place,” 19, n. 20.

70. Isao Fujimoto, Building Civic Participation in the Central Valley: Getting to Know the Central Valley (Davis: California Institute for Rural Studies, 1998); Jane V. Hall, Victor Brajer, and Frederick W. Lurmann, “The Health and Related Economic Benefits of Attaining Healthful Air in the San Joaquin Valley” (California State University Fullerton, Institute for Economic and Environmental Studies, March 31, 2006); and Edward Taylor, J. and Martin, Philip L., “Central Valley Evolving into Patchwork of Poverty and Prosperity,” California Agriculture 54, no. 1 (2000): 26–32 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71. Richard Fowler made this statement at the third town hall meeting, January 22, 2005, Oakdale, California.