Coming Back to Earth: From Gods, to God, to Gaia - Softcover

Geering, Lloyd

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1598150162 ISBN 13: 9781598150162

Publisher: Polebridge Pr Westar Inst, 2009

Synopsis

According to Lloyd Geering the doctrines of Incarnation and Trinity, which began as attempts to reflect the indwelling of God in human beings, were soon distorted to proclaim the reality of a sacred realm in the heavens. But the collapse of supernaturalism, he says, has produced a new and different pattern of reality: the self-creating universe, the self-evolving human species, and the emerging global consciousness. In light of these changes, he asks, Is Christianity going anywhere ? His answer, simply put, is that Christianity will not survive unless it can be harmonized with the secular global world. He further observes that all religious traditions must incorporate a concern for the present ecological crisis, And, he insists, any credible faith tradition must embrace a secular or humanist spirituality. Geering concludes that the most credible scenario for Christianity s future depends on accepting the Gaia concept as a powerful modern myth that will sustain individual humans spiritually, and our planetary home ecologically.

About this title

About the Author:

Lloyd Geering is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. Honored in 1988 as a Companion of the British Empire, Lloyd Geering is a public figure of considerable renown in New Zealand where he is in constant demand as a lecturer and as a commentator on religion and related matters on both television and radio. In 1966, he published an article on The Resurrection of Jesus and, in 1967, another on The Immortality of the Soul, which together sparked a two-year public, theological controversy that culminated in charges by the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand of which he is an ordained minister of doctrinal error and disturbing the peace of the church. After a dramatic, two-day televised trial, the Assembly judged that no doctrinal error had been proved, dismissed the charges and declared the case closed.

Review:

Coming Back to Earth is a very fine, very important book, and I hope it is read widely. Geering has outlined, in a quite convincing way, the kind of transformation Christian faith must make today in face of the ecological crisis: the most important problem humans have ever had to face. --Gordon Kaufman, Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity, Emeritus, Harvard University

About this edition

• Publisher: Polebridge Pr Westar Inst
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1598150162
• ISBN 13: 9781598150162
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 221
• Editor: Hall Tom