Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change

by Jim Antal, Bill McKibben (Foreword by)

Overview

Climate Church, Climate World contends that climate change is the greatest moral challenge humanity has ever faced. Hunger, refugees, poverty, inequality, deadly viruses, war—climate change multiplies all forms of global social injustice. Environmental advocate Rev. Jim Antal calls on the church to meet this moral challenge, to embrace a new vocation so that future generations might live in harmony with God’s creation. Antal proposes how people of faith can embrace new approaches to worship, preaching, witnessing, and other spiritual practices that honor creation and cultivate hope. This revised and updated edition includes a new chapter on political and policy shifts under the Trump and Biden administrations; the influence of Greta Thunberg and climate change activists; and updated information on the current science of climate change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538178911
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/06/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	959,036
File size:	674 KB

About the Author

Jim Antal is a denominational leader, activist, and public theologian. He serves as the national spokesperson on climate change for the United Church of Christ. Yale Divinity School recently honored Antal with the William Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice, in recognition of his lifelong advocacy for nuclear disarmament, racial justice, Middle East Peace, and climate change activism.

Table of Contents

Foreword

By Bill McKibben

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Earth Is the Lord’s, Not Ours to Wreck: Imperatives for a New Moral Era

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

1 The Situation in Which We Find Ourselves

What Have We Done?

Taking Responsibility—The Anthropocene

How Long Have We Known?

Are We Paying Attention?

What’s at Stake? How Urgent Is the Crisis?

Are We Choosing Extinction?

We’re All In This Together

We Already Have Everything We Need

Forward Momentum

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

2 A Loving God for a Broken World

Finding God in a Broken World

Should We Try to Keep Our Hearts from Breaking?

Gratitude for a God of Love

How Do We Remain Faithful?

Julian Bond’s Testimony in Handcuffs

The Mine and the Snow Geese—A Story for Our Time

The Story of the Mine and the Snow Geese: A Postscript

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

Interlude: If We Fail to Heed Our Calling

A Letter from a Pastor to Her Congregation on the Occasion of the Closing of the Church on Ash Wednesday 2070

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

3 The Church’s Vocation Today

What’s Church For?

History’s Lessons for an Unprecedented Time

With God, There Are No Externalities

God Calls Communities, Not Just Individuals…We All Live at the Same Address

Our Covenant With God: For All Time—With All Creatures

Golden Rule 2.0

Our Children’s Trust

Confronting the End of Continuity

A Kairos Moment—Time for a Moral Intervention

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

4 The Marks of the Church in a Climate Crisis World

Our Role as Keepers of Continuity

Building Resilient Communities

It’s Not Just About Me: From Personal to Communal Salvation

Step 1: Confess Complicity; Step 2: Change the System

Embracing Spiritual Progress in Place of Material Progress

Sacrifice and Sharing as Guiding Virtues

Embracing Moral Interdependence

Global Warming Intensifies All Forms of Injustice

Confront the Powers and Principalities

Sharing Our Fears and Hopes: Empowering Action

Truth and Reconciliation Conversations in Every House of Worship

Civil Disobedience—the Church Acts on Its Conscience

A Repurposed Church for a New Moral Era

Affirming these Marks of the Church in a Covenant

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

5 Discipleship: Reorienting What We Prize

Resilience in Place of Growth

Collaboration in Place of Consumption

Wisdom in Place of Progress

Balance in Place of Addiction

Moderation in Place of Excess

Vision in Place of Convenience

Accountability in Place of Disregard

Self-Giving Love in Place of Self-Centered Fear

Civil Disobedience and Discipleship

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

6 Worship as a Pathway to Freedom

How Much Is Enough? Climate Talk in Church

The First Announcement at Every Church Service

Invite Weekly Testimonies

Transform Familiar Liturgies and Create New Ones

Organize and Host a Climate Revival

Worship that Includes All Creatures

Ordination Vows and New Life in the Anthropocene

If Earth Were a Sacrament, How Would We Treat It?

Undomesticating Worship

Taking Liturgy to the Street, the Pipeline, and the Tracks

Conclusion

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

7 Prophetic Preaching: Freeing the Pulpit from Fear

Called to Preach on Climate Change

Why Preaching on Climate Change Matters

The Church Was Born for This

Pastors Must Prepare Their Hearts

Cultivating Courage—“Be Not Afraid”

Offer Hope—We Are Called to Change the Story

The Theological Foundation for Preaching on Climate Change

Preaching on Climate Change— Ten Considerations

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

8 Witnessing Together: Communal Action Can Free Us from Fear

Not the Vocation I Started With

What Is Witnessing?

Making Civil Disobedience a Normative Expression of Christian Discipleship

Driven by Love and Gratitude with Fear as a Catalyst

Divestment: Revoking the Social License to Wreck Creation

A New Take on Fiduciary Accountability

A Global Commons—End the Ownership of Nature

Building the Kingdom of God: Society Based on “The Common Good”

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

9 Trump, Biden, Greta—Years of Upheaval, 2018-2022

Finally—A Climate Bill (by another name) Passes

What Made Congress Act on Climate?

Truth Forever on the Scaffold

A New Moral Era—Yes! But Which One?

Nature Cannot Be Deceived

Congregations Responding to Covid and Climate

We’re Paying More Attention to the Climate Crisis

The Green New Deal—Aspiration Amidst Upheaval

Youth Cannot Be Ignored

Imagine If…

What’s a Climate Church?

Our Generation Has a Vocation—We’re ALL In This Together

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

10 Living Hope-Filled Lives in a Climate Crisis World

Not Optimism . . . But Hope

Facing Reality—A Precondition of Hope

Expressing Grief—A Precondition of Hope

Acknowledging the Existential Threat of Climate Change

The Conviction of Things Not Seeable

The Conviction of Things Not Seen—Telling a New Story of Hope

Living a New Story of Hope

Spiritual Practices for Cultivating Hope

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

Epilogue

Imagine: A Message to the Church—Presented by a Teenager in 2100

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

Appendix

Preaching Suggestions for a Climate Crisis World

Further Reading

Notes

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

A growing number of calls plead for the church to address 'the long emergency' of the climate crisis. Few, however, say how to do so as people of faith who courageously take on the mantle of moral leadership. Jim Antal does both in his sure-footed and bracing way. Climate Church, Climate World is a gift.

As a pastor, a civil/human rights activist, and a psychologist, I find this book to be the best I have ever read at simply explaining climate change to the average person. It details the 'required action steps' to take if the Church is to assume its rightful place in saving and sustaining what God has entrusted to its care.

For far too many mainstream churches, climate change is still considered a topic too hot for Sunday mornings. And yet, as the Reverend Dr. Jim Antal writes in this learned, heartfelt, and prophetic epistle to American churches and people of faith everywhere, the climate crisis and the suffering it brings are the overriding physical and moral facts of the world that we as Christians are called to love and serve. Where, then, if not in our churches, must we engage this greatest of human crises? With candor, emotional honesty, and moral clarity, Antal offers a profound new vision for what it means to be a church, and a follower of Jesus, in the twenty-first century.

If you ever meet Jim Antal, your first thought will be, 'This man has the energy of a dozen people wrapped up in one body.' You'll see his brilliance, his enthusiasm, his focus, and his resilient determination. You'll also see his faith. You'll sense all of these qualities in Climate Church, Climate World. You will be drawn from well-written page to page, until you have to put the book down and join the movement to . . . quite literally . . . save the world. On top of being brilliant, energetic, and inspiring, Jim Antal is, in my opinion, 100% right, and his message is prophetic in the truest sense.

Jim Antal embodies the moral imagination that we so desperately need in order to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis. His book invites us to imagine a church that puts its principles into action in the twenty-first century and offers a wealth of resources for people of faith who are ready to answer that call.

Jim Antal is among the most knowledgeable and passionate advocates of creation care, and he captures the complete story in Climate Church, Climate World.

Jim Antal is not preaching to the choir. He is preaching to all of us for all of us, summoning us and the church to an urgent new calling--to heal a creation broken by the ravages of global warming and climate disruption. His inspiring book and the stories he tells lift us up and prepare us for the great moral challenge of our time.

Jim Antal's passion for eco-justice and his bold faith adhere in his emerging theological claim that faith communities have a new vocation: care for the Earth. This book breaks new ground in claiming that a faith not fully committed to the preservation of the planet loses its raison d'être."

People of faith have been charged to answer the call of environmental stewardship in the twenty-first century. Too often a theological fringe element has silenced the compassionate and caring faithful serving in faith communities across this nation. Jim Antal's book is a profound answer to fringe and ethically suspect theological movements attempting to silence faith voices committed to creation care. This book is part manual, part theological reflection, and all prophetic witness.

This is the book for which we have been waiting concerning the climate crisis. It is clear: the time for ambiguity is long since past. It is bold: deeply rooted boldness is required to counter the forceful ideology of the fossil fuel lobby. It is institutionally realistic: this is no generic moral appeal, but a bid to the church to take up its primal mission. It is practical: it anticipates active ways for pastors and churches to get to it. This is a welcome must read.

After analyzing the history and social implications of climate change, Antal reimagines the role of church communities and their capacity to confront and resolve the problem. After each chapter throughout the book, there are discussion questions aimed at prompting readers to engage in their communities -- through everything from Bible study to civil disobedience. Clearly, Antal's purpose in writing is not simply to educate but to inspire readers' hearts, heads and hands to "repurpose" the church, and reimagine its moral calling.

Antal argues that climate injustice is a force that amplifies every other social injustice, and that without a whole and restored earth we won't achieve a whole and restorative society. In urging the church to more deeply consider its obligation in calling society to action, this book will help Christians, both congregationally and individually, act in response to climate change and maintain an outlook of Christ-centered hope while doing so.

Antal braids science, testimony, and action plans into a strong tether between a planet sliding into climate disaster and a hope of creation restored. This book shows how we together can pull back from the brink. People of faith need to read this book--now!

Antal pulls no punches, trenchantly calling people of faith to live beyond our denial and into our interdependence. Theologically grounding our call to action, he provides pragmatic ways for us to proceed as we seek to address the calamity at hand. He stretches us to live free from the limits of our fears. Climate Church, Climate World is an essential resource.

Even more than an environmental problem, climate change is humanity's greatest collective moral crisis, and no one understands that better than Reverend Jim Antal. He's borne witness to its test of our resolve from pulpits, in paddy wagons, and now through this book, which offers recipes for hope (and prescriptions for action) on every page. To people of faith--lay or clergy--who are seeking ways to engage on this great global challenge: Here is your guide.

For years we've been waiting for a book that has the power to awaken communities of faith to their high calling: to lead the way in preserving the web of life and averting climate chaos. We've been waiting for a book that gives us straight talk about the climate crisis, faces the terrifying facts without flinching, and provides its readers with the moral grounding, motivation, and tools for faithful and effective action. We've been waiting for a book that, in challenging us to take action on climate, skillfully articulates our moral and ethical responsibility and offers a humble, brilliant, and provocative reflection on the nature of hope. Climate Church, Climate World is that book. It is a joy to welcome it into print.

From the Foreword: This book is written with unusual authority, because for as long as there has been a serious climate movement in the United States, Jim Antal has been at the forefront. I have stood with him at a hundred demonstrations, languished with him in jail, sweated next to him in paddy wagons. I have listened to him preach the powerful good news--and bad news--about the energy and climate crises from pulpit after pulpit. And I've watched as his cheerful, insistent, relentlessly loving approach has allowed so many Americans to join in this fight. He is on the short list of heroes who have given their all.

In his life and work Jim Antal has been a tireless Christian witness to the moral challenge of climate change. In this comprehensive book Jim brings together his compelling personal experience and his broad knowledge to assist other leaders in carrying on this great work. With his powerful prophetic voice he has done a great service to the cause of promoting climate awareness and climate justice.

In his new book, Climate Church, Climate World, Jim Antal has written an inspired and inspiring call to arms--inspired by his fervent belief in God and inspiring to all those of faith who respond to his call. The book charts the damage humankind is causing to its planetary home and points to the many ways in which humankind can change its ways--indeed must--before the damage becomes irreversible. A most timely and important book!

In Climate Church, Climate World, public theologian Jim Antal calls on people of faith to act courageously for the common good. . . . Antal's book is an obvious choice for church book groups and seminary audiences. Its congregational focus also makes it worth considering as a textbook for college courses that explore the role of Christianity in social movements. Antal's hope is that people of faith take from the book a zeal for climate activism, grounded in a clear sense of how God calls them to address climate change in their congregations and local communities. It will embolden faith leaders to address the ethical challenges of climate crisis with prophetic imagination. For academic readers, Antal's book will enrich discussions of religious engagement in the public sphere around issues of social and environmental justice.

Jim Antal has written an inspired and inspiring call to arms--inspired by his fervent belief in God and inspiring to all those of faith who respond to his call. The book charts the damage humankind is causing to its planetary home and points to the many ways in which humankind can change its ways--indeed must--before the damage becomes irreversible. A most timely and important book!

Jim Antal is a faithful and courageous advocate in the struggle to save the earth. I am thankful for his leadership. His new book is a must read for all who desire ideas and inspiration.

Jim Antal reminds us that the climate crisis, while overwhelmingly frightening, recalls the church to its deepest vocation: incarnating the love that is God. The book describes a path forward, full of inspiration, scriptural grounding and science. It's also a path that leads to a world of peace, joy, and a more hopeful future.

Jim Antal shows how the church can engage the urgent moral crisis of climate change. This book will inspire both the courage and conviction people of faith need to provide the leadership necessary to realise God's dream of a just world in which humanity is reconciled to all of creation.

Jim Antal's leadership and religious witness is legendary, and so is the power and beauty of his voice. This book will give you the courage, conviction, and practical tools you will need to be part of this movement!

Jim Antal's Climate Church, Climate World arrives at the perfect, most- needed moment. Tears came as I read it--tears of relief and joy that the church had found its voice in this time of crisis. Jim's brave, resounding summons to his fellow Christians comes as marching orders for us all.

There are gems throughout the book that inspire. . . . I've been working on these issues for decades, but there was still much to learn in these pages. Antal gave me new ways to talk about climate change with people who may be in denial. And, best of all, he helped me understand radical hope.

We must be honest enough to admit that religions originally acknowledged climate change with hesitation, even reluctance. Today, they embrace their responsibility in raising awareness about creation care. In this urgent vocation, Jim Antal has demonstrated unique leadership: proclaiming the gospel of the sacredness of God's creation, promulgating the dire effects of global warming on the most vulnerable, as well as practicing what he preaches in church and society. This book is the fruit of mature discernment and extensive ministry.

From the Publisher

A growing number of calls plead for the church to address “the long emergency” of the climate crisis. Few, however, say how to do so as people of faith who courageously take on the mantle of moral leadership. Jim Antal does both in his sure-footed and bracing way. Climate Church, Climate World is a gift.

Larry Rasmussen

Antal pulls no punches, trenchantly calling people of faith to live beyond our denial and into our interdependence.  Theologically grounding our call to action, he provides pragmatic ways for us to proceed as we seek to address the calamity at hand.  He stretches us to live free from the limits of our fears. Climate Church, Climate World is an essential resource.

Alice Hunt

As a pastor, a civil/human rights activist, and a psychologist, I find this book to be the best I have ever read at simply explaining climate change to the average person. It details the ‘required action steps’ to take if the Church is to assume its rightful place in saving and sustaining what God has entrusted to its care.

Rev. Dr. Gerald L. Durley

Jim Antal is a faithful and courageous advocate in the struggle to save the earth. I am thankful for his leadership. His new book is a must read for all who desire ideas and inspiration.

Jim Winkler

Jim Antal’s leadership and religious witness is legendary, and so is the power and beauty of his voice. This book will give you the courage, conviction, and practical tools you will need to be part of this movement!

May Boeve

This is the book for which we have been waiting concerning the climate crisis. It is clear: the time for ambiguity is long since past. It is bold: deeply rooted boldness is required to counter the forceful ideology of the fossil fuel lobby. It is institutionally realistic: this is no generic moral appeal, but a bid to the church to take up its primal mission. It is practical: it anticipates active ways for pastors and churches to get to it. This is a welcome must read.

Walter Brueggemann

Jim Antal has written an inspired and inspiring call to arms—inspired by his fervent belief in God and inspiring to all those of faith who respond to his call. The book charts the damage humankind is causing to its planetary home and points to the many ways in which humankind can change its ways—indeed must—before the damage becomes irreversible. A most timely and important book!

Bevis Longstreth

There are gems throughout the book that inspire.. .. I’ve been working on these issues for decades, but there was still much to learn in these pages. Antal gave me new ways to talk about climate change with people who may be in denial. And, best of all, he helped me understand radical hope.

Friends Journal

Jim Antal shows how the church can engage the urgent moral crisis of climate change. This book will inspire both the courage and conviction people of faith need to provide the leadership necessary to realise God’s dream of a just world in which humanity is reconciled to all of creation.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

For years we’ve been waiting for a book that has the power to awaken communities of faith to their high calling: to lead the way in preserving the web of life and averting climate chaos. We’ve been waiting for a book that gives us straight talk about the climate crisis, faces the terrifying facts without flinching, and provides its readers with the moral grounding, motivation, and tools for faithful and effective action. We’ve been waiting for a book that, in challenging us to take action on climate, skillfully articulates our moral and ethical responsibility and offers a humble, brilliant, and provocative reflection on the nature of hope. Climate Church, Climate World is that book. It is a joy to welcome it into print.

Margaret Bullitt-Jonas

From the Foreword: This book is written with unusual authority, because for as long as there has been a serious climate movement in the United States, Jim Antal has been at the forefront. I have stood with him at a hundred demonstrations, languished with him in jail, sweated next to him in paddy wagons. I have listened to him preach the powerful good news—and bad news—about the energy and climate crises from pulpit after pulpit. And I’ve watched as his cheerful, insistent, relentlessly loving approach has allowed so many Americans to join in this fight. He is on the short list of heroes who have given their all.

Bill McKibben

Jim Antal embodies the moral imagination that we so desperately need in order to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis. His book invites us to imagine a church that puts its principles into action in the 21st century and offers a wealth of resources for people of faith who are ready to answer that call.

Tim DeChristopher

In his life and work Jim Antal has been a tireless Christian witness to the moral challenge of climate change. In this comprehensive book Jim brings together his compelling personal experience and his broad knowledge to assist other leaders in carrying on this great work. With his powerful prophetic voice he has done a great service to the cause of promoting climate awareness and climate justice.

Mary Evelyn Tucker

For far too many mainstream churches, climate change is still considered a topic too hot for Sunday mornings. And yet, as the Reverend Dr. Jim Antal writes in this learned, heartfelt, and prophetic epistle to American churches and people of faith everywhere, the climate crisis and the suffering it brings are the overriding physical and moral facts of the world that we as Christians are called to love and serve. Where, then, if not in our churches, must we engage this greatest of human crises? With candor, emotional honesty, and moral clarity, Antal offers a profound new vision for what it means to be a church, and a follower of Jesus, in the twenty-first century.

Wen Stephenson

Jim Antal is among the most knowledgeable and passionate advocates of creation care, and he captures the complete story in Climate Church, Climate World.

James Hansen

Even more than an environmental problem, climate change is humanity's greatest collective moral crisis, and no one understands that better than Reverend Jim Antal. He's borne witness to its test of our resolve from pulpits, in paddy wagons, and now through this book, which offers recipes for hope (and prescriptions for action) on every page. To people of faith—lay or clergy—who are seeking ways to engage on this great global challenge: Here is your guide.

Michael Brune

Jim Antal’s passion for eco-justice and his bold faith adhere in his emerging theological claim that faith communities have a new vocation: care for the Earth. This book breaks new ground in claiming that a faith not fully committed to the preservation of the planet loses its raison d’être.

Rev. John C. Dorhauer

People of faith have been charged to answer the call of environmental stewardship in the 21st century. Too often a theological fringe element has silenced the compassionate and caring faithful serving in faith communities across this nation. Jim Antal’s book is a profound answer to fringe and ethically suspect theological movements attempting to silence faith voices committed to creation care. This book is part manual, part theological reflection, and all Prophetic witness.

Otis Moss III

Jim Antal's Climate Church, Climate World arrives at the perfect, most- needed moment. Tears came as I read it—tears of relief and joy that the church had found its voice in this time of crisis. Jim's brave, resounding summons to his fellow Christians comes as marching orders for us all.

Joanna Macy

Jim Antal is not preaching to the choir. He is preaching to all of us for all of us, summoning us and the church to an urgent new calling—to heal a creation broken by the ravages of global warming and climate disruption. His inspiring book and the stories he tells lift us up and prepare us for the great moral challenge of our time.

James Gustave Speth

Antal argues that climate injustice is a force that amplifies every other social injustice, and that without a whole and restored earth we won’t achieve a whole and restorative society. In urging the church to more deeply consider its obligation in calling society to action, this book will help Christians, both congregationally and individually, act in response to climate change and maintain an outlook of Christ-centered hope while doing so.

Jim Wallis

After analyzing the history and social implications of climate change, Antal reimagines the role of church communities and their capacity to confront and resolve the problem. After each chapter throughout the book, there are discussion questions aimed at prompting readers to engage in their communities — through everything from Bible study to civil disobedience. Clearly, Antal’s purpose in writing is not simply to educate but to inspire readers’ hearts, heads and hands to “repurpose” the church, and reimagine its moral calling.

Chicago Tribune

Jim Antal reminds us that the climate crisis, while overwhelmingly frightening, recalls the church to its deepest vocation: incarnating the love that is God. The book describes a path forward, full of inspiration, scriptural grounding and science. It’s also a path that leads to a world of peace, joy, and a more hopeful future.

Richard Rohr

If you ever meet Jim Antal, your first thought will be, “This man has the energy of a dozen people wrapped up in one body.” You’ll see his brilliance, his enthusiasm, his focus, and his resilient determination. You’ll also see his faith. You’ll sense all of these qualities in Climate Church, Climate World. You will be drawn from well-written page to page, until you have to put the book down and join the movement to…quite literally…save the world. On top of being brilliant, energetic, and inspiring, Jim Antal is, in my opinion, 100% right, and his message is prophetic in the truest sense.

Brian D. McLaren

We must be honest enough to admit that religions originally acknowledged climate change with hesitation, even reluctance. Today, they embrace their responsibility in raising awareness about creation care. In this urgent vocation, Jim Antal has demonstrated unique leadership: proclaiming the gospel of the sacredness of God’s creation, promulgating the dire effects of global warming on the most vulnerable, as well as practicing what he preaches in church and society. This book is the fruit of mature discernment and extensive ministry.

John Chryssavgis

Antal braids science, testimony, and action plans into a strong tether between a planet sliding into climate disaster and a hope of creation restored. This book shows how we together can pull back from the brink. People of faith need to read this book—now!

Rev. Sharon E. Watkins

In Climate Church, Climate World, public theologian Jim Antal calls on people of faith to act courageously for the common good.. .. Antal’s book is an obvious choice for church book groups and seminary audiences. Its congregational focus also makes it worth considering as a textbook for college courses that explore the role of Christianity in social movements. Antal’s hope is that people of faith take from the book a zeal for climate activism, grounded in a clear sense of how God calls them to address climate change in their congregations and local communities. It will embolden faith leaders to address the ethical challenges of climate crisis with prophetic imagination. For academic readers, Antal’s book will enrich discussions of religious engagement in the public sphere around issues of social and environmental justice.

Reading Religion

Jim Antal’s passion for eco-justice and his bold faith adhere in his emerging theological claim that faith communities have a new vocation: care for the Earth. This book breaks new ground in claiming that a faith not fully committed to the preservation of the planet loses its raison d’être.

The Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer

After analyzing the history and social implications of climate change, Antal reimagines the role of church communities and their capacity to confront and resolve the problem. After each chapter throughout the book, there are discussion questions aimed at prompting readers to engage in their communities — through everything from Bible study to civil disobedience. Clearly, Antal’s purpose in writing is not simply to educate but to inspire readers’ hearts, heads and hands to “repurpose” the church, and reimagine its moral calling.

Chicago Tribune

For years we’ve been waiting for a book that has the power to awaken communities of faith to their high calling: to lead the way in preserving the web of life and averting climate chaos. We’ve been waiting for a book that gives us straight talk about the climate crisis, faces the terrifying facts without flinching, and provides its readers with the moral grounding, motivation, and tools for faithful and effective action. We’ve been waiting for a book that, in challenging us to take action on climate, skillfully articulates our moral and ethical responsibility and offers a humble, brilliant, and provocative reflection on the nature of hope. Climate Church, Climate World is that book. It is a joy to welcome it into print.

The Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas

People of faith have been charged to answer the call of environmental stewardship in the 21st century. Too often a theological fringe element has silenced the compassionate and caring faithful serving in faith communities across this nation.Jim Antal’s book is a profound answer to fringe and ethically suspect theological movements attempting to silence faith voices committed to creation care. This book is part manual, part theological reflection, and all Prophetic witness.

Otis Moss