Rev. Jim Antal Rallies Christians to Fight Climate Change

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 The book: Climate Church, Climate World (Rowman & Littlefield) argues that Christians have a moral imperative to fight climate change because of the havoc it wreaks on the world in all spheres: It exacerbates hunger, the refugee crisis, inequality, viruses, war, and more. Just as the church has addressed other moral challenges in the past, Rev. Jim Antal ’72 is calling for the church to play a key role in the enormous undertaking of righting the climate crisis so that future children can live more harmoniously on Earth. He expands the Golden Rule to encompass future generations and suggests new practices in worshipping, preaching, and witnessing to change the focus to include an awareness of God’s creation and preserving it.

The author: Rev. Jim Antal ’72 is a public theologian and serves as the national spokesman on climate change for the United Church of Christ.

Opening lines: “The world — each fragment as well as the whole — is a window into the love of God. Every moment we are given provides and opportunity to appreciate the gift of the world God so loves. As God’s children, we are entrusted with the responsibility to protect God’s creation.

            This book is for people of faith. I’ve written it for Christians, but I believe people of any faith perspective — as well as seekers and searchers — will find value in these pages. Likewise, I write as an American Christian, but the considerations of this book are not limited to an American audience.

            This book focuses on why and how the church can address the present climate crisis. It seeks to invite people of faith — together with their faith communities — to accept that God has called us to bear witness in such a time as this — a time when the continuity of God’s creation is in jeopardy. I suggest that the enormity of this moral crisis constitutes a theological emergency. To resolve this emergency, God is calling the church to initiate a moral intervention.  As the church engages this calling, it will undergo what Brian McLaren calls a spiritual migration. By repurposing our current social and economic systems the church will prompt humanity to transition to a new moral era that honors and sustains God’s gift of creation.”

Reviews: “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.” —Michael Brune, executive director of Sierra Club