Of Trees & Tradition
Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Jewish, Catholic,
and Protestant Wisdom on the Environment
edited by Michael B. Barkey, foreword by Fr. Robert A. Sirico
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Acton Institute, 2000
(125 pages; $10.00, paper)
reviewed by John Oliver
When the devil laughs these days, assuming he has an experience resembling mirth, it may be because of the success of one of his primary strategies—the politicization of everything. Politics is the pragmatic art of the possible, and hardly the ideal foundation on which a healthy society is built. And he must feel especially gleeful when the Christians of the world abandon our Tradition—the ideal foundation on which a healthy society is built—and instead choose to orient our lives around the axis of politics. We do it too easily and too often: We exchange the truth of God for a lie. Especially damaging is when a secular principle is dressed in religious clothing and displayed as representative of true religious tradition. Such is the malady of Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Wisdom on the Environment, published by the Acton Institute. It is economic determinism hiding behind the legitimacy of vestments.
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