Author: George Handley
Title: The Hope of Nature: Our Care for God’s Creation
Essays. Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2020.
Reviewed by Conor Hilton, March 21, 2020
Lots of great gems here from George Handley. The book largely seems aimed at an audience that is religious (Mormon/LDS specifically), invested in preserving/conserving nature, and somewhat skeptical of environmentalism. As I don’t need to be convinced of the value of environmental efforts, I found myself a little outside the target demographic for much of the book, BUT still found the insights and experiences that Handley shared valuable. Loads of compelling material here for engaging with other religious folks on issues surrounding the environment.
The final few chapters in the book resonated with me more than some of the previous ones, with compelling threads of repentance in the context of our relationship with Creation and some final thoughts on grace and joy. Also, loved some of the thoughts that to me seemed relevant to community work more broadly. Particularly, ones like this:
“The truth is, it is easier to criticize enemies than to articulate and work redemptively to achieve a good society that we hope to pass on to the future. A good society is not one that has finally gotten rid of the opposition; it is one that has learned how to make difference fruitful, which involves the work of listening, imagining, and even articulating others’ perception of the world. I wonder how well we are listening.” (247)
Lots to chew on here and to interrogate about my own relationship with the environment and my community more broadly. I’ll be thinking through how to live out this particular principle for quite some time.