How To Write Good

How To Write Good

by Frank L. Visco

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren't necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don't be redundant; don't more use words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Vote for policies

Here's another useful website that will help you choose who to vote for based on policies and not personalities:

Lovelock on the origins of the Gaia hypothesis

James Lovelock on Gaia: a final warning

Vision - Creation care issue

Vision: a Journal for Church and Theology is an Anabaptist journal available here.
Volume 9 Number 1 is devoted to 'Creation care' and is available here as a pdf. The article by Steve Bouma-Prediger is well worth checking out.

Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics

Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmental Ethics
Re-Reading Amos, Hosea, and First Isaiah
Hilary Marlow
Oxford University Press, 2009
978-0-19-956905-2
338pp +xvi




Academic tomes have a tendency to be boring, inaccessible to non-specialists, without cultural relevance beyond the ivory tower and have unaesthetic covers. This book defies the stereotype in every way. Despite being the product of a Cambridge PhD, under Katherine Dell, it is readable, accessible, and will have an impact within and without the academia - and has a great cover to boot!

Hilary Marlow has been associated with most British evangelical organisations. She is a director of Director of the John Ray Initiative, has been involved with  A Rocha for over a decade, until recently she was a Research Associate in Theology and Science at the Faraday Institute, has written for the Jubilee Trust  and Grove Books and is at present involved in a project with the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics based at Tyndale House, Cambridge. She has also found time to complete her PhD and this book is the product of that.

The first chapter takes an overview of creation in church history, it is a broad brush view but is full of insight - I made a long list of further avenues to explore as a result of it. She starts - rather predictably - with Lynn White Jr's critique before looking at some theological perspectives on creation. This stems from the early church with its Greek influences to Calvin via the Cappodocians and Aquinas. She mentions that Irenaeus sees Adam typologically, but I'm not certain that this is a true picture.  Tony Lane argues that 'Irenaeus's theology is undermined more than most others by the suggestion of a non-historical Adam' (Darwin Creation and the Fall p. 141). This, of course is a minor quibble. 

She draws upon a number of important secondary sources including Glacken, Harrison, McGrath, Santmire.

Chapter 2 takes the historical perspective on from the sixteenth century. She looks at the divide between history and nature. Von Rad and Eichrodt are singled out for their Hegelian influences which allows them to set up a dualism of nature and history. Following Brueggeman, Marlow agrees that this led to an abandonment and marginalisation of serious thinking about the creation in biblical theology.

Two theologians helped to reverse this trend: Bernhard Anderson and Claus Westermann. As a result many others challenged the setting up of history over creation. Theodore Hiebert, Ronald Simkins and William Brown an three that Marlow briefly focuses on. She rightly notes that these three have helped towards a corrective reading of the Old Testament.

The developoment of an ecological hermeneutic is the subject of chapter 3. Here Norman Habel's Earth Bible Project (EBP) is examined. Taking a cue from feminist theologies the EBP stands with the oppressed Earth in dialogue with the text.

The emphasis on methodology and the methodoogy itself is criticised. As Marlow points out Bouma-Preideger comes up with a similar but more biblically robust set of guidelines. Following Christopher J. H.  Wright's hermeutical triangle God (Israel/humanity and Land/ earth) she forms an ecological triangle: God at the apex and a base of humanity and the non-human creation. It is the interrelationship between these three vertices that are examined in the next three chapters. Three important questions are also posed (p. 111):

1. What understanding of the non-human creation does the text present
2. What assumptions are made about YHWH's relationship to the created world and how he acts in it?
3. What effect do the actions  and choices of human beings have on the non-human creation and vice versa?

Chapters  4-6 look at Amos, Hosea and Is 1-39 in light of these questions and the ecological triangle.  She provides a detailed exegesis and analysis of key passages from these prophets. In Amos the non-human creation plays an important role, 'the natural world engages in a "dialogue" with its creator' (p 157). In Hosea it has less of a role and the emphasis is on God and humanity, but this relationship when broken does have a marked effect on the earth.  Finally, in Is 1-39 there is a link between humanity, God and the rest of creation in that 'natural' disaster is a consequence of disobedience to God and this broken relationship is shown in metaphors and parables of the natural world.

The final chapter looks at the implications of the foregoing for an environmental ethic. Here she starts by providing a broad overview on using the Bible in ethics. The issue of how we move from the scriptures to any ethic is problematic. I was suprised to read a criticism of  Walter Kaiser, she writes 'His study is based on a high view of biblical authority, and this theological perspective colours his selection and interpretation of texts' (p. 248).  All theological perspectives are coloured, theology is never neutral. It left me wondering what is Marlow's view of the authority of scripture and how has that has shaped her choice of passages?

She then turns to environmental ethics in particular. She looks at some key issues; including: what is the value ascribed to the non-human creation? Is it intrinsic or instrumental? Is nature a stable entiry or in flux? and the tension between nature and culture.  She concludes that the prophets recognise instrumental value but also give the non-human creation a value that is greater than any utilitarian one. She does not address the issue of how anything can have intrinsic value,  unless it is value given to it by God - and in which case it is not intrinsic. For the other issues she sees an ambiguity in the prophets.

Few other books have examined the Old Testament in the light of the current environemtal issues. Two other books are by Cyril Rodd Glimpses of a Strange Land  (T&T Clark, 2001) which deals with some individual texts and Chris Wright's Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (IVP, 2004) which takes a broad brush approach. Marlow's book is an example of how to interpret scripture in the light of contemporary issues and how to understand contemporary issues in the light of scripture. It shows that we have not exhausted the scriptures in what it can say to  environmental ethics. As Marlow concludes:

'it is vital that the church be better informed of the rich contribution of its own scriptures to a positive understanding of the creation as a basis for raising awareness of environmental issues and promoting good practice amiong its own members and the wider community'.

I wholeheartedly agree.



Contents
Foreword by John Barton
Introduction
1: Creation in Church History
2: Nature Versus History: An Artificial Divide
3: Ecological Hermeneutics: Meaning and Method
4: Who Can But Prophesy? Creation Dialogue in the Book of Amos
5: The People do not Know: Covenantal Failure in the Book of Hosea
6: The Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts: YHWH, the People and the Land in Isaiah 1-39
7: The Old Testament Prophets and Environmental Ethics: A Dialogue

Publisher's website


Available in the UK from:
amazon.co.uk
eden
book depository

How to write an assignment

Assignment Writing Chart

Cornelius Hunter on a major cause of global warming: hot air

'[H]ot air emitted by evolutionists' is the cause of global warming, claims Cornelius Hunter. It  must be true he has a graph to prove it (above)!

Buy Nothing Day

But Nothing Dat

[HT Tony Jones]

Jubilee 2010

Jubilee from Jubilee on Vimeo.

Check out the jubilee 2010 website and the living jubilee blog

Christianity and the environment

Denis Alexander interviews Margot Hodson author of Cherishing the Earth.

Why should Christians care for the environment?

Harvard Reference Generator

This useful website (click here) will automatically provide references in the Harvard format:

This tool takes in the raw information - author, title, year of publication - and creates the reference in the correct form.

You can then highlight and copy these into your essays and reports.

John Calvin and the natural world

Davis A. Young's book John Calvin and the Natural World (University Press of America, 2007; ISBN 0761837132) is reviewed in PSCF by J W Haas and in Pro Rege by John Zwart [HT  Reformed Academic]

The Green Bible

There is now a Green Bible Apparently, it will:

equip and encourage people to see God's vision for creation and help them engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. With over 1,000 references to the earth in the Bible, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love, the Bible carries a powerful message for the earth.

There is an interesting review of it at First Things by Alan Jacobs.

Planetwise - a review

Planetwise
Dare to Care for God's World
IVP, 2008
156pp £7.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-251-6

Recent years have seen a proliferation of books on a Christian approach to environmental care. We have had Russell, the Hodgsons, White and Spencer, Berry and Bookless. Why the resurgence of interest? What is interesting is that most of these authors have imbibed a neocalvinist framework: creation, fall and redemption. Many via Tom Wright and his amplification of the three stage into a five part play. Such is the case of Bookless in this book.

Bookless was throwing away some rubbish while on holiday when he felt God spoke in an inner whisper to him 'How do you think I feel about what you are doing to my world?' This book is the result of careful thought about that revelation and shift in perspective. As he puts it: 'God spoke, creation groaned, and worship could never be the same again'.

Bookless is the National Director of A Rocha UK, a Christian environmental group, so this book is the result of thought and action. This is no armchair theorising.

He starts by utilising Tom Wright's five acts framework of Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus and the present future age. These form the first five chapters of the book. He writes in an engaging and helpful way. Though I would have liked to have seen more emphasis on the cultural mandate. His approach is very accessible and readable, each chapter ends with a three questions which aid reflection and discussion. The influence of another Wright - Christopher J. H. - is also evident here. Not only in the number of triangles but with the emphasis on land.

The remaining chapters, 6-9, all look have the title: 'Living it out: X as if creation matters'. Where X is discipleship, worship, lifestyle and mission. Here we see these important topics in the light of creation. He makes an important observation: 'Can you spot Christians by the cars that they drive (not just the the bumper stickers)...?' p.117. There are many wise practical and attainable ideas for how we can make our discipleship and lifestyle consistent with our beliefs and he manages to do it in a way that is not guilt inducing.

Unfortunately, there is no index, but there are three pages of end notes and two and a half pages of useful resources.

This is one of the best of the recent spate of green books. Highly recommended!

Book website

Available in the UK from:
IVP
amazon
book depository
eden books
wesley owen

Saving Planet Earth by Colin Russell - a review

Saving Planet Earth: A Christian Response

Colin A. Russell

Authentic Media

x + 133pp, £8.99, pbk

ISBN 9781850787716

Colin Russell has produced an interesting and accessible book on a Christian response to the environmental crisis. The great strength of the book is that it places the present environmental crisis within a historical context. Pollution is not a new problem. One problem with books that deal with environmental problems is that they can date very quickly. Science changes, populations increase and decrease (occasionally) and the data can become dated. Russell in looking at historical contexts has managed to get round this problem, history rarely gets out of date!

In nine short chapters he provides an overview of the problems and some of the possible responses we can make as Christians. He starts with looking at our stumbling blocks to Christian involvement; these are: the subject is depressing, difficult, demeaning and even dangerous. By dangerous he means that some maintain that it's a dangerous distraction, though Russell maintains that it might not be the heart of the gospel though it is part of the gospel.

He then looks at how special a place the earth is, a place designed for human life and yet a place spoiled by sin. The polluted planet is examined in more detail in the next chapter. Modern concern goes back to the 1960s, but Russell places this all in historical perspective looking at land, water and air pollution. from biblical times onward. 'A ravaged planet' is the topic of chapter 4. Waste, destruction of habitats and hence species, deforestation and overpopulation are all briefly dealt with. 'The big one', climate change, gets a chapter to itself. It is interesting to see how this topic has come to the fore in recent Christian discussions on the environment.

From chapter 6 onwards we are offered some hope. It is God's earth and he cares for it, he sustains the whole of creation. In chapter 7 our role as stewards is examined. This has been called the 'default position' for Christians, I would have liked to have seen some discussion on the weaknesses of this position. If we are stewards what then? How does stewardship prescribe how we might respond? What does it mean, for example, for population control?

The earth belonging to God and we being its stewards are two good reasons for Christians to care for the planet, but Russell adds a third. And one that is often neglected in other similar discussions: the call to mission. This missional aspect is seen in care for the poor. The needs of the poor can be helped by environmental care. Christian mission without environmental care is inadequate.

Overall this is an excellent introductory primer. A great book for those beginning to get interested in a more greener Christianity.

Book wesbite

Other reviews:
David Thistlewaite

Ian Hore-Lacy

Available in the UK from
amazon
wesley owen
eden books

Enviromental Stewardship (ed. R. J. Berry) - a review

Environmental Stewardship
Critical Perspectives - Past and Present
edited by R. J. Berry
T&TClark International
ISBN 9780567030184
xii+348
£39.99



Over two hundred years ago a British clergyman published a book that has had unprecedented effects. Its effect on Charles Darwin was so profound that it provided the seed thoughts for his theory of natural selection. It was perhaps the first doomsday-scenario environmental book to be written. It was Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). Malthus (1766-1834) was the first to spell out the apparently inevitable consequence of a geometric growth in population and an arithmetic growth in food supply. Survival meant a reduction in population growth. The same idea as taken up in the 1970s by the think tank the Club of Rome in their book The Limits to Growth. The book was based on computer models; their conclusions were similar to Malthus's: a limit to the population growth is required or we are on an apocalyptic collision course.

Less than a decade previously in 1962, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published. the book brought attention the problems of pesticides such as DDT in the food chain. This marked the beginning in the rise of an environmental awareness or consciousness. In the nineties there were signs that such environmental enthusiasm was beginning to wane - at least if membership numbers of environmental pressure groups were any indication. Now with climate change a major issue it seems we are all greens.

Christians cannot be culture transformers and shapers if they follow such cultural ebbs and flows. We have a responsibility to God's good creation irrespective if it fashionable to be green or not. Unfortunately, the shadow of Lynn White's seminal paper 'The historical roots of our ecologic crisis' Science 155 (10 March 1967) has loomed large over Christian discussion of the environment. Until recently most Christian writing has been to defend Christianity against the accusation of Lyn White that Christianity with its emphasis on dominion has been to blame for the environmental crisis. The debate, however, must move on. And that is exactly what these essays do. Christianity is not merely environmentally benign but it has something vital to contribute to a robust theocentric environmental ethic. An ethic that avoids the excesses of anthropic approaches and the sloppy mysticism of biocentric approaches.

The role of humans as stewards is a crucial issue and it is this that volume, Environmental Stewardship, seeks to address. Stewardship has been the 'default position' for most Christians. However, not many stop to consider it and examine its implications. What does it mean to be a steward? As Gandalf once said we are all stewards now. But is stewardship dominion and technological imperialism by another name?

This book was conceived at the 2000 consultation on 'environmental stewardship' organised by the John Ray Institute at St George's House, Windsor Castle. Four of the papers delivered there are included here - but this is far more than the proceedings of a conference. The list of authors is truly impressive - though there are some notable omissions Steven Bouma-Prediger, Celia Deane Drummond, Loren Wilkinson, Lukas Vischer, Tim Cooper are the ones that immediately spring to mind. Most of the papers were written specifically for this volume, some are (revised) reprints from elsewhere.

The book is split into six parts with an introduction by Sam Berry. Berry's introduction is clear, precise and provides an excellent overview. Part I looks at the history of the idea with two excellent essays by Peter Harrison and Richard Bauckham - both for me were the highlights of the book.

Part II looked at some criticisms and expositions of stewardship. Despite being the default position for many stewardship hasn't escaped criticism. Critics include Clare Palmer (ch 5). Her objections include:

• There is no 'biblical concept of stewardship of nature' (p 65) - 'even if there were, it would only represent one view of many displayed in biblical writing' (p 65)
• It has the problem of accommodating God's action or presence in the world. God becomes an absentee landlord (this is also an accusation made by Matthew Fox) (p. 68)
• It originates in a society based on slavery, a represents an autocratic form of government. It is thus unsuitable for modern society (p. 70)
• It assumes that humanity is separated from the rest of creation. (p 70)
• It may lead to the assumption that the natural world is a resource that humans are in control of. (p 70) (p 72) This attitude is in a feudal perception of stewardship (p 72)
• In the light of evolution this metaphysical set apartness is impossible to justify (p 71) [Might not the same also be said on being the image bearers of God?]
• It is influenced by the idea that the eath needs to be managed because it is fallen and imperfect (p 71). The earth existed for millions of years without humans.
• Stewardship is an anthropocentric ethic, which considers it to be best for humans and the natural world to be it to be managed by humans. (p 73)
• Is non-theistic stewardship exercised on behalf of the planet? (p 74)
• It is un-ecological (p 75)

Many of these concerns are directly addressed by Attfield in the next essay. The agnostic James Lovelock (ch 9) also dislikes the stewardship model, he senses that it is ‘an imperial concept that assumes an automatic superiority invested in those in charge’ (p 108), he prefers a partnership model - a partnership with the Earth/ Gaia. Ruth Page also proposes a similar model, but from a theistic perspective, preferring to call it ‘fellowship with creation’ (ch 8). The advantage of such approach is that it avoids the anthropocentrism that can accompany stewardship but the danger is that it can slip into pan(en)theism.

In Part III, Consolidation, Douglas Hall makes an excellent point, which does much to alleviate many concerns of stewardship - he writes: ‘The steward is different [from the rest of creation], but the steward is also the same. Like all the others, the steward is recipient of that which can never be his or hers to own’ (p. 143). Cal de Witt contends, rightly, that stewardship must be ‘highly interactive and dynamic’ (p150). He sees it involving an engagement with science, ethics and praxis. This raises the question why not also with religion, history, law and so on? He then advocates a two-books approach. I have reservations about such a framework/metaphor - why, for example, only two books? Other essays in this section look at stewardship in the context of evolutionary theory. Christopher Southgate sees stewardship - in a limited way - as a part of a matrix of our relationship with the rest of creation. Larry Rasmussen sees it as one symbol among others including dominion, partner and priest

In Part IV, Applications, Susan Power Bratton examines the implications of stewardship for marine systems by extending the sabbath and jubilee principles to include them. Michael Northcott applies it to the soil and agriculture. Crispin Ticknell opens his essay with a great statement: ‘Environment is the stuff of religion, and religion is the stuff of the environment’ (p 220). He goes on to clarify what he means but it seems his view of religion is more mystical than a robust earthy Christianity. Derek Osborn makes a valid plea to slay the four giants of unsustainability: the ideas that growth, efficiency, money and the present all come first.

Part V, Relevance/ Ways forward, may have been mis-titled as I saw little to take the discussion forward in these articles. There is little attention paid to how a stewardship model might help say climate change or deforestation or further avenues for philosophical or even theological exploration. Zizioulas advocates seeing humans as priests of creation but there is no discussion as to what this model could add to a stewardship view, or even if it is compatible with it. The highlight in this section for me is Murray Rae’s paper originally presented at the St George’s House consultation. Rae covers much ground including examining other models that have been proposed. It provides a good summary of the many approaches mentioned elsewhere in this volume.

Part VI - by far the shortest has a three-page conclusion by John Houghton. The book concludes with a 21-page bibliography and a 10-page index.

This is an excellent compilation of some of the best material available on stewardship. Berry has a done a great service in pulling together these articles. Taking stewardship as the default position is now no longer an option - here are the resources to examine closely the issue. It seems to be that the malleable concept of stewardship has taken a bit of battering in recent decades but it has come out in better shape and though it can no longer be seen as the panacea for a Christian approach to the environment it certainly seem to be the best model or metaphor to work from.


Publisher's website

Available in the UK from:
amazon
book depository
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The Earth Charter Initiative