Title: At Home in the Earth: Seeking an Earth-centred Spirituality
Author: Neil Darragh
Publisher: Accent Publications, Auckland
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: 0-9583454-3-0
Price: NZD25.00
Reviewed by: Richard Davis, Communications Advisor, Presbyterian Church and past Executive Officer of the Churches' Agency on Social Issues. He has published several articles on ecotheology.
Reviewed: January 2002
Related Websites:
 | Ecotheology Links from the Churches' Agency on Social Issues |
At Home in the Earth signals a maturing of ecotheology in Aotearoa. The days of simply stating environmental problems to a Christian audience are now over, as is the simplistic attribution of blame to Christianity and the behaviour of atomised individuals. Ecological understanding among Christians is becoming more sophisticated, but I fear that Christian readers still consider all ecotheology as useful and desirable. There is good and bad ecotheology and At Home in the Earth proved to be an eclectic mixture of both.
The main contribution of this book to New Zealand ecotheology is Darragh's constructivist approach, an attempt to build an Earth-centred spirituality from within the core idea of Catholic theology and practice. The methodology is pleasing since it shows that Christianity has the resources and tradition to deal with the ecological crisis. But this approach begs the question, of whether we need an ecotheology at all, not from a perspective of not caring about the earth, but rather from a sense that Christianity already contains the basis of a sustainable basis for living, if only it were understood and practiced. While coming from another perspective from Darragh, his book encourages me in my view that a Christian social ecology is possible from within mainstream theology.
In this work Darragh addresses many of the key concerns in ecotheology, such as anthropocentrism, intrinsic value, stewardship, sustainability and the role of the human; providing a useful introduction to these and other topics. He also introduces other topics that I have not seen before in this field, such as incarnation, Eucharist, the cosmic Christ and evolutionary Christology, but I could not always see the importance of these latter theological ideas to the development of an Earth-Spirituality.
Throughout the book there is a critique of ecologically damaging economic and public policies. For example, Darragh writes of the Earth that: "economic 'growth' is like a cancer that grows at the cost of the whole organism. The growth of the market economy is itself destructive of the larger and more important Earth economy." Importantly, Darragh avoids the mistake of equality of human blame for ecological destruction: "some but not all human beings are indeed destructive - these are the classes of people whose lifestyle are excessive in the use of resources and production of waste." These are important points in getting to grips with an ecologically sound human role.
Regrettably there are bizarre passages in this book that detract from its value for me. Here is one example: "Nor are humans the only intelligent and responsible beings of any kind within or beyond the Earth." Darragh does not say which other beings have moral capability, or what other beings exist in outer space. There are also several inconsistencies that show a little confusion. Darragh argues, "We may focus our attention particularly here on planet Earth since Earth is that part of creation to which we belong and within it is most practical for us to exercise care." But elsewhere he talks about the human settlement of outer space, and limiting our attention to our specific habitat risks the anthropocentrism that Darragh wishes to avoid.
One disappointment is that the book does not really relate much to the context of Aotearoa, a surprise after Darragh carefully describes this context in the prologue, and the fact he is one of New Zealand's leading contextual theologians, author of the popular Doing Theology Ourselves: A Guide to Research and Action (1995).
Overall, I find this a book a difficult and slow read. It is very dense and demands a close reading, but does not ultimately reward this level of commitment. It is published for a wide readership and at an affordable price, but the gap between the academic content and a popular style is not quite bridged.