Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man

Book Description

This work from one of the world's leading Islamic thinkers is a spiritual tour de force which explores the relationship between the human being and nature as found in many religious traditions, particularly its Sufi dimension. The author stresses the importance of a greater awareness of the origins of both the human being and nature as a means of righting the imbalance that exists in our deepest selves and in our environment.

Customer Reviews:

Higher to the Lower - Modern Man's Problems.......2006-11-30

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, noted Islamic scholar and philosopher, has produced an outstanding text on modern man's spiritual crises. Now, I may disagree on some points here and there, and as a Christian, I think Islam has some theological problems; but, with that said and out of the way, Nasr's book gets past any polemics with Christians and Jews, and while differences persists, shows that in a modern scientific and postmodern world, that secular society is more concerned with taking the higher forms of life and insists on devaluing humakind to the lower forms of life 9nature). Man becomes nothing but an animal, with no direction. He (she) has lost what they were truly meant to be. Nasr forcefully argues his position, drawing on mostly Sufi Islamic teachings(but other traditions as well) to not only show that this modern world has the priority backwards, but there are answers to fix the problem. There are a lot Christains and other devoute people of faith can agree with and find insightful in this book.

Ecology, Modern Man, and Spiritual Crisis........2002-08-24

In this short book, Seyyed Hossein Nasr takes a look at the relationship between man and nature and the spiritual crisis that inflicts modern man in his "war against nature". In examining ecological crisis, war, and industrial failure, Nasr argues that modern science has lost touch with the sacred in its applications. Rather than being rooted in the unified outlook of traditional man along with his religious traditions, modern man sees the world through the eyes of a crass materialism, scientism, and positivism. It is this lack of worldview which Nasr believes is the spiritual crisis behind the troubled relationship between man and nature. Nasr begins by examining this problem and explaining how a base scientism has attempted to uproot the understanding of traditional man. In making this comparison, Nasr looks at the alternative philosophies of science, beginning with the positivists and comparing them to the viewpoints of various religious philosophers on the question of science. Here it is necessary to understand the limitations of science, particularly as they apply to its application, which is at the root of the ecological crisis in modern man. Next, Nasr turns to the historical roots of science in Greek and Christian philosophy and theology. Nasr argues that much of the problem can be found in the neglect to emphasize these historical roots rather than simply glorify modern science. By placing science within its historical framework, it is possible to see exactly how the crisis has come about. Nasr argues that in particular, the breakdown of the Christian tradition and the secularization of science is at fault. Next, Nasr turns to the metaphysical principles that underlie man's understanding of nature. In particular, Nasr examines those principles as expounded in the traditions of the world's great religions: Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, particularly with reference to Sufism. Finally, Nasr seeks to explain how the retrieval of this traditional understanding of nature can be applied to the modern situation and crisis. The book concludes with a discussion of what Nasr believes to be the errors of such modern theories and notions as that of evolution. All in all, this book is an interesting discussion of the shifting relationship between man and nature, and it offers hope for the alleviation of spiritual crisis by returning to the traditions within the world's religions.

Profound and insightful.......2000-04-08

Seyyed Nasr, takes the reader through history and causes of the descralization of nature in the west and the resultant ecological crisis we face today. He shows how the west via the divorce of science from spirit has wrecked havoc on our planet. And also how the Christian faith helped accelerate this process when it removed elements of its metaphysical doctrines that kept nature as a part of the divine. In addition he elucidates how some of the philosophical schools of thought help widen the schism between man, nature and the divine. He closes with a chapter what can be done to correct the problem via the resacralization of nature as a reflection of the Creator.

Seyyed Nasr main thrust in correcting Christianity's loss of sapiential wisdom or gnosis is to turn to the eastern traditions like Tantra or Taoist alchemy. However considering the animosity that mainstream churches have towards the other spiritual traditions this is not likely to occur for a number of reasons.
1) The Christians who've adopted other methods are considered marginal at best, heretics at worst. Just try promoting yoga at your local highschool and see what happens. A current example would be Thomas Merton. He came closet to what Seyyed Nasr is asking. Still to many Christians he is considered an apostate.
2) Christianity in many instances has been reduced to down to after life fire insurance policy and God being a banker and greengrocer to the elect. Just get 'saved' and thats it.
3) Christian intellectual tradition is so bad nowadays as to be non-existent. So bad it took a devout Moslem to write about what should have been obvious to any Christian leader with a functioning brain.
4)To recreate a gnosis within Christianity it would take man whose a "finished student" of say Tantra and had the intellectual capacity and church authority to integrate these teachings in a seemless manner. Plus establish a living transimission. No small task.

What I even more amazing is that this book was first written in 1967 and is better than most of the recent writings on this problem including: Ken Wilbers Sense and Soul and Robert Ornstein's 'The AxeMakers Gift".

Overall it is a very informative and a easy read that one can keep comming back to and learning something new.

If you like E.F. Schumacher, Huston Smith, Gregory Bateson, Jacob Needleman, you will enjoy this book. I would also include anyone who is concerned about what is happening in the world via the loss of faith, runaway technology and destruction of the planet we live upon.

Book Description

What is the bond between the human psyche and the living planet that nurtured us, and all of life, into existence? What is the link between our own mental health and the health of the greater biosphere?

In this "bold, ambitious, philosophical essay" (Publishers Weekly), historian and cultural critic Roszak explores the relationships between psychology, ecology, and new scientific insights into systems in nature. Drawing on our understanding of the evolutionary, self-organizing universe, Roszak illuminates our rootedness in the greater web of life and explores the relationship between our own sanity and the larger-than-human world. The Voice of the Earth seeks to bridge the centuries-old split between the psychological and the ecological with a paradigm which sees the needs of the planet and the needs of the person as a continuum. The Earth's cry for rescue from the punishing weight of the industrial system we have created is our own cry for a scale and quality of life that will free us to become whole and healthy.

This second edition contains a new afterword by the author.

Customer Reviews:

The Voice of the Earth Is Desperately Calling Us.......2005-05-10

This book could easily be seen as one of the most profound wake-up calls for humanity published for the 21st century! This is the stage in our evolution that we'll either continue on our destructive, insane, parasitic and unconscious collective death-wish to oblivion, or we'll heed the loud call heard here to become aware of our life-sustaining, interconnectedness to all life and start to heal our riff not only amongst ourselves, but more importantly, with Earth. To give this outstanding book a 5-star rating is not enough- it deserves 10-stars!

For those who are not familiar with *Ecopsychology*, there is a good description and comparison of it to human-only psychology in the Epilog of this monumental work:

"Just as it has been the goal of previous therapies to recover the contents of the unconscious, so the goal of ecopsychology is to awaken the inherent sense of environmental reciprocity that lies within the ecological unconscious. Other therapies seek to heal the alienation between person to person, person and family, person and society. Ecopsychology seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment." (p 320)

The current state of affairs in the human relationship with the earth is not only ambivalent and dismissive, it is destructive, parasitic and cancerous, and yet, Planet Earth is our only life-support system- our very reason for existence. One might then be inclined to see our current relationship with our home as outright insanity. And indeed, it is! "If we could assume the viewpoint of nonhuman nature, what passes for sane behavior in our social affairs might seem madness." (Preface, p 13) And, of course, our "social affairs", disregarding our relationship to Earth, is riff with pathology and psychosis.

Earth's voice is simply stated in: "The Earth's cry for rescue from the punishing weight of the industrial system we have created is our own cry for a scale and quality of life that will free each of us to become the complete person we were born to be." (p 14)

From the philosopher Mary Midgley in her book, "Beast and Man...": "[she]...finds the doctrinaire dismissal of the physical and biological worlds to be `the really monstrous thing about Existentialism.'" and, "...as if the world contained only dead matter (things) on the one hand and fully rational, educated, adult human beings on the other-as if there were no other life-forms. ...I am sure, not to the removal of God, but to this contemptuous dismissal of the biosphere-plants, animals, and children. Life shrinks to a few urban rooms; no wonder it becomes absurd." (p 66) Indeed.

With science leading us to an awareness of the dynamics of life and Earth's self-regulating life-support systems, we have: "If human conduct were governed by reason alone, what science has taught us about the great ecological patterns and cycles of the planet might be enough to reform our bad environmental habits." (p 95)

This, then leads us to the very fascinating chapter 5: "Anima Mundi: The Search For Gaia- The Many Faces of Mother Earth". In the Anima Mundi, earlier human civilizations felt the wonder and presence of Earth's majestic powers, so when did humanity start to loose it's sense of awe and respect for Earth? Perhaps the advent of citification, social class structures, and certainly, industrialization might have been that point. We became fixated on blinding human concocted regimes apart from the workings and acknowledgement of Nature.

In Part Three- "Ecology" (p 213), there is: "The New Cosmology and our deepening study of ordered complexity provide the raw intellectual material for a new understanding of human connectedness with nature. In time, with enough help from artists and visionary philosophers, this body of fact and theory may mature into an ecologically grounded form of animism. We will find ourselves once again on speaking terms with nature. Within this greater environmental context, sanity and madness take on new meanings."

We will hopefully begin to understand that: "Industrialism, with it's rapacious use of the environment as either raw material or dumping ground, has further entrenched the city's alienation from nature." (p 220)

Therefore, "...the environmental movement is trying to teach us that both economics and ethics must be contained within an ecological context." (p 248) This then, leads to a sane, life-enhancing, and rewarding human existence.

One could go on and on relating the plethora of thought provoking lines found all through this masterpiece of a call to education, realization, and return to sanity in our relation-ship with Earth, but that would be burdensome for a review and this is possibly too long as it is. I highly recommend this book to everyone on the planet, especially to industry, government, and all religious orders.

Elegant exploration of contempory potential for eco-sanity.......2004-03-05

I re-read this book every few years, but it's only recently that I've come to appreciate Roszak's "exploration of ecopsychology" as a profound assessment of our "biospheric emergency" and a sure prescription for deep healing. In particular, his discussion of "plenitude" (evoking Mumford here), Roszak provides an elegant alternative to our current fascination with mindless surfeit.

The Principles of Ecospychology are sketched in an Epilogue, rooted in the assertion that "the person is anchored within a greater, universal identity" than that which has been presented in earlier psychologies. Here the goal is to "awaken the sense of environmental reciprocity that lies within the ecological unconscious. Other therapies seek to heal the alienation between person and person, person and family, person and society. Ecopsycholgy seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment."

A very useful appendix, "God and Modern Cosmology," provides an annotated bibliography for continued study of the growing convergence between science and religion.

A serious transcendental address of clashing ideologies.......2002-04-11

The Voice Of The Earth: An Exploration Of Ecopsychology by Theodore Roszak is a compelling and thoughtful exploration of the interconnection between psychology, ecology, science, and nature. Individual chapters address such issues as the true essence of mother earth/Gaia, Psychology vs. Cosmology vs. Ecology, and much more in this serious transcendental address of clashing ideologies of the planet we know best. The Voice Of The Earth is strongly recommended for readers with an interest in the philosophy of nature and the impact of human psychology upon the ecological environmental.

A very hopeful and exciting book.......2002-03-05

In its first edition this was one of the best books of the decade, for me. One of his main arguments is that for about three hundred years the main political agenda in the West was the struggle for democracy, freedoms, political equality. That struggle continues in the rest of the world, but in the West a new struggle is emerging, which will dominate society and politics for the coming centuries. This is the struggle for personal meaning: now that we have affluence and rights, we are turning to what makes our lives worth living.

He quotes an early and halting expression of the struggle for political rights from the Putney Debates, in the English Civil War (mid 1600s) - he has beautiful quotes from this. This somewhat incoherent desire for democracy, expressed by lower class people, was reviled by many educated people; but 100 years later the intelligentsia adopted its agenda in the American, French Revolutions etc. Now, he says, the Recovery Movement and similar expressions of desire for personal growth are reviled by many educated people as vulgar 'me first' or 'I'm a victim' self obsessions. But he says this longing for personal growth is a powerful force that will change our societies.

There is much more - his argument that psychotherapy is an urban movement, but that we can never heal ourselves until we reconnect with nature. Or his explanation of the anthropic principle - and his scepticism about the role of random factors in evolution - both of which suggest at least that we should feel more at home in our universe, and not imagine we humans are merely insignificant, randomly generated accidents. Whether he's right about the this I don't know, but it's sure encouraging to read it. There's plenty of food for thought and hope in this book. A good book to read with it is Robert Wright's Non Zero.

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excellent in every way

Excellent essays

Stimulative reading

An EXCELLENT read.....

In Search of Nature
Edward O. Wilson
Manufacturer: Island Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Naturalist

On Human Nature

The Diversity of Life

The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth

Biophilia

ASIN: 155963216X

Amazon.com

Biologist Edward O. Wilson has been observing humans and nature in a career in biology that spans more than four decades. For the last 10 years or so, he has labored to alert us to the dangers we face due to the decline in the "diversity of life, which we are so recklessly diminishing through species extinction." The essays in In Search of Nature range widely. He gives us tales of nature's boundless variety with creatures like the reservoir ant and the cookie cutter shark and with a discussion of the importance of taxonomy. In the final essay, "Is Humanity Suicidal?" he returns to the topic that seems to be most on his mind: mankind's assault on the world of nature.

Book Description

Perhaps more than any other scientist of our century, Edward O. Wilson has scrutinized animals in their natural settings, tweezing out the dynamics of their social organization, their relationship with their environments, and their behavior, not only for what it tells us about the animals themselves, but for what it can tell us about human nature and our own behavior. He has brought the fascinating and sometimes surprising results of these studies to general readers through a remarkable collection of books, including The Diversity of Life, The Ants, On Human Nature, and Sociobiology. The grace and precision with which he writes of seemingly complex topics has earned him two Pulitzer prizes, and the admiration of scientists and general readers around the world.

In Search of Nature presents for the first time a collection of the seminal short writings of Edward O. Wilson, addressing in brief and eminently readable form the themes that have actively engaged this remarkable intellect throughout his career.

"The central theme of the essays is that wild nature and human nature are closely interwoven. I argue that the only way to make complete sense of either is by examining both closely and together as products of evolution.... Human behavior is seen not just as the product of recorded history, ten thousand years recent, but of deep history, the combined genetic and cultural changes that created humanity over hundreds of thousands of years. We need this longer view, I believe, not only to understand our species, but more firmly to secure its future.

The book is composed of three sections. "Animal Nature, Human Nature" ranges from serpents to sharks to sociality in ants. It asks how and why the universal aversion to snakes might have evolved in humans and primates, marvels at the diversity of the world's 350 species of shark and how their adaptive success has affected our conception of the world, and admonishes us to "be careful of little lives"-to see in the construction of insect social systems "another grand experiment in evolution for our delectation.

"The Patterns of Nature" probes at the foundation of sociobiology, asking what is the underlying genetic basis of social behavior, and what that means for the future of the human species. Beginning with altruism and aggression, the two poles of behavior, these essays describe how science, like art, adds new information to the accumulated wisdom, establishing new patterns of explanation and inquiry. In "The Bird of Paradise: The Hunter and the Poet," the analytic and synthetic impulses-exemplified in the sciences and the humanities-are called upon to give full definition to the human prospect.

"Nature's Abundance" celebrates biodiversity, explaining its fundamental importance to the continued existence of humanity. From "The Little Things That Run the World"-invertebrate species that make life possible for everyone and everything else-to the emergent belief of many scientists in the human species' possible innate affinity for other living things, known as biophilia, Wilson sets forth clear and compelling reasons why humans should concern themselves with species loss. "Is Humanity Suicidal?" compares the environmentalist's view with that of the exemptionalist, who holds that since humankind is transcendent in intelligence and spirit, our species must have been released from the iron laws of ecology that bind all other species. Not without optimism, Wilson concludes that we are smart enough and have time enough to avoid an environmental catastrophe of civilization-threatening dimensions-if we are willing both to redirect our science and technology and to reconsider our self-image as a species.

In Search of Nature is a lively and accessible introduction to the writings of one of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century. Imaginatively illustrated by noted artist Laura Southworth, it is a book all readers will treasure.

Customer Reviews:

excellent in every way.......2004-02-20

Among all of E.O. Wilson's spectacular books, this one is one of my favorites - not just for the substantial content - but for one of the best cover-designed and illustrated books I have ever seen.

Everything about this book is top notch and all who were involved should be applauded.

This book is an enduring collection of ideas expressed with lucidity and wisdom.

Bravo.

Excellent essays.......2003-11-22

I was first introduced to E.O. Wilson when I went on a butterfly count a few years ago. As we were looking for butterflies and counting what we saw, the count leader (who is an incredibly smart naturalist) made a passing refernce to E.O. Wilson. That day I came home and got onto Amazon to find out more. This was the first book I came across and I'm so glad I did. It is filled with about 12 essays on different topics in nature. They're broken down into three groups:
Animal Nature, Human Nature (In the Company of Ants is one of these)
The Patterns of Nature (The Bird of Paradise: Hunter and Poet is one of these)
Nature's Abundance (The Little things that run the world is one of these)

The writing style is easy to read, fun, interesting - I learned a lot reading the essays but also just found the reading fun. I love how Wilson pulls back the stories to ideas/concepts that are relevant to us so we can put things in perspective. Great book! Any nature lover would enjoy it

Stimulative reading.......2002-08-28

This book is not as provocative as 'On human nature'. The writing is not as combative, although it has many of the same themes :
- human aggression (he does not agree with Konrad Lorenz - even aggression evolves rapidly - and Erich Fromm - humanity is not suicidal -)
- the fallacy of ethics (human nature is to a large extent the heritage of a Pleistocene hunter-gatherer existance)
- the place of mankind in Gaia (the totality of Life on Earth). He argues clearly that if human beings were to disappear, the world would go on little changed and would heal itself from the damage inflicted by mankind. The only necessary animals,for Gaia and also for the human species, are the invertebrates.
Perhaps the most controversial point of the book are his arguments in defence of racial differences in the human populations, based on genetic components. But as always with E. O. Wilson, his argumentation is based on solid research and clear thinking.

An EXCELLENT read............2002-06-21

The author has a very easy to read style. It is very succinct and eloquent. If you love nature, you will love this book.

The chapter "In the company of ants" is probably one of the best chapters [of any book] that I have ever read. I found the hierarchal structure of the leaf-cutter ants very intriguing. What marvellous little creatures! I'll never look at an ant the same way again. Here's a little snippet for you:

"Watch where you step. Be careful of little lives. Feed them crumbs of coffeecake. They also like bits of tuna and whipped cream. Get a magnifying glass. Watch them closely. And you will be as close as any person may ever come to seeing social life as it might evolve on another planet."

I also loved three other chapters entitled, "Humanity seen from a distance", "The little things that run the world" and the final chapter, "Is humanity suicidal?". Other interesting chapters are about snakes, or rather serpents, sharks, altruism & aggression, etc. The essence of the book is really as the title suggests, "in search of nature".

Customer Reviews:

Pre-Order His Lastest, This One is Dated.......2007-07-15

I respect Michael Dowd very much, and I have for some time been following a number of authors who bring religion into play as a force for what Paul Goodman called Humanitas. I certainly do recommend this book, but more so, his forthcoming book that I link to below, along with others that I
have in my library that have impressed (I list only the religious, there is another whole list on ecological economics and natural capitalism, and another on the extremist Republican war against science (I am estranged moderate Republican)).

Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World
Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life
Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik
Left Hand of God, The: Healing America's Political and Spiritual Crisis
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror
Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right
Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom
Stand For Something: The Battle for America's Soul

Disappointing.......2003-04-01

I read this book to determine if Dowd should come share The Great Story at my church, as he is in the habit of doing around the U.S. Dowd writes with a profound mixture of poetry and prose and philosophy. He uses many great quotes from a wide dispersal of fields to support his key contentions: that we need a new cosmology to describe our relationship to God and the planet. I appreciated many of the thoughts of those quoted, and some of Dowd's thoughts on the rethinking of who we are in the cosmos: we are the consciousness of the earth, the only part of the earth capable of self-reflection.

I wish he had pursued this line of thinking more. I was excited about this book, hoping for a look deep into biological evolution, and how it can show for us the nature of God in Jesus, as He created this very process. There is very little material out there about biological evolution as it relates to Christianity, and even less on how we can use it as devotion, teaching about who God is.

But unfortunately, after a promising start Dowd begins to develop more an understanding of evolution in the general sense- a common mistake of laymen, confusing the specific process of biological evolution with the larger word "evolution", describing a change or progression. Indeed, biological evolution is specifically not positive progression, but simply change, in continuous adaptation, as Stephen Jay Gould so convincingly shows us. Dowd however runs with the idea of evolution in a more metaphorical manner, suggesting that our ideas and understanding of who God calls us to be in relation to the earth need to change, become better, and "evolve". In doing this he relies on the common interpretation of scripture as a "schoolhouse of faith"- certainly a very helpful and acceptable exegesis of the Old and New Testament, but causing great confusion when combined with the idea that we are continuously philosophically evolving. For at that point, Dowd would call us to go beyond what we find in the Bible, to something better, while still not denying the Bible (in his words), for it is still our foundation, just as the Old Testament was the foundation for the New. It becomes then a clever way of denial of the truths in the Bible.

By the end of the book, Dowd is advocating that we are all part of God, and that God is all things. He moves from Panentheism (God in all things) to Pantheism, and from ecumenicalism to universalism. All ways are equally valid ways to God, for God is in all things, and all moments and places are God- we just need to see that. Such beliefs are not Christianity. Sadly, rather than using Christian beliefs and scriptures to bring us to a new understanding of what those beliefs and scriptures say, it seems more that Dowd seeks to use the beliefs and scriptures to prove his own points, as if he knows that there is a certain segment of society that will not believe what he has to say unless he uses these instruments. And so he subtly changes the meanings of some quotes- while Paul calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, Dowd calls us to *renew* our minds. While Athanasius would say "Christ became human that we might become divine.", Dowd quotes him as saying, "Christ became human that we might become God." There's a cosmos of difference in those two words. In the end Dowd seems much more comfortable with the Gospel of Thomas than with the actual Gospels, and indeed ends up quoting Thomas.

There is that to be said for this book- it gave me new insights, and provided me with a new cosmology, of thinking of myself more fully part of this planet, the thinking part, and not wholly separate. But Dowd goes too far off into netherworlds of belief and science to be all that his writing could be.

COSMOLOGY: IT BRINGS CHRIST ALIVE IN ALL BEINGS.......2002-09-20

Michael Dowd wrote this book in exceptionally clear prose with dozens of biblical quotes and hundreds of references and quotes from world class authors who teach and preach the sacred Paschal Mystery as it is present in all of nature. We're challenged not to be environmentalists, although this comes through as a likely action out of this new vision, but to be embrace Christ in all of His creation and to continue that creation in everything we touch. We are His hands and feet and continue to redeem the earth and all of nature (the whole of cosmology) in Him and through Him. The Rev. Dowd speaks from his heart and has built into this book many rich devotions and prayers as well as meditations that can literally cause a spiritual transformation in anyone so open to seeing Christ in a new light. This book is something that any post modernist or Christian naysayer could easily live with and grow from.

Our prayer group used Michael's book for three months as our main teaching source for 'cosmology and a critical new source of modern Jesus theology.' No one ever got tired of reading his inspiring words and rich concepts of this new Jesus cosmology.
Michael turns traditional Christian theology on its ear and, without once disturbing the core truths of Christianity, he gives them an essentially new set of clothes and a much more disturbing kind of challenge to live our Christianity in all parts of our life and in all we see and do in the this world of splendor, death, suffering, joy, goodness and core freedoms in Christ Jesus.

I am sorry to see that this excellent book is out of print. It deserves to have greater readership and to become a best seller.

Very good.......2000-09-29

The author elegantly weaves scripture, cosmology, and the Universe together as only a master storyteller can. This is a story sprung from the heart of humanity.

Earthspirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological..........2000-06-15

Michael Dowd has written a book that introduces one to many of the current day concepts in cosmology. He looks to the first point of humans being able to view the earth from outer space as a turning point in our view of our place in creation. He presents this information in an easy to understand format and includes many quotes to emphasize his points. The quotes are from authors in all walks of life and prompt one to think about the subject. By the end of the book, Dowd will have you seeing our natural environment in a new light and relating it to Christianity.

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Treats the solar system as a unified whole

Photochemistry of Planetary Atmospheres
Yuk L. Yung , and William B. DeMore
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 019510501X

Book Description

Eleven planetary atmospheres are included for detailed study in this reference/text, four for the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), four for the small bodies (Io, Titan, Triton, and Pluto), and three for the terrestrial planets (Mars, Venus, and Earth). The authors have carried out a comprehensive survey of the principal chemical cycles that control the present composition and past history of planetary atmospheres, using the database provided by recent spacecraft missions supplemented by Earth-based observations.

Customer Reviews:

Treats the solar system as a unified whole.......2004-06-29

A spinoff from successful decades of planetary exploration. The missions to the inner planets and the overwhelmingly spectacular Voyager 1 and 2 flybys of the 1970s and 1980s have contributed to the results presented here.

The overall theme treats the various atmospheres of the planets as part of a coherent picture of the entire solar system. A unifying idea that the authors use is that of the formation of the solar nebula and its condensation into the planets, comets and asteroids. The lengthiest discussion is about Earth and the crucial (to us!) ways it differs from its siblings. Along the way, the authors give a good explanation of the greenhouse effect on a planet.

Customer Reviews:

Disjointed facts.......2002-04-25

This book is one of the hardest books I have ever read. Toolan describes everything in a train of though manner that would have gotten him a D or lower in any college English class.

His facts are semi-indisputable. Our environment is in trouble. It may not be dying, it will probably recover after we are gone, but we are making it an unfavorable place for ourselves to live in.

That is the basic message. Unfortunately, Toolan gives this in a disjointed fashion, introducing experts that he gives little to no background for and having them give quotes. Some of his logic is also fuzzy, stating the beginning and the end of a line of thinking, but doesn't say how he got from the problem to the solution, yet we are forced to take his conclusion as fact to finish the passage.

For students of Christian theology.......2001-04-29

David Toolan's At Home In The Cosmos blends science and theology to reveal the meaning of the world and the poetry that fills the universe. As Toolan unites the spiritual with the scientific, he accents the idea that our evolutionary cosmos is filled with promise, is Christ-centered, with incarnational faith providing the appropriate setting for a contemporary scientific cosmology resulting in a fresh basis for an ecological ethic and a new social contract with nature. At Home In The Cosmos is enthusiastically recommended reading for students of Christian theology, the balanced roles of science and religion, and environmental issues within a Christian philosophy and perspective.

God's World : A Biblical Theology of the Environment (International Study Guides)

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God's World : A Biblical Theology of the Environment (International Study Guides)
Ken Gnanakan
Manufacturer: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care (Engaging Culture)

ASIN: 0281051380

Book Description

Fifth in the ISG series on applied theology, this book makes available a wide range of thinking on this crucial subject, covering biblical teaching, a theology of creation, and an examination of eco-feminism, as well as a history of environmental thought. Central to the author's approach is the notion that theory must lead to action.

Nature is a Heraclitean fire: Reflections on cosmology in an ecological age (Studies in the spirituality of Jesuits)

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Nature is a Heraclitean fire: Reflections on cosmology in an ecological age (Studies in the spirituality of Jesuits)
David S Toolan
Manufacturer: Seminar on Jesuit Spirituality
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: B0006OVF4A

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Nature: An Environmental Cosmology
Joseph Grange
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The City: An Urban Cosmology

ASIN: 079143348X

Book Description

A breakthrough analysis of our environmental crisis, this book offers the insights of thinkers such as Plato, Lao-Tzu, Spinoza, and Whitehead to construct a set of concrete measures to estimate the value of nature. Application of these standards leads to the formation of the discipline of Foundational Ecology as the most effective educational tool for dealing with the next century's environmental crises. The real value of environmental processes comes alive through this systematic philosophy of nature. By offering a cultural critique of our idea of nature, Grange sets the environmental agenda for the next century.

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