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"Baugh convincingly argues that scholars have ignored how theology and ethics on earth stewardship play out in people’s lives by sensitively mapping the various ways in which dynamics of race, class, and religion are expressed on the urban streets of Chicago. A long overdue and welcome addition that seeks to shift the discussion to grassroots expressions of environmentalism in urban contexts."—Sarah M. Pike, author of Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community
"God and the Green Divide is a major contribution that explains the racial dynamics of religious environmentalism by focusing on a specific Chicago organization. The result is an insightful analysis that unearths the intersection of religion, race, and environmentalism."—Sylvester Johnson, author of African American Religions, 1500–2000: Colonialism, Democracy, and Freedom
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. People, Not Polar Bears: Faith in Place’s First Ten Years
2. Religious Environmentalism in the City
3. Paths Leading to Faith in Place
4. Food and Environment at an African American Church
5. Finding Racial Diversity with Religious Pluralism
6. Faith in Place’s Religious Message
7. From Grassroots to Mainstream
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Amanda J. Baugh is Assistant Professor of Religion and Environment at California State University, Northridge.
Summary
American environmentalism historically has been associated with the interests of white elites. By examining negotiations of racial and ethnic identities as central to the history of religious environmentalism, this work complicates assumptions that religious environmentalism is a direct expression of theology, ethics, or religious beliefs.
Additional text
"Carefully researched and refreshingly jargon-free, God and the Green Divide is a welcome addition to ethnographies of religious environmentalism in the United States."
