Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
We are bombarded with images of climate chaos, rising sea-levels and displaced people. There is a growing feeling of discontent, anger, and fear in the face of the crisis. How can the energy created by such emotions be harnessed to help us read scripture in a new way?
Losing Ground transforms the fear related to climate change into creative energies for reading the Ruth narrative. Attending to the politics of contextual biblical criticism alongside the shifts in the conversations on climate change to climate justice, climate trauma and climate resilience, the book demonstrates how the Old Testament book of Ruth can be read as dealing with exactly the themes embedded within our fear for the planet - such as food crisis, migration and resilience. Weaving Ruth's story together with the story of those who, on the frontline of a climate catastrophe, are forced to leave their homes because of rising sea levels, the book offers a powerful and potent contribution which refuses to pretend scripture can be read separately from the every day realities of a climate emergency.
Synopsis
The Ruth narrative opens with a climate crisis - a famine pushed a family to migrate - and addresses some of the critical concerns for refugees: food, security, home, land, inheritance. Around those concerns, Losing Ground: Reading Ruth in the Pacific offers a collection of bible studies from the Pacific that interweave the climate pandemic with the interests and wisdoms of Pasifika natives.
Weaving Ruth's story together with the stories of those who, as Pacific islanders on the frontline of a climate catastrophe, are forced to leave their homes because of rising sea levels, Pasifika bible scholar Jione Havea offers a powerful and potent contribution which refuses to pretend scripture can be read separately from the every day realities of a climate emergency.