Book Announcement – For The Warming of the Earth
Mark Porter
As issues of climate and ecology become ever more important, Christian communities are increasingly looking for appropriate ways to respond to the current crisis in their worship and liturgy.
In For the Warming of the Earth, Mark Porter draws on more than 40 interviews with activists, song-writers, Christian leaders, and musicians to explore what it means to develop new Christian musical practices for a time of ecological crisis. Through these different conversations, the book enters into fundamental questions regarding our relationships with the world around us, the relationship between spirituality and ecology, and the different ways in which we can engage with the climate crisis which we are facing.
This well-conceived and clearly-written series of interview-based case studies lifts the curtain on an important but under-studied aspect of music for the environment: the explosion of musical creativity and experimentation among progressive Christians and other faith-based groups in response to the existential crisis of climate change. A thoughtful and pioneering contribution to applied ecomusicology, this stimulating book offers a great deal to scholars, musicians, and environmental activists.
Jeff Todd Titon, Brown University
This is a much-needed book. Musical Christian responses to the climate emergency are immensely varied and astonishingly creative, including musicking in well-known formats and innovations in sonic worlds that bring the human and other-than-human sound worlds together. The debates are carefully and clearly set out with remarkable respect for diverse theological and musical positions… This is an excellent and inspirational book that is an essential read for anyone concerned with Christian ecology.
June Boyce-Tillman, University of Winchester
I hope this might be of interest to at least some of you.
Mark