The Green Good News: Christ's Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life

This is a great book for informed lay-people, seminary students, pastors, and anyone who really cares about how their living intersects with how Jesus calls us to live as Christians. The book has the flavor of some of Walter Brueggemann's, Ellen Davis's, or Norman Worza's work, as it weaves together personal narrative, scriptural interpretation, and theological thinking about sustainability. I found the way the book re-narrates the parables particularly helpful, showing that if we understand the economy of extraction in which Jesus lived, then these parables take on a new, even more subversive meaning. The book concludes with a study guide--a useful tool for book groups, Sunday School classes, or even undergraduate classes. It's a readable, engaging, and thought-provoking book that makes me want to garden more, engage others in shared meals, and revisit my understandings of the scriptures.

The author places the Gospels in their social and historical context to show how Jesus' ministry was directed to the marginalized people in the Roman Empire. I found the discussion of the parables particularly illuminating.