Review written by Bruce Billington (2021)

This is one of the best books on the environment that I have read. Sandra Richter is a Biblical Scholar and she wrote this book with the intention of providing an overview of the story of redemption and how it applies to us, as followers of Christ, in regard to caring for the environment.

What makes this book so impacting is that it instructs us how to work with environment in a way that will make it respond to us, and how we can leave it in a better shape than we found it.

All of this is drawn from Scripture, where she draws out so many amazing principles from the Old Testament. I am a keen vegetable gardener and have always sought to be completely organic and apply biblical principles to this role such as giving areas of the land a time of fallow (rest) and rotating crops. Richter opens all of this up and adds so much more that I am now applying.

But this is not a gardening book. Richter challenges, disturbs, and encourages us to recognise God’s concern for the well-being of all creation and our responsibility as God’s stewards to properly look after it and cause it to prosper.

In my early Christian years, I was disappointed to try and discover a Christian view on the land, and was often told that there wasn’t one – it is all going to burn up. Of course, I soon discovered that this was not true and have since been far better educated on all of these matters. However, Richter took all of this to another level – at least for me.

I believe that this book should be required reading for all who seek to make a difference in this world and seek to work with Jesus in presenting the created order back to Him in a better way than we found it.

God bless you.
Bruce Billington

You can purchase a copy of this book HERE