The Gospel in the Anthropocene

As the world becomes more complex, uncertain, and challenging by the day, a curious thing seems to happen simultaneously: a kind of intensification, simplification, and clarification. But it doesn't just happen, and it doesn't happen to everyone. It happens to those awake enough and willing to keep looking, slowly and carefully, at the whole/holy mess we're in (even as it is still possible to fall in love with toads and ravens). This book is borne from one who seeks, observes, tastes, and listens, one who does not look away, one who reckons with our pressing realities at the scientific, pragmatic, emotional, and spiritual level. As you read, you will walk with him through New England landscapes, discovering beauty and devastation all over again, and suddenly you will find yourself in observant reflection and deep conversation. Susanne Moser, founder of The Adaptive Mind Project Brian Drayton's eloquent letters intersperse evocative vignettes from the natural world with penetrating scientific and social insights, framed within a gospel concern for the natural world and Quaker-based guidance for a way forward through this dire Anthropocene era. Given the bearing of both Christian and scientific worldviews upon our present dilemmas, Drayton's synthesis is crucial to a whole vision for the future. Douglas Gwyn, author of The Covenant Crucified: Quakers and the Rise of Capitalism This is a beautiful book-not to be read at a sitting but to be dipped into, like a flowing stream, as one works toward a full and useful life. Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature