ABOUT THIS BOOK

Ecological restoration integrates the science and art of repairing ecosystems damaged by human activities. Despite relatively little attention from environmental ethicists, restoration projects continue to gain significance, drawing on citizen volunteers and large amounts of public funds, providing an important model of responding to ecological crisis. Projects range from the massive, multi-billion dollar Kissimmee River project; restoring 25,000 acres of Everglades' wetlands; to the $30 million effort to restore selected wetlands in industrial Brownfield sites in Chicago's south side Lake Calumet area; to the reintroduction of tall grass prairie ecosystems in various communities in the Midwest.

Restored to Earth provides the first comprehensive examination of the religious and ethical dimensions and significance of contemporary restoration practice, an ethical framework that advances the field of environmental ethics in a more positive, action-oriented, experience-based direction. Van Wieren brings together insights and examples from restoration ecology, environmental ethics, religious studies, and conservation and Christian thought, as well as her own personal experiences in ecological restoration, to propose a new restoration ethic grounded in the concrete, hands-on experience of humans working as partners with the land.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Gretel Van Wieren is assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University. She received her MDiv and PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University, where her dissertation was awarded a Louisville Institute Fellowship. She has served as a pastor and worked on environmental issues in the Reformed Church in America.

REVIEWS

For people familiar with debates about restoration, the book's most important contribution is to emphasize the religious and spiritual dimensions of restoration and. in particular, the ways restoration is a collective activity that creates and strengthens human communities at the same time it can contributes to ecological health.

-- Anna Peterson Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics

This is a thoughtful and balanced book, with great value to scholars from a variety of fields. . . . The great strength of Van Wieren’s book is that she recognizes both the connection and the independence, balancing constructionist and 'essentialist' views of nature. . . . An excellent introduction to the debates about restoration within environmental ethics. For people familiar with debates about restoration, the book’s most important contribution is to emphasize the religious and spiritual dimensions of restoration and, in particular, the ways restoration is a collective activity that creates and strengthens human communities at the same time it can contribute to ecological health.

-- Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

Begins to construct . . . new narratives and provides hope for nature, human and nonhuman alike.

-- Shirley J. Martyn Catholic Library World

Restored to Earth, is a helpful overview of contemporary approaches to ecological restoration. To date it is the best book on religious approaches to ecological restoration and can be commended on that basis.

-- Andrew Spencer, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC Journal of Markets & Morality

"This ground-breaking, interdisciplinary book skillfully explains the ethical debates over ecological restoration and then connects them to religious ideas of restoration in ways that deepen civic, theological, and scientific conversations. It will be helpful not only to scientists and ethicists, but anyone who is interested in practical and hopeful responses to ecological degradation."

-- Willis Jenkins, associate professor of religious studies, University of Virginia

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: From Wounded Land and Spirit to Healing Land and Spirit: The Significance of Ecological Restoration for Environmental Ethics

Part I: Restoring Earth1. “Let There Be a Tree”: A Field Guide to Types of Ecological Restoration2. For the Sake of the Wild Others: Restoration Meanings for Nature3. Restoration of the Personal Heart: Toward a Spirituality of Environmental Action4. Regenerating Communities of Place: Public Restoration Values

Part II: Restored to Earth5. Ecological Symbolic Action: Restoration as Sacramental Practice6. Re-Storying Earth, Re-Storied to Earth

Bibliography

Index