Abstract
Words for a Dying World is a difficult read because climate change is a big, complex problem, with no easy answers. There are huge challenges which feel almost insurmountable and the pain and grief that is already being felt will, in all likelihood, get worse. The subtitle of the book is “Stories of Grief and Courage from the Global Church” and there is certainly grief and quite a bit of courage. I am not surprised that it doesn’t name “hope” in the subtitle, however, because although hope is not absent, it does not feel easy to find. The book does a great job of bringing a global perspective, which at the same time feels rooted in the realities and lives of ordinary people.
It is written in the context of the “Anthropocene,” the name given to the new geological epoch we are entering. Human impact on climate and ecosystems is now so great that it is shaping the nature of the whole planet in a way no species has done before. The “natural” world is dying, and this book is a series of reflections on the current predicament. The book is split into three parts, simply named, “As It Was Then,” “As It Is Now,” and “As It Will Be.” It has thirty-five chapters, all exploring the Anthropocene in different ways.
The chapters are short, and the book seems to be designed to pick up and read in short sections—in order to encourage reflection. The great strengths of the book are its very earthed and rooted lament and grief, its global perspective, and the rich spread of voices that encompass it. It really does bring home the grief of climate change. Some of the stories of farming in Africa and Asia, of the ocean, and of life in the Pacific Islands remained with me long after I had read them. I particularly appreciated Maggie Dawn’s reflections on worship in a time of grief and the way she reflected on hope without minimizing the challenges, suffering, and lament.
Approaching this book as a practical theologian and missiologist, I deeply appreciated its rootedness in the everyday but wondered whether the theological reflection could have been deepened. Its thirty-five short chapters at times felt a bit repetitive when reading through from the beginning to the end. Many of the contributors gave short biblical or theological reflections at the end of their chapters, but I felt the book was crying out for some more in-depth theological reflection, perhaps drawing together the strands from a number of chapters into a clearer whole. That said, it was probably not the purpose of the book. As a call to sit with the realities of climate change, to grieve and lament, it is effective.
The book refuses to permit or give easy answers and is therefore prophetic in the way it encourages the reader to face reality. For this reason, it needs to be heard. I think it is best read slowly, taking in the chapters in their own right. I don’t think it needs to be read in order. Picking a few chapters to read in small discussion groups would be very effective. I can recommend this book because of its affective impact; the way it draws the reader into a stark reality. It is a necessary book for Christians and churches as we take seriously the problems of climate change and our own part in the problem.