The need for more theology on ecology is evident, especially given how anthropocentric hubris has led to the climate crisis that is already dire and getting worse. Dermot A. Lane offers us an intriguing, stimulating theological contribution centered around a question that has been hiding in plain sight: When the Bible speaks of nature praising God, what does that mean?

  Lane begins by citing biblical passages that speak of nature praising God and then draws from various theologians to explore in what way nature praises God. He calls upon the work of Terrence E. Fretheim, Richard Bauckham, David G. Horrell, and Mark Harris to explore how exactly nature praises God. Fretheim and Bauckham contend that nature praises God simply by being itself while Horrell and Harris focus on the eschatological character of at least some of the texts about nature praising God. Lane goes on to cite Thomas Berry, Elizabeth Johnson, Mark Wallace, and, of course, Laudato sí to develop key ideas about the relationship between ecology and theology. He contends that human exploitation of nature has made it increasingly difficult for humans to connect with and appreciate nature’s praise of God, and perhaps it is even harder for nature to praise God in light of that exploitation.

Lane continues by developing a theology of creation that is non-anthropocentric and that is centered in both pneumatology and Christology. Roger Haight, Karl Rahner, and others have perceived nature as full of the grace of God. Indeed, Lane insists, creation is a sacrament because it is a means of grace. Lane also describes nature as an unfinished book for us humans to read and interpret alongside the Bible. Through examining Scripture and the work of thinkers such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and Mark Wallace, Lane adds that the theology of a grace-filled creation must be centered around the Holy Spirit, as well as centered around Christ, particularly the Incarnation, which he links to Niels Henrik Gregersen’s theology of Deep Incarnation. Moreover, such a theology of creation has implications for liturgy, including human praise of God (with nature) in worship.

In general, Lane urges us humans to move away from an anthropocentric and instrumentalist view of nature to regarding it as grace-filled and charged with God’s grandeur (to borrow from Hopkins) in a way that transforms our liturgy and our work in the world. Lane does a fine job developing these points in a way that could be persuasive for those who do not already understand that nature is so charged and not even closely dependent upon us hubristic humans.