It’s Back-to-school time for everyone! Since we are all students of our faith, I want to give you a reading “assignment” to help you learn more about faith and the environment. Okay, they’re not really assigned reading but I am recommending two books that have been particularly helpful to me. They are: Ten Commandments for the Environment by Woodene Koenig-Bricker and Catholics Going Green by Walter E. Grazer.
Ten Commandments for the Environment explains those “commandments” that are derived from the Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church’s chapter on the environment. Koenig-Bricker does a good job of explaining the “commandments for the environment” using scripture and papal writings, such as encyclicals and speeches, to deepen our understanding of them. Church documents are not usually considered light reading. However, the author does a good job of helping the reader through the subject matter in a language that they can understand. If you are ready to delve a little deeper into the subject, this is a great resource.
Catholics Going Green is a small group study guide. Even though it is intended for small groups to go through together, individuals can benefit from studying it on their own. The guide is broken up into six sessions that cover different aspects of environmental theology. Each session has a commentary on the topic, discussion questions, excerpts from related Church documents, an example of someone who is a living example of putting this knowledge into action, action items to help the reader on their journey and, of course, prayer.
If you find that the “Ten Commandments” book is a bit too much for you to get through, or perhaps you just don’t have enough time to dedicate to it’s study, pick up Catholics Going Green to get inspired.
While these two books were very helpful in my research, the sources that I used most often were the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.
I hope you find inspiration and information from these resources.
Blessings,
Laura
Laura B Nelson 