Engaging Voices

Our ecological dilemmas provoke powerful emotions and deeply contested views. How should we think about them? And how can we live together, or even talk together, when we cannot listen to people who think differently?In a lively and at times very funny book, Roger S. Gottlieb ( A Greener Faith, This Sacred Earth, A Spirituality of Resistance ) explores these questions in a collection of distinct but related philosophical short stories. Fictional characters with personalities, individual histories, and strong opinions wrestle with the meaning of life, the value of nature, animal rights, the roles of science and religion in environmentalism, and political choices facing environmental activists--as well as their own anger, fear, despair, and close-mindedness. Encountering forcefully articulated positions and engaging characters, readers will be moved to reconsider their own beliefs--and to examine personal barriers to truly listening to those "on the other side."

Roger S. Gottlieb is Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. A contributing editor to Tikkun and a prolific author, his most recent books include A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future; The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology; and A Spirituality of Resistance: Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting the Earth.