Saving Creation:
Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston III
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Friday, April 3rd “Superb......Full of insights.” |
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Saving Creation is the compelling story of Templeton Prize winner and Gifford lecturer Holmes Rolston III. Known as the "father of environmental ethics," Rolston is celebrated for his advocacy to protect the Earth's biodiversity and for his critical work reconciling evolutionary biology and Christianity. Christopher J. Preston conducted countless hours of personal interviews with Rolston, his family members, and his close colleagues and friends to produce this straightforward and engaging biography.
More than any other thinker in contemporary life, Rolston has a persuasive tale to tell about the place where God, nature, and humanity meet. Preston documents the evolution of Rolston's environmental philosophy, from his idyllic childhood in the Shenandoah Mountains to his Presbyterian ministry and finally to his groundbreaking work reconciling biology and theology. Preston reveals how Rolston's pursuits have often been outside the mainstream and ahead of his time, leaving him an outsider among his peers and a figure of controversy. Rolston challenged the notion of a human-centered value system and looked deeper to embrace the intrinsic value of plants, animals, and ecosystems as core issues of science and religion. Preston deftly recounts how, despite criticism, Rolston continued undeterred.
In 1997 Rolston delivered the Gifford Lectures, an annual series at the University of Edinburgh that is a forum for the world's most influential thinkers in theology and nature. And in 2003 the Duke of Edinburgh awarded Rolston the Templeton Prize for discoveries in science and religion. Other prize winners have included Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. With this prize, Rolston's intellectual achievements and singular stature were recognized worldwide, and it was confirmation of his bold and profound contributions to the intersection of modern science and religion.
Christopher J. Preston teaches philosophy at the University of Montana in Missoula. He is the author of Grounding Knowledge: Environmental Philosophy, Epistemology, and Place and the coeditor, with Wayne Ouderkirk, of Nature, Value, and Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III . A noted expert on environmental philosophy, he has won several grants and is often a guest speaker on environmental issues.
*Sponsored by the
College of Charleston Philosophy Department, the Religious Studies Department, & the Masters and Minors in Environmental Studies Programs*
