From Clockwork to Communion: Preaching Process Ecology for a Planet in Crisis

I’m always surprised by how poorly we “preach” ecology in church settings. I don’t mean that in terms of just formal sermons from a Minister during Sunday Service (although I’ve heard some rough ones over the years, particularly dealing with ecology), but instead the type of preaching that we do in Sunday School discussions or Children’s Sermons.

So, I offer these ten minutes with thoughts on a few influential thinkers and how they have helped shape my own conceptions of God, Communion, Ecology, and even “Events,” and how that might impact other ministries.

Links:

Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality (1929) Direct PDF: https://archive.org/download/processrealityes0000unse/processrealityes0000unse_text.pdf Now in the U.S. public domain (works from 1929 entered the public domain on 1 Jan 2025). The file above is the Internet Archive scan with searchable text. (archive.org)

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu (1957) PDF scan: https://archive.org/download/TheDivineMilieu/TheDivineMilieu_text.pdf Still under copyright, but Teilhard’s estate has allowed a Community Books scan to remain on the Internet Archive for non-commercial study.

Herman E. Daly & John B. Cobb Jr., For the Common Good (1989 rev. 1994) IA reader / borrow copy: https://archive.org/details/forcommongoodred0000daly_y0s9 Free chapter 19 PDF (legally shared by Garrison Institute): https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Daly-and-Cobb-1994-For-the-Common-Good-chapter-19.pdf The full book is still in copyright, so a completely free PDF isn’t legally posted. The Internet Archive link lets you borrow the full scan for an hour (or 14 days with a free account). For quoting or classroom excerpts, the chapter-19 PDF is open access. (archive.org, garrisoninstitute.org)