In the end, the conscience-stricken David brings the subject of enmity back around. “May the Lord judge between you and me,' he yells at Saul from a safe distance, 'And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.… May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.”

Have you heard of the new technology that can actually turn waste carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases into commercial-grade methanol? …

There’s a part of Jesus’s story in Luke 19—there’s some debate over whether it qualifies as a parable—that is about human solidarity. It begins in what we might call the ‘here and now’ with a certain rich man clothed in finery and eating the best food. A beggar named Lazarus, covered in sores, sits right outside his house.

For the sake of this paper I’ll mention only three capacities that, in my experience, evangelicalism has denied the creation care plant over the last two decades, namely: 1) a capacity for integration with the environmental justice movement, 2) a capacity to confront Christian nationalism and political conflation, and 3) a capacity to evolve that next step theologically: we abandoned Dominionism for the concept of faithful “stewardship”—thank God for Francis Schaeffer and Cal DeWitt—but now we need to develop a new, but biblical, anthropology of our creatureliness and interconnectedness. What I mean by “capacity” is: they didn’t let us go there. Evangelicalism didn’t let us go there. Read More.

On a recent trip back to China with my family for the first time in four years, I couldn’t help noticing the changes around me, in technology, infrastructure, and renewable energy development, to name a few….

Jacob was fleeing the wrath of his brother Esau and the disappointment of his father Isaac, when he 'stopped for the night because the sun had set' (v.10). The 'certain place' he had reached was named Luz, which according to the name apparently refers to an almond grove. In a fact that never failed to amaze us Sunday School kids as much as the glorious ladder did: Jacob took a stone and used it as a pillow!

WCIU, since its inception, has always sought to provide training to women and men on the ground and, as it were, in the trenches. Dr. Ralph D. Winter’s vision was to make training for engagement relevant, dynamic, and accessible. This emphasis continues to drive the vision and mission of the institution….

The global stocktake (GST) at COP28 will be the first conducted since the Paris Agreement went into full effect and began its five-year cycles. In the third year of a cycle, the parties will conduct this 'inventory' of 'where they’re collectively making progress' on the Paris Agreement goals. Two years later, they will return to the COP (in this case COP30 in 2025) and bring more ambitious targets for emissions reductions, based on what the GST reveals.

Jesus died for us. We often need to be reminded that he also lived for us. I don’t simply mean that he lived long enough to articulate for us a set of teachings, as wonderful an accomplishment as that is. I mean that in his incarnation, in his en-flesh-ment, as an embodied being embedded in creation, Jesus showed us how to be a human being. This month’s theme prayers for Climate Intercessors will feature the role that plastics—its production and its pollution—play in climate change. Jesus showed us how to be a consumer. Read More.

Below you will find Bible studies about climate action authored by Lowell Bliss, the Director of The Eden Vigil Institute of Environmental Leadership. We hope you find them encouraging and helpful in your personal journey or as you gather in like-minded community to seek God over this important topic. For more resources and opportunities to connect, visit the Eden Vigil Institute of Environmental Leadership.

Cataclysms and bad news aren’t the only things that can cascade. So can thoughts and memories and connections. I remembered that the first time I had ever heard about the possible collapse of what is called the global ocean conveyor belt was in Al Gore’s 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

Hope for the possibility of the 1.5°C target has been an illusion for nearly a decade; an assessment by experts siloed within their narrow disciplines projecting a possible case provided that, if everything outside of their realm goes just right (e.g. politics, international relations, military conflict, banking systems, religious engagement, etc.), then maybe they can still model their 1.5°C scenario.” Glibness? Cruelty? Irrelevance? Whatever it felt like, it made me wake up and realize that desperate hospital waiting rooms are populated by more than just medical experts, grieving families, and timid siblings. Chaplains—professional in their own right—are also common figures at hand in a hospital when calamitous pronouncements are made. It is an act of great leadership—spiritual, emotional—for a chaplain to step forward and compassionately suggest, “It may be time that we consider a different approach to care.” Read More

Excerpt: There is no doubt about it, John 11 is the story of a miracle.  Jesus calls Lazarus forth from the grave and it is another one of Jesus’s seven signs in this gospel that he is divine, another occasion for one of his seven I AM statements, in this case, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  I will begrudge no one in our Climate Intercessors prayer network who wants to pray for the miracle of preventing a 1.5°C warming.  Yet, as I read John 11, while it is obviously the story of a miracle, I don’t believe it is a story about miracles.  It is about death and life, and about how in Jesus we live, and breath, and have our being even unto eternity. Read More.

Our colleague, Sean Curran recently wrote a book review for the WCIU Journal of Peter Enns’ new book, ‘Curve-ball.” Read the full article on the WCIU Journal webiste.

In honor of Women’s History Month, we would like to celebrate a contemporary scholar and friend, Dr. Gina Zurlo.

Listen in as our Executive Vice President, Peter McLallen, Ph.D. interviews WCIU’s new President, Paul Cornelius, Ph.D. We hope you enjoy getting to know Paul as much as we do!

Recently, I had the pleasure of connecting with WCIU alumni, Sarah Mullin. Sarah works with a creative access people group by making strategic connections at her local college campus. Working mostly with refugees, Sarah has been able to conduct research, provide practical care through relational community building and give much-needed support to her vulnerable neighbors…