The environment and literature of moral dilemmas : from Adam to Michael K / David Aberbach.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aberbach, David, 1953- author.

Series:

Routledge Jewish studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental ethics.

Environmental ethics--Biblical teaching.

Environmental responsibility--Religious aspects.

Environmental responsibility.

Biblical teaching.

Physical Description:

xiii, 195 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.

Summary:

"Exploring the literature of environmental moral dilemmas from the Hebrew Bible to modern times, this book argues the necessity of cross-disciplinary approaches to environmental studies, as a subject affecting everyone, in every aspect of life. Moral dilemmas are central in the literary genre of protest, against the effects of industry, particularly in Romantic literature and 'Condition of England' novels. Writers from the time of the Industrial Revolution to the present-including William Blake, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, T.S. Eliot, John Steinbeck, George Orwell, and J.M. Coetzee-follow the Bible in seeing environmental problems in moral terms, as a consequence of human agency. The issues raised by these and other writers - involving damage to the environment and its effects on health and quality of life, particularly on the poor; economic conflicts of interest; water and air pollution, deforestation, and the environmental effects of war-are fundamentally the same today, making their works a continual source of interest and insight. Sketching a brief literary history on the impact of human behavior on the environment, this volume will be of interest to readers researching environmental studies, literary studies, religious studies and international development, as well as a useful resource to scientists and readers of the Arts"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface / by Helen Gavin

The environment and the betrayal of the covenant

Nature and the biblical calendar : festivals and psalms

'Promised lands' and national poetry

Sacred landscapes in exile

Kadosh! Kadosh! Kadosh!

The Bible, charity and agricultural law

The piper at the gates of dawn : loss and nature

'Man is the tree of the field'

Free will, divine law and science

Energy and its abuse

Environmental disaster in the Bible

The apocalyptic beast let loose

Swords to ploughshares : the vision of universal peace

Humility : God's reply to Job from the whirlwind

where were you?

Industry and the Romantics : Blake, Wordsworth and Goethe

The environment and 'Condition of England' novelists

Marx : the industrial environment as crime

Ibsen, Chekhov, and the moral environment

The rediscovery of nature in Mendele, Bialik, and Tchernichowsky

The waste land : sin and suffering

Environmental abuse in Steinbeck's The grapes of wrath

Post-1945 literature : the quest for a lost Eden.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Aberbach, David, 1953- Environment and literature of moral dilemmas

ISBN:

9780367770877

0367770873

OCLC:

1227381768

Publisher Number:

99988322962