Every Bush Aflame: Science God and the Natural World

One of the themes that echoes most frequently through Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ landmark publication on the environment, is the central role of biodiversity in creation spirituality, because the 'dimming of the rainbow of life’s diversity' has a significance that goes way beyond our concern for its impact upon our human welfare. This is the result of a deepening awareness of the role of every living species in God’s unfolding plan.\nEvery Bush Aflame is an extended reflection on this profoundly central theme. It explores the origins of biodiversity in Christian theology, its roots in our growing scientific understanding of the true nature and scale of life’s complexity and diversity, and the implications of all this for the kind of Christian response called for in Laudato Si’. Particular emphasis is laid on the importance of the personal encounter with the natural world through which we read the ‘other book’ of revelation in which God reveals himself to us: that ‘magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness’ (Laudato Si’, 12). Every Bush Aflame argues that those whose lives are directed by the spiritual perspective this profoundly deeper understanding offers should be the most deeply motivated to respond to the
challenge presented by the current environmental crisis.