The Ethics of Nature

The Ethics of Nature explores humanity s treatment of the natural world from a Christian perspective. The book presents a range of ethical debates arising from our relationship with nature, including current controversies about the environment, animal rights, biotechnology, consciousness, and cloning. It sets the immediate issues in the context of underlying theological and philosophical assumptions, and draws out broader concerns for social justice. Complex scientific issues are explained in clear and intelligible language.

Throughout the book, the author draws on primary sources from Thomas Aquinas, and develops her own distinctive ethical approach. This demonstrates that a virtue ethic centred on wisdom provides the most appropriate way to approach the ethics of nature. She has held academic posts in both plant science and theology, giving her an ideal vantage point from which to write.

Preface.

1. Introduction. The Recovery of Virtue for an Ethics of Nature.

2. Environmental Ethics.

3. Animal Rights.

4. The Ethics of Biotechnology.

5. The Ethics of Cloning.

6. Psychology and Moral Agency.

7. Ethics and Gaia.

8. Feminism and the Ethics of Nature.

9. Towards an Ethic of Wisdom.

Select Bibliography

Celia E. Deane–Drummond is Professor of Theology and Biological Sciences at University College Chester and Director of the Centre for Religion and the Biosciences. Her recent publications include Creation Through Wisdom: Theology and the New Biology (2000), Biology and Theology Today: Exploring the Boundaries (2001), Re–Ordering Nature: Theology, Society and the New Genetics (ed., 2003) and Brave New World: Theology, Ethics and the Human Genome (ed., 2003).

"Celia Deane–Drummond, ... has a growing reputation in the field, which will be considerably enhanced by this clearly written, accessible and well documented, if demanding, text–book.... It has a clear and sustained argument, and extensive bibliographical notes and references; and it offers the chance to journey with one of the leaders in the field as she engages with important controversies concerning the environment." Dr David Atkinson, Bishope of Thetford, Church Times, April 2004

"The massive range of research and scholarship ... that Deane–Drummond′s tome represents is breathtaking. I stongly recommend her text to any scholar or researcher genuinely serious about the subject matter....." Ecotheology