As pollution and disregard for nature grow, ecology assumes a role of pivotal importance in today's world. If present trends continue we will soon be con-fronting the prognosis offered by M.K. Tolba, Director of the United Nations Environmental Program: "We face by the turn of the century an environmental catastrophe as complete, as irreversible, as any nuclear holocaust."

Responding to the urgency of the environmental crisis, the churches have begun to speak out, adding to concerns for justice and peace the imperative to respect and protect the integrity of God's creation, of which we, too, are part In Liberating Life prominent academics and activists from every part of the globe articulate the foundations for an ethic of life, all of life. Finding resources in scripture, in other theologies of liberation, in considerations of spirituality, cosmology, and science, to define a theology of nature that encompasses all living beings-and the endangered planet itself-the authors challenge us to rethink our most basic convictions and orientations.

Concluding with the ground-breaking Annecy Report to the World Council of Churches, Liberating Life stakes out the conceptual terrain on which can be built "a life-liberating theology and ethic... [showing] that concerns for eco-logical sustainability and justice for the human oppressed are often closely linked." Liberating Life's pioneering voices offer wide theological perspectives as they seek solutions to ecological disaster. Their work aims to free the earth and all of its creatures from exploitation.