Courting Chaos – Review
Courting Chaos: Navigating the Ecological Crisis with the Help of Jeremiah, by Kevin Durrant, September 2021. Resource Publications, ISBN 9781666716221, 216 pages. RRP £18 (paperback)
This is a richly layered book, drawing together the Biblical account of Jeremiah during the chaos of his times with today’s increasing climate, ecological and social chaos, and includes engaging and lively illustrations from art and poetry, as well as Scripture and history. Kevin Durrant looks at the big picture, and sees patterns that we would do well to heed. He begins by examining concepts of chaos, and ends with the hope in Jesus who was himself engulfed by the waters of chaos but overcame them.
Durrant examines along the way violence, the various iterations or interpretations of chaos, the purpose of prophecy (or of prophets), pain and lament, ultimate and proximate hope, action (whether hope-filled or not), our place within creation, and the purpose of Scripture – amongst many other ideas.
When I began reading this book I made notes of striking quotations – ideas new to me, or particular images or parallels – but there are so many I soon gave up. This book is scholarly without seeming so, engagingly written and accessible to anyone interested in the subject. I recommend it.
Kevin Durrant is a Baptist minister and a member of Green Christian. He led the Green Christian residential retreat at Launde Abbey in 2019, and is the author of The Earth Will Teach You.
Deborah Tomkins
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