Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Earth Day 2011

On some afternoons, there appears to be far more children from day care on the Pacific School of Religion campus than students in divinity school. This Earth Day post is for the parents and the children. (Please click on the image for a full spread.)

"We give thanks for the earth and its creatures and are grateful from A to Z."

From Gary Kowalski, Earth Day: An Alphabet Book. Boston: Skinner House Books, 2009. Design and illustrations by Rocco Baviera. These two pages are shared, courtesy Gary Kowalski.

Thanks to some wonderful donors, we have several alphabet books and a number of prayer books for children in our graduate theological library.

Gary Kowalski's book is a simple yet exquisite reminder of the wonders that we need to respect and steward.

A number of our archival collections document the struggles for intelligent stewardship of nature within religious traditions. These include the Starhawk Collection, Dody H. Donnelly Collection, and Albert Cohen Campus Ministry, Social Justice and the Environment Collection. We also manage the Thomas Starr King Collection. King, among many gifts, was one of the most eloquent of nature writers in the 19th century.