Those make it the best Christian environmental book I have come across so far. Well done, Paul! It is thoroughly Biblical in its theology, making (as I do) climate and environmental responsibility central to God's Plan, and not just an add-on. As all essays do, it has a couple of limitations, but these do not detract from these half-dozen strong points.
To be compelling for me, a message must be both meaningful and important in God's eyes, not just ours, and must be central to God's Plan and Intentions. The usual message about the Creation for Christians is, "God created it; therefore I should respect it." But - as the Duke of Edinburgh found in the 1980s [see my Spiritual Journey for more], that is little different from the Jewish view, and one would expect a different religion would have a different attitude to the Creation. The difference between the two religions is that while both have similar moral standards and fundamental beliefs about God, one has salvation in Christ rather than by good works, and empowering and sanctification by the Holy Spirit.
For a compelling message for Christians, these two must find Creation important too. Paul Kunert gives a very good account of why climate and environmental responsibility is vitally important to Jesus: Jesus is King of it and has a mission to bring Peace to all Creation, and has secured it by dying on the Cross and rising again. (However, Paul Kunert does not say much about the role of the Holy Spirit.)
By the "We must / ought" I mean a picture of what human and earthly life was intended to be or what we could be but are not. To humanists this is often reduced to either the needs of future generations of humans, or the needs of plants, animals and ecosystems, or a negative being-against e.g. large corporations or capitalism. To Christians it is some of these, but many Christians add a generic "we should steward Creation rather than exploit it." But Paul Kunert paints a richer picture of how things should and could be, especially that we represent God to the rest of Creation.
To many, the diagnosis of why we are desstroying the Planet and ecosphere is because of things like evil firms, fossil fuel industry, corrupt politicians, and other things. Christians might add "sin" and leave it at that. But Paul Kunert recognises two more things: rebellion and self-interest. These are things of the heart, not of societal structures or personal behaviour, both of which emerge from the heart. The human heart is "desperately wicked" and "deceitful". Gus Speth once said
"I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. ... I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy - and to deal with these, we need a spiritual and cultural transformation ..."
It is Christians that understand "selfishness, greed and apathy" and understand something of the "spiritual and cultural" solution, which they believe must involve God. Paul Kunert's essay explains something of that. The solution he offers is: "Jesus is king, with a mission of making peace with all things, and we can align with this mission. We need to reorientate." (However, though he writes fully about the selfishness etc. his solution is not worked out so well, being a nice big rich "ought" without a detailed "how".)
However, he does not spell out how God actually works there among us - and he could do so if he fully understood the glory of the three dimensions of salvation that is in the whole of Romans 8. Paul says little about the role of justification (forgiveness of sins by Christ's death on the Cross; Romans 8:1) nor the role of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14-17) that leads up to the redemption of all Creation (Romans 8:19-23). To me, these are the 'how' God brings about the salvation of all things (as Jesus proclaimed in John 3:16 and Mark 16:15). Maybe another essay is needed, but for now see Three Dimensional Salvation.
The content 'howevers' are two in my mind. He does not say as much as I would about justification and forgiveness through Christ's sacrifice, nor about the role of the Holy Spirit. But, then, most do not; they are things of which I concerned. Justification of individuals by Christ's sacrifice means we can become God's representatives, with past sins erased, if we allow it. I have tried to operationalise this in what I call Green Gospel.
The second content 'however is that Paul does not spell out how God actually works there among us, especially to transform our heart. Though he writes fully about the selfishness etc. his solution is not worked out so well, being a nice big rich "ought" without a detailed "how". For how these relate to the environmental responsibility agenda may be found described in my spiritual journey and in the exposition of Romans 8 which is more systematic in my page on Three Dimensions of Salvation.
The style 'however' is that, though an essay rather than a book, I still find slabs of text in a small font rather off-putting for someone like me, who has mild dyslexia - but most people presumably would not. And In find the colour scheme a little boring and sometimes gets in the way of reading the text - but many people might like it.
Andrew Basden.
24 May 2026
This page, URL= "http://abxn.org/nv/paul.kunert.html",
is part of the on-going work in developing a 'New View' in theology and practice that is appropriate to the days that are coming upon us. Comments, queries welcome by emailing
Compiled by Andrew Basden as part of his reflections from a Christian perspective. Copyright (c) Andrew Basden to latest date below, but you may use this material for almost any purpose, but subject to certain conditions.
Written on the Amiga with Protext in the style of classic HTML.
Created: 24 May 2026 Last updated: 30 May 2026 Biblical, some corrections.