Environmental Ethics

Abstract

Abstract After an overview of contemporary scholarly attention to the Bible and ecology, this chapter provides several case studies from the Hebrew Bible including passages in Jonah, work with imagery of chaos and creation, and attention to motifs of apocalypticism, focusing finally on imagery of plagues. After an analysis of biblical material, the chapter turns to popular culture, exploring the 2002 British horror film “28 Days Later,” its treatment of the plagues motif, and its ecological implications, describing the insights that can be drawn of this sort of comparative work. The chapter concludes by examining the ways in which concerns with environmental ethics have come to inform contemporary Jewish practice, as well as reflections upon and the framing of traditional ritual celebrations.