Paul Santmire is one of the pioneering prophets of Christian understanding of the environment. His programmatic book Brother Earth (1970) was among the first theological essays of its kind. His highly regarded historical study of Christian theologies of nature, The Travail of Nature (1985), is still widely used by students of religion and the environment. A teaching theologian of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, now retired and living in the Boston area, Dr. Santmire has served in both academic and pastoral settings.
This article appeared in the Christian Scholar’s Review in 2003; it won the Charles Miller Award for the best essay of the year in that journal. In it, he argues that the first phase of stewardship theology in the Christian community has now run its course and that we must therefore enter a new and more complex phase, which he calls partnership, predicated on a fresh reading of the biblical theology of nature. He identifies three emphases of a full, biblically informed approach toward nature: creative intervention, sensitive care, and awestruck contemplation.