Literary Ecocriticism and the Bible

Abstract Literary ecocriticism is an interpretive method that has been applied to the Bible and to biblically informed literary texts, though in both cases perhaps less often than might be expected. Both literary and biblical scholars stand to gain from a greater awareness of ecocritical insights and approaches. To that end, this chapter provides an overview of ecocriticism, examines critical interventions into scripturally inflected nature writing, and concludes by exploring obstacles and opportunities for religious and secular scholars who are interested in practicing literary ecocritique. Among the two challenges engaged are the discourses of postcolonialism and material ecocriticism.