Matthew Sleeth, MD, is the author of Serve God, Save the Planet and a former emergency room director and chief of medical staff. He practices what he preaches; after simplifying his life and cutting his energy use by more than two-thirds, he now writes, preaches and teaches full time about faith and the environment. Together with his wife, Nancy, and their two children, he helps lead the growing creation care movement. Sleeth is a graduate of The George Washington School of Medicine. The Sleeths live in Kentucky. To learn more, visit www.blessedearth.org.
"Sleeth is the perfect missionary to American evangelicals for the
environmental cause."
--Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative
Calling
"Matthew Sleeth carries a fresh message and unique insights arising
from a life of integrity and a vantage point that offers glimpses
of the world that most others miss."
--Dr. John Stumbo, president of the US Christian and Missionary
Alliance
"Reforesting Faith immediately captures the soul! It
awakens a hunger for the vastness of God as well as the immediate
presence of God. Matthew has a great gift of taking something as
common as a tree and exploding the Scripture before our eyes,
resulting in an overwhelming renewed love for our Lord."
--Jo Anne Lyon, general superintendent emerita of the Wesleyan
Church "Somewhere along the line, too many people picked up the
notion that loving trees was somehow pagan or Druidic. As this
volume makes clear, the Bible is a veritable forest, full of
towering cedars and heavy-laden fruit trees. Reading this will help
make the Scriptures come more fully alive."
--Bill McKibben, author of The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job,
and the Scale of Creation
"Reforesting Faith is an extraordinary book. Never before
have I gone on a 'nature walk through the Bible, ' so I'm grateful
I had Matthew Sleeth as a guide. It's fascinating to see the Bible
through this lens--and to realize the connection has been there all
along. I heartily recommend this captivating and beautifully
written book that enables us to see Scripture in a fresh way."
--Howard Dayton, founder of Compass--Finances God's Way
"This is one of those rare books that makes you wonder how you
could have read the Bible your entire life and missed so many
insights and treasures. Matthew Sleeth invites us on an amazing
journey through Scripture with an eye to the special place of
trees. In the process he helps us reimagine the world in new ways
and awakens parts in us that have been asleep for far too long.
Drawing from nearly a thousand references to trees or their
derivatives in the Bible, Sleeth reignites our sense of wonder and
our love for the majesty of God. This book will help restore our
weakened imaginations and remind us of our proper place in the
world."
--Timothy C. Tennent, PhD, president of Asbury Theological
Seminary "All of physical creation is an object lesson of
spiritual truth. In this wonderful book Matthew Sleeth illuminates
the most profound, prolific, and practical object in God's
inventory--the tree. Both spiritual solace and spirited service
find meaning in trees."
--Joel Salatin, farmer and author of The Marvelous Pigness of
Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation
"When it comes to biblical knowledge and divine insights, I can
read Matthew Sleeth all day. In Reforesting Faith he has
given us a curiosity-driven tome telling the grand story of God
through the trees of Scripture. Don't be lost in the woods; read
this book, discover the thicket, and reforest your faith."
--Kyle Idleman, senior pastor of Southeast Christian Church and
author of Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of
Jesus and Don't Give Up: Faith That Gives You the Confidence to
Keep Believing and the Courage to Keep Going
"The intricate symbolism of trees is woven through the Bible from
the beginning to the end in a way that is incredibly obvious to me
now after reading Reforesting Faith. Thanks to this book, I
will never look at a tree the same way again. If you care about
nature at all, this is a must-read."
--Angela Correll, author of the novel Grounded
"Matthew Sleeth is gifted at pulling out truths in Scripture the
rest of us read over. He did it with the Sabbath, and now he's done
it again with trees. Read this book!"
--Jess Correll, chairman of First Southern National Bank and UTG
Life Insurance "In Reforesting Faith Matthew Sleeth
reveals his core identity as a conservationist both in calling us
to conserve trees and in inviting us to conserve an often-forgotten
core metaphor of the Old and New Testaments. Through lively
narrative grounded deeply in Scripture and in the concrete
experiences of his personal journey, the author constructs a sort
of tree-centric theology. Like a seasoned gallery docent, he
invites us to notice the pervasive scriptural use of trees as
sacramental signs in our world revealing God's presence, his
activity, and his eternal purposes. The book--like its subject, the
tree--is a gift, pointing us to the triune God whose daily
generosity sustains us and our world."
--Shirley A. Mullen, president of Houghton College "Matthew
again connects us to the essential: God, the planet, the Sabbath, a
tree. God's breath that gave life to man is being shared daily by
all that breathes, including trees. This reminder brings hope and
enormous joy. Reforesting Faith is a must-read."
--Lisa Renstrom, former president of the Sierra Club "I
never knew until reading Reforesting Faith how bountiful and
significant trees are in God's story of the Creation, the Fall, and
redemption. Before reading this book, I loved the beautiful trees
of God's world and the power of the Bible's rich symbols, but I
never saw how many connections there were between them. This book
has deepened my love for God's Word and his world even more."
--Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well: Finding the
Good Life Through Great Books and Fierce Convictions: The
Extraordinary Life of Hannah More--Poet, Reformer,
Abolitionist
"The intrinsic and life-sustaining value of trees has long been
neglected. Sleeth proves God's love for trees and draws the reader
into the realization that we need to not only reforest faith but
also literally reforest our forests. This timely book is an almanac
describing the importance of sustainable farming at a time when it
is sorely needed."
--The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham, founder and president emerita of
Interfaith Power and Light, a religious response to climate
change "Readers of the Bible will be refreshed and quickened to
see the sensible and intentional way God uses trees as blueprints
for godly living and as key players in major events, including the
stories of Adam and Eve, Moses, Gideon, Jonah, and Christ. Even if
you are unfamiliar with the Bible, this book will be a reminder of
how important trees are to every living thing on this planet."
--Grace Ju Miller, PhD, professor of plant biology and dean of
the School of Natural and Applied Sciences at Taylor University
"Dr. Matthew Sleeth is a stimulating thinker who came to Christ
later in life and consequently looks at Scripture with fresh eyes.
He sees biblical truths most of us who grew up in the church have
overlooked. This exceptional book reflects Matthew's keen insight,
his love for God's Word, and his passion for creation care. (PS:
Hey, preachers... This is great material for a unique sermon series
on the trees of the Bible!)
--Bob Russell, retired senior minister of Southeast Christian
Church "Matthew Sleeth takes us on a wonderful journey along a
trail of trees into a deeper and richer hope for life--eternal
life through faith in Jesus and thriving life for the
Father's world in which we live. This is a fun, inspirational, and
provocative read."
--Mark Liederbach, PhD, professor of theology, ethics, and
culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary "Matthew
inspires us to celebrate the powerful nature of the trees that
share the earth with us. The book transports me to the forest
floor. As I gaze at the shimmering leaves above, I always feel my
spirit rise toward the heavens. Reforesting Faith affirms
that trees play a central role in the teachings of many religions
around the world. The book is a fascinating journey into our past
that teaches us what we must do to ensure a future full of beauty,
life, and purpose."
--Dan Chu, executive director of the Sierra Club Foundation "In
this affecting work, physician and carpenter Sleeth (The Gospel
According to the Earth) explains the importance of trees within
the Bible and in life through scriptural passages and personal
stories. The Bible urges Christians to pay close attention to
trees, Sleeth observes, and in so doing to commit to safeguarding
them and the natural world at large. Trees serve as protection, he
writes, and provide beauty, food, and shade, but they also need
human care in an increasingly industrialized world. In this way,
trees live symbiotically with humans and should be recognized as
having a high status in the kingdom of God. To back up his points,
Sleeth details the prevalence and place of trees in scriptures--
each major character is associated with a tree, Jesus calls himself
"the true vine" (John 15:1), and the Bible itself is referred to as
"a Tree of Life" (Proverbs 3:18). Personal anecdote and observation
appear throughout (the author's favorite tree, for instance, is a
500-year-old Cathedral Oak outside a church in Lafayette, La.)
making this case for environmental sustainability resonate on a
personal level, as well. Christians looking to reconnect to the
natural world will relish Sleeth's passionate call to Christian
stewardship of the Earth."
--Publishers Weekly
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