World without end

Park grew up a preacher's kid, listening to her dad's sermons as a young child, his stories resonating with her well into adulthood. When her father announced his retirement, Park and her husband moved home to Memphis to attend his church. She expected to find a renewal of her lapsed faith but instead found more questions and uncertainty. This collection of essays explores what the end of the world means to different people, viewing the impending apocalypse through different lenses. Her father's mainstream Protestant views, which skew progressive, shine through Park's work and read as a breath of fresh air as she writes about finding community and beauty in the unknown. Her stories are immersive, making readers feel as though they are reading a personal diary. Though writing about the apocalypse can hardly be called cheerful, Park's message--of community, hope, and finding faith through questioning what it all means--makes for a missive of light that shines brightly amid otherwise consuming darkness.

Climate change, religious faith, endangered species, ideas of renewal, resurrection, and evolution collide and intertwine in this debut collection of essays focused on the American South. Park, the child of a United Methodist minister, uses memoir and her own questions regarding her relationship to faith and science as a springboard into an exploration of what it means for people of different faiths and worldviews to contemplate the impact of climate change, how to reconcile religion and science, and how pregnancy and motherhood connect to themes of resurrection and environmental renewal. Traveling across the South, Park examines subjects such as protecting endangered species, ecologically friendly burial, evangelical pilgrimage sites including a Noah's Ark-themed tourist attraction in Kentucky, seeking to understand and illuminate the way evangelical and fundamentalist Christians understand and react to the natural world. Park deftly weaves journalism, philosophical and theological writings, and personal experience into a keenly observed discussion of the modern experience of the American South that never veers into stereotype or finger-pointing. Several of the essays were originally published elsewhere. VERDICT An easy choice for readers interested in the environment, memoir, modern evangelical Christianity, or the culture of the American South.--Rebecca Brody