Richard Cartwright Austin (born 1934 in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

) is an American writer and environmental theologian.

Gaining experience

Early life

Austin was raised in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, in a politically active family. He received a Bachelor of Arts from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

in 1956, a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 1959, and a Doctor of the Science of Theology from

San Francisco Theological Seminary The San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS) is a seminary in San Anselmo, California with historic ties to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). SFTS became embedded in a new Graduate School of Theology of the University of Redlands in 2019. It w ...

in 1975.http://www.creeksidepress.com/biography.html Dick Austin's biography at Creekside Press.

Pastor and teacher

Austin served a five-church

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

parish in a rural mining area of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

, then served as associate pastor of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. In 1966, he was appointed Director of the West Virginia Mountain Project, his denomination's largest Appalachian mission, in the Big Coal River Valley of West Virginia. From 1975 until his retirement in 1999, Austin had a special ministry in Environmental Theology with the Presbyterian Church. His base was a mountain farm in southwestern Virginia, near Dungannon. In the 1970s and 1980s, Austin spoke to Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical and Eastern Orthodox groups across the United States, and trained young ministers in environmental awareness through the ecumenical Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center in

Berea, Kentucky Berea is a home rule-class city in Madison County, Kentucky, in the United States. The town is best known for its art festivals, historic restaurants and buildings, and as the home to Berea College, a private liberal arts college. The population ...

. For this work Austin was honored in 1999 by Wilson College with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Advocating

Austin based his early books on his experiences among Appalachian people advocating against

strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in whic ...

for coal. Al Gore wrote about Austin's experiences in ''

Earth in the Balance ''Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit'' (, paperback ) is a 1992 book written by Al Gore, published in June 1992, shortly before he was elected Vice President in the 1992 presidential election. Known by the short title ''Earth ...

'': Austin led a campaign to abolish strip mining in West Virginia in 1971, then co-chaired the national coalition Citizens to Abolish Strip Mining that lobbied U.S. Congress to pass anti-strip-mining legislation. President Jimmy Carter signed the

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) is the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. SMCRA created two programs: one for regulating active coal mines and a second ...

in 1977. From 1977 to 1982, Austin turned his attention to a more local issue.

American Electric Power American Electric Power (AEP), (railcar reporting mark: AEPX) is a major investor-owned electric utility in the United States, delivering electricity to more than five million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest gen ...

planned to build America's largest pumped-storage hydroelectric facility at Brumley Gap in southwestern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

. Austin led the Coalition of American Electric Consumers that forced American Electric Power to withdraw its plans.

Family

Austin is married to Anne Leibig, a gestalt psychotherapist. He has three sons from a previous marriage, and six grandchildren.

Writing career

Environmental theology

Between 1987 and 1990, Austin's four-book series, ''Environmental Theology'', was published by John Knox Press and Creekside Press. ''Baptized into Wilderness'' explores the spirituality of John Muir. ''Beauty of the Lord'' draws from the American theologian Jonathan Edwards to propose an understanding of beauty that is relational rather than aesthetic, and that strengthens our experiences of God with experiences of nature. ''Hope for the Land'' explores Biblical texts that affirm human responsibility to liberate land from oppression. ''Reclaiming America'' proposes land reform, civil rights for natural life and new approaches to agriculture. The author Chris Bolgiano summarized Austin's philosophy in ''Living in the Appalachian Forest'':

Moral imagination

Austin's second series, ''Moral Imagination in Industrial Culture'', draws upon his family history to explore Christian responses to the challenges of industrialization during the past two centuries. Books in the series include ''Building Utopia: Erecting Russia's First Modern City'', ''East of Cleveland'', ''Dreams and Depression'', and ''The Measure of All Things''. In addition, Austin edited two other books as part of the series: ''Letters from the Pacific, a Combat Chaplain in World War II'' and ''Give God a Flower''.Stroup, Cranston. ''Give God a Flower''. Creekside Press.

References

External links

Creekside Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Richard Cartwright Living people 1934 births American theologians Writers from Cleveland Writers from Washington, D.C. Swarthmore College alumni San Francisco Theological Seminary alumni