In recent decades, modern scholarship has critiqued anthropocentric and ecologically deleterious readings of Genesis 1:26–8. While these critiques often promote more ecologically attuned visions of human beings’ divine image-bearing (as well as their “dominion” over other creatures and their “subduing” of the land), ecological re-readings often fail to reconsider the first-person plural verb and pronouns in the phrase, “Let us make humankind in our image” (1:26). Throughout Gen 1:1–2:4a, however, a meaningful and consistent linguistic pattern suggests that God’s speech to “us” is addressed to the land and may be understood as an address to an earthly collaborator (in contrast to an angelic or divine council). Such a reinterpretation directs readers to identify human beings as integrally related not only to God but also to the land and its creatures as well. The human creature, consequently, emerges as a living being who bears not only the image of God but also the image of earth, and the earth appears as God’s valued and creative partner in the divine project of making and sustaining life.

“In the Image of God and Earth: ‘Let Us Make’ and the Agency of Earth in Genesis 1:26” in Horizons in Biblical Theology 48.1 (Spring 2026): 22–46.

“God’s Lordship, Sustaining Care, and Liberation of Creation: Three Elements of a New Testament Theology of Creation” in Ex Auditu (Spring 2025).

John Wesley–the busy Anglican preacher and evangelist and founder of the Methodist movement–interpreted scripture in ways we might consider ecological now. He didn’t simply view scripture and its revelation of the purposes of God as solely directed towards human salvation. My essay in this edited volume teases out some of the ways Wesley interpreted his world with the whole creation in view.

“A Wesleyan Ecological Hermeneutic: Interpreting Scripture, Science, & Society Ecologically” in Wesleyan Theological Journal 56.2 (Fall 2021).

What did the apostle Paul mean when he portrayed the creation as subjected to frustration and enslaved to destruction? What forms of frustration and destruction might he have seen throughout the Roman Empire? And how would he describe creation's condition today?

Creation's Slavery and Liberation addresses these questions by tracing the story of creation as it appears in Paul's own Scriptures, Roman imperial propaganda, Paul's letter to Rome, and U.S. industrial agriculture.

Creation’s Slavery and Liberation: Paul’s Letter to Rome in the Face of Imperial and Industrial Agriculture in Cascade Library of Pauline Studies (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2022).

Romans in The Wesley One-Volume Commentary on the Bible, eds. Kenneth J. Collins and Robert W. Wall (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020).

Collecting essays from prominent scholars who span the globe and academic disciplines, Practicing with Paul speaks into the life of the church in ways that inspire and edify followers and ministers of Jesus Christ.

Editor, Practicing with Paul: Reflections on Paul and the Practices of Ministry in Honor of Susan G. Eastman (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2018).