Richard Cartwright Austin

Richard Cartwright Austin (born 1934 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American writer and environmental theologian.

Gaining experience Early life Austin was raised in Washington, DC, in a politically active family. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College 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 in 1975.

Pastor and teacher Austin served a five-church Presbyterian parish in a rural mining area of Pennsylvania, 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. For this work Austin was honored in 1999 by Wilson College with a Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

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.

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.