About

Cherice Bock (she/her) lives in Oregon, on the lands of the Kalapuya (now part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde).

With an M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental studies at Antioch University New England, Bock’s main role is climate policy manager for 350PDX.

Bock also teaches and writes at the intersection of spirituality and the environment and she has an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She is adjunct faculty at Earlham School of Religion and Portland Seminary. She has also taught in the theology department at University of Portland and as visiting professor of environmental studies at The Oregon Extension.

She led Oregon Interfaith Power & Light at Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon from 2020–2023.

Bock edits the Barclay Press curriculum Illuminate, edited the environmental studies journal Whole Terrain for three volumes, and curated web content for the watershed discipleship website, a ministry of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries. She is the co-chair for the Quaker Theological Discussion group and is the web editor for Quaker Religious Thought.

A recorded Quaker minister, Bock sees environmental concerns as this generation’s most pressing social justice issue. Her academic work focuses on nonviolent theology, Quakerism, contextual theologies, feminism, environmental justice, ecospirituality, and ecotheology. Bock has served as a scholar in residence and annual sessions speaker at a number of Friends meetings, yearly meetings, and Friends organizations on the topics of climate justice and ecotheology, including Friends General Conference, New England Yearly Meeting, North Pacific Yearly Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Western Yearly Meeting, Berkley Friends Church’s Quaker Heritage Day, Reedwood Friends Church’s Center for Christian Studies, and Friends Committee on National Legislation’s annual meeting. Links to these talks can be found on the Videos page and throughout the Blog posts. She has also led courses with Pendle Hill and Woodbrooke Quaker study centers. As leader of Oregon Interfaith Power & Light, Bock offered sermons, lectures, and workshops and served on panels or led events with a number of faith communities, interfaith groups, denominations, and environmental organizations.

Her written work includes the books: Quakers, Ecology, & the Light (2023, with Christy Randazzo), A Quaker Ecology: Meditations on the Future of Friends (2022), Quakers, Creation Care, and Sustainability (2019, a co-edited volume with Stephen Potthoff), and several book chapters and journal articles such as, “Climatologists, Theologians, & Climate Change: Toward an Ecotheology of Critical Hope” (Cross Currents, March 2016), “Watershed Discipleship: communicating climate change within a Christian framework, a case study analysis” in Handbook of Climate Change Communication (Springer, 2018), “Watershed Discipleship” in An Ecotopian Lexicon (2019), “Quaker Spirituality,” in Protestant Spiritual Traditions, vol. 2, “Quaker Pneumatology,” in T&T Clark Handbook of Pneumatology, Bloomsbury Companions Series, and “Faith Communities as Hubs for Climate Resilience,” The Encyclopedia for Urban & Regional Futures. See Publications & Presentations page for a complete list.

Bock was honored to serve as a 2015 Re:Generate Fellow at the Wake Forest School of Divinity‘s Food, Faith, & Religious Leadership Initiative, and as a 2016 GreenFaith Fellow. She received the 2016–2017 Horace Mann Spirit of Service Scholarship, and the Clarence & Lilly Pickett Endowment for Quaker Leadership (2005, 2018). She coordinated the George Fox community garden for five seasons. Cherice enjoys growing and tending fruits, veggies, and chickens, hiking and camping in the mountains, and biking. She lives with her spouse, their two children, and their dog, Kiona.

On this website you can find links to her published works, musings on the intersection of faith and life grounded in her bioregion of Cascadia, thoughts about her academic work, and further development of her ecotheology of critical hope.

Blog

Book Review: Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, & Culture

Quakers, Ecology, and the Light, which I co-wrote with Christy Randazzo, was recently reviewed in the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. Many thanks to Sarah Werner for the review. Werner gives an overview of the book’s contents, concluding: An interdependent ecotheology of Light has wide appeal beyond those in the Religious …

“Abiding Together in the Life and Power” | FGC 2023 plenary panel

In July, I had the joy of appearing on a panel with Margery Post Abbott and Gretchen Castle at Friends General Conference’s 2023 Gathering. It was conveniently located in Oregon for the first time. The panel title was, “Abiding Together in the Life & Power.” Marge, Gretchen, and I had a chance to meet together …

Blog

Book Review: Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, & Culture

Quakers, Ecology, and the Light, which I co-wrote with Christy Randazzo, was recently reviewed in the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. Many thanks to Sarah Werner for the review. Werner gives an overview of the book’s contents, concluding: An interdependent ecotheology of Light has wide appeal beyond those in the Religious …

“Abiding Together in the Life and Power” | FGC 2023 plenary panel

In July, I had the joy of appearing on a panel with Margery Post Abbott and Gretchen Castle at Friends General Conference’s 2023 Gathering. It was conveniently located in Oregon for the first time. The panel title was, “Abiding Together in the Life & Power.” Marge, Gretchen, and I had a chance to meet together …