| |
Questions and Answers about Faith and the Environment
|
The different streams of Jewish and Christian
faith sustain and support care for the earth in
distinctive but parallel ways. The answers to
the following basic questions about religious
concern for the environment have been drawn from statements
and publications of the religious communities
represented in the Partnership. These responses
by no means exhaust what these communities have
to say on these questions. To explore these questions
further, visit the teachings
section of this website and the Partners’
websites (click on the logos at the top
of this page). |
- Why are religious communities getting involved in environmental issues?
- What does God have to do with the natural environment?
- How do Jews and Christians view the natural world?
- What is the proper place and role of human beings in the world?
- Why is there environmental degradation?
- Is there hope for the earth?
Answers
Why Are Religious Communities Getting Involved in Environmental Issues?
For Jews, the environmental crisis is a religious challenge. As heirs to a tradition of stewardship that goes back to Genesis and that teaches us to be partners in the ongoing work of Creation, we cannot accept the escalating destruction of our environment and its effect on human health and livelihood. Where we are despoiling our air, land, and water, it is our sacred duty as Jews to acknowledge our God-given responsibility and take action to alleviate environmental degradation and the pain and suffering that it causes. We must reaffirm and bequeath the tradition we have inherited which calls upon us to safeguard humanity's home. (From “A Jewish Response to the Environmental Crisis.”)
At its core, the environmental crisis is a moral challenge. It calls us to examine how we use and share the goods of the earth, what we pass on to future generations, and how we live in harmony with God's creation. . . . Today's crises in global ecology demand concerted and creative thought and effort on the part of all of us: scientists, political leaders, business people, workers, lawyers, farmers, communicators, and citizens generally. As moral teachers, we intend to lift up the moral and ethical dimensions of these issues. (U.S. Catholic Bishops, “Renewing the Earth.” )
- An Eastern Orthodox Response
We confess that God is the creator of all that
exists, beautifully and wonderfully made, a fitting
manifestation of His glory (cf. Ps. 103). But
we stand today before a wounded creation which
suffers under distorted conditions which are the
result of the sin of humanity. . . . The creation
needs to be reintegrated, but this can happen
only as it is brought once again into communion
with the Lord, so that it may find its fullness
of purpose and its transfiguration. Humanity can
no longer ignore its responsibility to protect
it and preserve it. In order to do this, however,
humanity must learn to treat the creation as a
sacred offering to God, an oblation, a vehicle
of grace, an incarnation of our most noble aspirations
and prayers. (“Orthodox
Perspectives on Creation.” )
- A Mainline Protestant Response
Why should Christians care about the environment? Simply because we learn in Genesis that God has promised to fulfill all of creation, not just humanity, and has made humans the stewards of it. More importantly, God sent Christ into the very midst of creation to be “God with us” and to fulfill the promise to save humankind and nature. God’s redemption makes the creation whole, the place where God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. . . . The needs of the world are apparent. The call is clear. . . . Stewardship of the creation is a matter of faith. (Church of the Brethren, “Creation: Called to Care.”)
As followers of Jesus Christ, committed to the full authority of the Scriptures, and aware of the ways we have degraded creation, we believe that biblical faith is essential to the solution of our ecological problems. Because we worship and honor the Creator, we seek to cherish and care for the creation. Because we have sinned, we have failed in our stewardship of creation. Therefore we repent of the way we have polluted, distorted, or destroyed so much of the Creator's work. Because in Christ God has healed our alienation from God and extended to us the first fruits of the reconciliation of all things, we commit ourselves to working in the power of the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of Christ in word and deed, to work for the reconciliation of all people in Christ, and to extend Christ's healing to suffering creation. (“An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.”)
What Does God have to do with the natural environment?
God never fully relinquishes dominion over the
world. In promulgating the laws of the sabbatical
year (Leviticus 25:23), he reasserts his proprietorship
over creation, stating, “The land is mine.”
This principle of divine ownership of nature is
. . . the basis for several categories of liturgical
blessing. According to the Tosefta, “Man
may not taste anything until he has recited a
blessing, as it is written, ‘The earth is
the Lord’s and the fullness thereof’
(Psalm 24:1). Anyone who derives benefit from
this world without a (prior) blessing is guilty
of misappropriating sacred property.” The
list of blessings based on this concept includes
numerous specialized and general blessings recited
on comestibles and a host of rules and regulations
regarding their application and priorities. (Jonathan
Helfand, “The Earth is the Lord’s:
Judaism and Environmental Ethics,” in Eugene
C. Hargrove, ed., Religion and Environmental Crisis,
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986.)
God, the Source of all that is, is actively present in all creation, but God also surpasses all created things. We can and must care for the earth without mistaking it for the ultimate object of our devotion. We believe that faith in a good and loving God is a compelling source of passionate and enduring care for all creation. The very plants and animals, mountains and oceans, which in their loveliness and sublimity lift our minds to God, by their fragility and perishing likewise cry out, "We have not made ourselves." God brings them into being and sustains them in existence. (U.S. Catholic Bishops, “Renewing the Earth.” )
- An Eastern Orthodox Response
The created world itself is a "mystery" originating
in the sovereign will of God accomplished by the
action of the Holy Trinity. "In the beginning"
the Holy Trinity created the world (heaven and
earth) "out of nothing" and not out
of preexistent matter. The world is a production
of God's free will, goodness, wisdom, love and
omnipotence. God did not create the world in order
to satisfy some need of His. Rather he created
it without compulsion and without force in order
that it might enjoy His blessings and share in
His goodness. God then brought all things into
being out of nothing, creating both the visible
and the invisible. (“Orthodox
Perspectives on Creation.”
)
- A Mainline Protestant Response
Christians believe that the whole creation is God’s handiwork and belongs to God (Psalm 24:1). The creation has value in itself because God created and values it (Proverbs 8:29-31). God delights in the creation and desires its wholeness and well-being. God created the earth, affirmed that it was good, and established an everlasting covenant with humanity to take responsibility for the whole of creation. God declares all of creation good. Our proper perspective on all activity on the earth flows directly from our affirmation of God as Creator. (“American Baptist Policy Statement on Ecology.”)
The cosmos, in all its beauty, wildness, and life-giving bounty, is the work of our personal and loving Creator. Our creating God is prior to and other than creation, yet intimately involved with it, upholding each thing in its freedom, and all things in relationships of intricate complexity. God is transcendent, while lovingly sustaining each creature; and immanent, while wholly other than creation and not to be confused with it. The Creator's concern is for all creatures. God declares all creation "good" (Gen. 1:31); promises care in a covenant with all creatures (Gen. 9:9-17); delights in creatures which have no human apparent usefulness (Job 39-41); and wills, in Christ, "to reconcile all things to himself" (Col.1:20). (“An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.”)
How Do Jews and Christians View the Natural World?
Among its many facets, the Bible is the story of people who cared about and knew intimately the land around them. That knowledge is richly, even lavishly, reflected in the language of the prophets and psalmists, in the poetry of the Song of Songs and Job. The language of nature came to the people naturally, as it were, for their lives were bound up with the richness of the land, with the pastoral and agricultural economy of the time. That is why they tended the land so lovingly, that is why the cycles of their celebrations followed the seasons of the land (see, e.g. Leviticus 23). Our ancient ancestors knew the wonderful reciprocity of Creation: Creation's sheer magnificence turns the heart towards its Creator (see, e.g., Isaiah 40), and the heart that has turned to God opens, inevitably, towards Creation, towards the awesome integrity of the natural universe that is God's gift. (Daniel Swartz, “Jews, Jewish Texts, and Nature: A Brief History.”)
Christian responsibility for the environment begins with appreciation of the goodness of all God's creation. In the beginning, "God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good" (Genesis 1:31). The heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, the earth and the sea, fish and birds, animals and humans — all are good. God's wisdom and power were present in every aspect of the unfolding of creation (see Proverbs 8:22-31). It is no wonder that when God’s people were filled with the spirit of prayer, they invited all creation to join their praise of God’s goodness (see Daniel 3:74-81). The earth, the Bible reminds us, is a gift to all creatures, to "all living beings–all mortal creatures that are on earth" (Genesis 9:16-17). (U.S. Catholic Bishops, “Renewing the Earth.”)
- An Eastern Orthodox Response
The world as cosmos, i.e. a created order with
its own integrity, is a positive reality. It is
the good work of the good God (Gen. 1), made by
God for the blessed existence of humanity. The
genesis of the cosmos, being in becoming, is a
mystery (mysterion) for the human mind, a genesis
produced by the Word of God. As such, the world
is a revelation of God (Rom. 1:19-20). Thus, when
its intelligent inhabitants see it as cosmos,
they come to learn about the Divine wisdom and
the Divine energies. The cosmos is a coherent
whole, a created synthesis, because all its elements
are united and interrelated in time and space.
A serious study of the mystery of creation, through
faith, prayer, meditation and science, will make
a positive contribution to the recognition of
the integrity of creation. (“Orthodox
Perspectives on Creation.”
)
- A Mainline Protestant Response
Scripture and tradition remind us that the whole
earth is filled with the glory of God. Here in
our beloved New England we perceive that glory
in wild forests and open fields, in clear lakes
and rocky seashores, in mountains, dunes, and
rolling hills. With Martin Luther, we know that
"God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible
alone, but also on trees, and the flowers and
the clouds and stars." With Thomas Aquinas,
we affirm that "Revelation comes in two volumes
— the Bible and nature." The world is God's
creation, and God delights in it ("God saw
everything that [God] had made, and indeed, it
was very good," Genesis 1:31; "The heavens
declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows
[God's] handiwork," Psalm 19:1). (Episcopal
Bishops of New England, “To
Serve Christ in All Creation.” )
The earth is an orderly, interdependent system in which plants and animals live, adapted to their environment. The earth is characterized by diversity, richness and a variety of plants, animals, and environs, all of which were declared by God as being good (Gen. 1:31). Humans are part of the earth but do not own it since it is a gift from God entrusted to their care (Gen. 1:26; 2:15). The original innocence of the garden has long vanished; human lives and the land are marred by decay, selfishness and strife. The creation, including humanity, waits eagerly for the fulfillment of the kingdom and to be set free from brokeness and death and the sin of self-centeredness and egotism (Rom. 8:19). Ultimately, all life belongs to God, who sustains us in and through the land. The creation is no commodity to be bought and sold, used and abused. It is a gift to be enjoyed and to be handled wisely. (Au Sable Institute Forum 1987, “A Christian Land Ethic.”)
What Is the Proper Place and Role of Human Beings in the World?
In Genesis 2:15, the first humans are commanded
"to till and to tend" the Earth. This
formulation hints at a kinship with the rest of
creation that becomes even clearer when we look
at the Hebrew more closely. Avad means not only
to till, or even to work in a more general sense;
it means also, and more powerfully, to serve or
to participate in worship of the Divine. Thus,
our "tilling" is more properly understood
as service to God's Earth, a service that is not
only a profound responsibility but a direct and
critical part of our connection with and worship
of God as well. And shamar, or "tend,"
means not only to tend, but more commonly, to
guard or to watch over. What these meanings have
in common is that the shomrim guard property that
does not belong to them, but that is entrusted
to them. (Daniel Swartz, “Jews,
Jewish Texts, and Nature: A Brief History.”)
People share the earth with other creatures. But humans, made in the image and likeness of God, are called in a special way to "cultivate and care for it" (Gn 2:15). Men and women, therefore, bear a unique responsibility under God: to safeguard the created world and by their creative labor even to enhance it. Safeguarding creation requires us to live responsibly within it, rather than manage creation as though we are outside it. The human family is charged with preserving the beauty, diversity, and integrity of nature, as well as with fostering its productivity. Yet, God alone is sovereign over the whole earth. "The LORD'S are the earth and its fullness; the world and those who dwell in it" (Ps 24:1). Like the patriarch Noah, humanity stands responsible for ensuring that all nature can continue to thrive as God intended. After the flood, God made a lasting covenant with Noah, his descendants, and "every living creature." We are not free, therefore, to use created things capriciously. (U.S. Catholic Bishops, “Renewing the Earth.”)
- An Eastern Orthodox Response
In the created world only the human being combines
material and spiritual elements. In light of this
fact, the Church Fathers often speak of the human
being as a "little world", a "microcosm"
of the whole of the creation. This means that
the natural world is fully integrated with the
human being and the whole of the creation. At
the same time humanity, created in God's image
and likeness, transcends the material world because
it participates in God spiritually and consciously,
unlike the rest of the creation. Humankind then
stands on the boundary between the material and
the spiritual worlds as a connecting link. We
are called to exercise dominion over all creatures
on earth (cf. Gen. 1:28), i.e. to be stewards
of God's material world, caring for it, maintaining
it in its integrity and perfecting it by opening
it up to God. (“Orthodox
Perspectives on Creation.” )
- A Mainline Protestant Response
Humanity is intimately related to the rest of creation. We, like other creatures, are formed from the earth (Gen 2:7, 9, 19). Scripture speaks of humanity's kinship with other creatures (Job 38-39; Pss 104). God cares faithfully for us, and together we join in singing the "hymn of all creation" (Lutheran Book of Worship, page 61; Pss 148).
Humans, in service to God, have special roles
on behalf of the whole of creation. Made in the
image of God, we are called to care for the earth
as God cares for the earth. God's command to have
dominion and subdue the earth is not a license
to dominate and exploit. Human dominion (Gen 1:28;
Pss 8), a special responsibility, should reflect
God's way of ruling as a shepherd king who takes
the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), wearing a crown
of thorns. (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
“Caring
for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice.”)
Men, women, and children, have a unique responsibility
to the Creator; at the same time we are creatures,
shaped by the same processes and embedded in the
same systems of physical, chemical, and biological
interconnections which sustain other creatures.
Men, women, and children, created in God's image,
also have a unique responsibility for creation.
Our actions should both sustain creation's fruitfulness
and preserve creation's powerful testimony to
its Creator. (“An
Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.”)
Why Is There Environmental Degradation?
The real cause of [environmental] abuse is human
failure to heed religious teachings against the
exclusive importance of material goals. The real
cause of our destruction of the environment is
our total preoccupation with wealth and comfort.
To the extent that science and technology have
become the handmaidens of profit instead of truth,
they have become part of the problem and need
now to be redirected to being part of the solution.
(Rabbi Saul Berman, “Jewish
Environmental Values.”)
Adam and Eve were to have exercised their dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28) with wisdom and love. Instead, they destroyed the existing harmony by deliberately going against the Creator's plan, that is, by choosing to sin. This resulted not only in man's alienation from himself, in death and fratricide, but also in the earth's "rebellion" against him (cf. Gen 3:17-19; 4:12). When man turns his back on the Creator's plan, he provokes a disorder which has inevitable repercussions on the rest of the created order. If man is not at peace with God, then earth itself cannot be at peace: "Therefore the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and even the fish of the sea are taken away" (Hos 4:3). (Pope John Paul II, “Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All of Creation.”)
- An Eastern Orthodox Response
The human fall, which was essentially a sinful
exercising of human freedom, introduced forces
of disintegration into the body of creation. Humanity
experienced a two-fold alienation. On the one
hand, it was estranged from the Creator, since
Adam and Eve tended to hide themselves away from
the sight of God (cf. Gen. 3:8) as their communion
with the source of life and light was broken.
On the other hand, humanity lost its capacity
to enter into a proper relation with nature and
with the body of the creation. Enmity between
the natural world and human beings replaced the
relationship of harmony and care. Domination and
exploitation of the creation for selfish ends
by greedy human beings became the order of history.
Thus, manifold forms of disintegration set in
which converged in the fact of death and corruption.
Fear of death instilled anxiety, acquisitiveness,
greed, hatred and despair in human beings. Modern
forms of economic exploitation, racial oppression,
social inequalities, war, genocide, etc. are all
consequences of the fear of death and collective
signs of death. (“Orthodox
Perspectives on Creation” ).
- A Mainline Protestant Response
The roots of the crisis, however, are to be sought in the very hearts of humankind. We harbor the illusion that we human beings are capable of shaping the world. Such pride leads to an overestimation of our human role with respect to the whole of life, to the support of constant economic growth without reference to ethical values, to the conviction that the created world has been put into our hands for exploitation rather than for care and cultivation, to a blind faith that new discoveries will solve problems as they arise, and to the subsequent neglect of the risks brought about by our own making. (Church of the Brethren, “Creation: Called to Care.”)
Our God-given, stewardly talents have often been warped from their intended purpose: that we know, name, keep and delight in God's creatures; that we nourish civilization in love, creativity and obedience to God; and that we offer creation and civilization back in praise to the Creator. We have ignored our creaturely limits and have used the earth with greed, rather than care. The earthly result of human sin has been a perverted stewardship, a patchwork of garden and wasteland in which the waste is increasing. "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land...Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away" (Hosea 4:1, 3). Thus, one consequence of our misuse of the earth is an unjust denial of God's created bounty to other human beings, both now and in the future. (“An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.”)
Is There Hope for the Earth?
Yom Kippur presents us with a thesis and an antithesis. First, the thesis: This day is celebrated because it brings the good news that renewal is possible, it promotes optimism and self-confidence, and it counteracts guilt and despair by releasing us from enslavement to our bad choices, and by assuring us that correct intentions for the future redeem and atone for the past. But should our thesis lead us to imagine that all of our mistakes are revocable? The truth is that the world operates according to laws. Consequences follow upon certain acts, and those consequences can be enduring. This is our antithesis: Repentance cannot be made into a substitute for responsibility. Is there a synthesis that binds our thesis to our antithesis? It is, perhaps, this: we must believe in the power of repentance, and find the courage to change precisely in the hope that it is never too late. But we must also understand that one of God's greatest gifts to us is the very lawlike quality of the world, for it makes us into true moral agents, able to anticipate consequences, and make free and responsible choices. (Adapted from COEJL Website, “A Yom Kippur Sermon.”)
A just and sustainable society and world are not an optional ideal, but a moral and practical necessity. Without justice, a sustainable economy will be beyond reach. Without an ecologically responsible world economy, justice will be unachievable. To accomplish either is an enormous task; together they seem overwhelming. But "[a]ll things are possible" to those who hope in God (Mk 10:27). Hope is the virtue at the heart of a Christian environmental ethic. Hope gives us the courage, direction, and energy required for this arduous common endeavor. Saving the planet will demand long and sometimes sacrificial commitment. It will require continual revision of our political habits, restructuring economic institutions, reshaping society, and nurturing global community. But we can proceed with hope because, as at the dawn of creation, so today the Holy Spirit breathes new life into all earth's creatures. Today, we pray with new conviction and concern for all God's creation: “Send forth thy Spirit, Lord, and renew the face of the earth.” (U.S. Catholic Bishops, “Renewing the Earth.”)
- An Eastern Orthodox Response
God’s will, wisdom and love for the creation
in general and for humankind in particular are
revealed in the Incarnation in an inexpressible
way. One of the Trinity became Incarnate, became
man, revealing his Lordship over the whole of
the creation, and showing humanity a Lordship
in stewardship and service. Through the Incarnation
of the Word of God human beings can enter again
into a relation with their Creator which restores
them in the divine image and enables them both
to secure their being and to regain the lost condition
of their well-being. It is in this context of
the salvation which is offered by God in Christ
not only for human beings but also for the whole
of the creation that human beings have a special
responsibility to exercize their freedom in a
way which serves God’s gracious activity
for the reintegration and transfiguration of all
reality. (“Orthodox Perspectives on Justice
and Peace” in Gennadios Limouris, ed., Justice,
Peace, and the Integrity of Creation: Insights
from Orthodoxy, Geneva: World Council of Churches
Publications, 1990.)
- A Mainline Protestant Response
In the New Testament we learn that Christ not
only restores and reconciles our relationship
to god, Christ also restores our right relationship
to the creation of which we are a part. Our new
life in Christ consists of a restored relationship
to both God and creation. As people in the Body
of Christ, we and all of creation move toward
the fulfillment and wholeness intended for everything
through Christ. We are not delivered from this
world; nor are we simply assured of a greater
spiritual reality lying beyond this world. Rather
the bodily resurrection of Christ means that the
power of sin and death is defeated, and the new
creation is breaking forth in this world. (Reformed
Church in America, “Care
for the Earth: Theology and Practice.”)
God's purpose in Christ is to heal and bring to wholeness not only persons but the entire created order. In Jesus Christ, believers are forgiven, transformed and brought into God's kingdom. "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation" (II Cor. 5:17). The presence of the kingdom of God is marked not only by renewed fellowship with God, but also by renewed harmony and justice between people, and by renewed harmony and justice between people and the rest of the created world. "You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands" (Isa. 55:12). We believe that in Christ there is hope, not only for men, women and children, but also for the rest of creation which is suffering from the consequences of human sin. (“An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.”)
What Then Must We Do?
We pledge to carry to our homes, communities, congregations, and workplaces the urgent message that air, land, water and living creatures are endangered. We will draw our people's attention to the timeless texts that speak to us of God's gifts and expectations.
The ecological crisis hovers over all Jewish concerns, for the threat is global, advancing, and ultimately jeopardizes ecological balance and the quality of life. It is imperative, then, that environmental issues also become an immediate, ongoing and pressing concern for our community. (From: “A Jewish Response to the Environmental Crisis.”)
The environmental crisis of our own day constitutes an exceptional call to conversion. As individuals, as institutions, as a people, we need a change of heart to save the planet for our children and generations yet unborn. So vast are the problems, so intertwined with our economy and way of life, that nothing but a wholehearted and ever more profound turning to God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, will allow us to carry out our responsibilities as faithful stewards of God's creation. Only when believers look to values of the Scriptures, honestly admit their limitations and failings, and commit their selves to common action on behalf of the land and the wretched of the earth will we be ready to participate fully in resolving this crisis. (U.S. Catholic Bishops, “Renewing the Earth.”)
- An Eastern Orthodox Response
As churches of Jesus Christ we must challenge
the sins of imposed poverty and all forms of economic
injustice. We need to find ways, as churches,
to support sound programmes which seek to preserve
from pollution air, water and land. To speak of
the reintegration of creation today is first to
speak words of repentance and to make commitments
toward the formation of a new way of living for
the whole of humanity. For ourselves, this means
a recommitment to the simple life which is content
with necessities and sees unnecessary luxuriousness
as the deprivation of necessities owed to the
poor. We must see the created world as our own
home, and every person in it as our brother and
sister whom Christ loves. Wherever we find ourselves,
as Christians we need to act in order to restore
the integrity of creation. (“Orthodox
Perspectives on Creation.” )
- A Mainline Protestant Response
Will the church become a place where people learn how to live in this time of turning, how to engage in restoring the creation? As such, it would be a place not only for learning about the problems and finding fellowship with others who care, but also for discovering a fuller life not dependent on excesses of consumption and inequality, or an unsustainable impact on nature. The church would be a place for exploring diverse viewpoints, expressing anxieties, recovering a biblical memory, and searching for wisdom. In environmentally sensitive worship, study, and action, people would learn to bear each other’s burdens; puzzled, tired or threatened people would find new assurance and strength. Throughout all, the common thread would be the intention to be faithful in this special time as members with diverse responsibilities and opportunities in the world, and as a church with a mission to restore creation. (Presbyterian Church – U.S.A., “Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice.")
We urge individual Christians and churches to be centers of creation's care and renewal, both delighting in creation as God's gift, and enjoying it as God's provision, in ways which sustain and heal the damaged fabric of the creation which God has entrusted to us.
We commit ourselves to work for responsible public policies which embody the principles of biblical stewardship of creation. We call upon Christians to listen to and work with all those who are concerned about the healing of creation, with an eagerness both to learn from them and also to share with them our conviction that the God whom all people sense in creation (Acts 17:27) is known fully only in the Word made flesh in Christ the living God who made and sustains all things. We call on all Christians to work for godly, just, and sustainable economies which reflect God's sovereign economy and enable men, women and children to flourish along with all the diversity of creation. (“An Evangelical Declaration on the Care of Creation.”)
|