The following remarks were given in at “God Is Great. Is God Green? A Conference on Evangelicals and the Environmental Task.” The conference took place in Washington, DC on November 14, 2008.
Many influential thinkers within the modern environmental movement believe that Western Civilization’s often callous and flagrant disregard of nature and the environment should be blamed substantially on Christian theology.
Forty years ago Lynn White Jr., a history professor at UCLA, wrote an extremely influential article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” published in Science magazine. White argued that Christianity, at least “in its Western form, is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen.” Erroneously believing that Christianity taught humanity’s transcendence of, and domination of, nature as a God-given trait and right, White asserted that Christianity bore “a huge burden of guilt” for encouraging humanity’s despoliation of nature.
White underscored his point by stating:
What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecologic crisis until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one . . . Both our present science and our present technology are so tinctured with orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature that no solution for our ecologic crisis can be expected from them alone. Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious . . . We must rethink and refeel our nature and destiny.
White was correct in understanding the philosophical, theological, and ethical roots of the issue. As Francis Schaeffer responded to White’s assertion at the time, “Men do what they think. Whatever their world view is, this is the thing which will spill over into the external world.”
What we think about who we are as human beings and what our relationship is to the Creator and His creation will be ultimately determinative in how we deal with environmental issues. The philosophical, theological, and ethical will ultimately trump the scientific and the political dimensions of the issue.
White and those who have followed in his footsteps in having blamed as least Western Christianity for the modern world’s ecological plight have challenged the Judeo-Christian understanding of man and his relationship to nature and have sought to either alter or defeat the Judeo-Christian understanding of both and their relationship to each other.
In part, they have misunderstood Christian theology concerning creation and the environment because too many Christians, in too many places, in too many ways, have misunderstood and misapplied the biblical teachings on the subject. Far too often what its critics such as White have rejected are “sub-Christian” theories and/or practices which have led to a despoliation and desecration of God’s creation.
What then is a truly biblical view of creation and the environment and humanity’s relation to and responsibility for it? First, God reveals that He is the Creator (Gen. 1:1). That is the basic, foundational proposition. He further reveals that His creation is valuable to Him, apart from humanity, by referring to other aspects of creation as “good” before He created human beings (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). Human beings do not appear until Genesis 1:26.
A Christian view of creation joyously affirms that God created all things. The New Testament, not only the Genesis account, maintains that God created all things (Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16-17; cf. Rom. 11:36). God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit brought the created world into existence. God the Father is the source, planner, and originator of this world (Gen.1:1; I Cor. 8:6). God the Son is the agent, the One doing the action or work of creation (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2). God the Holy Spirit is the One lovingly and paternally hovering over the earth, giving it shape and form and beauty.
Thus, a biblical approach to environmental issues affirms without equivocation that “the earth is the Lord’s” (Ps. 24:1). God, and God alone, is creation’s owner. However, the Bible also tells us that God gave human beings dominion (Hebrew radah, meaning “to rule”) over the creation and a directive to subdue it (Hebrew kabash, meaning “to bring into bondage”) Gen. 1:26-28. These are strong, dominant words in the biblical text which leave no room for doubt that God has placed human beings first in the created order.
The primacy of humanity in God’s creation is further underscored by the fact that God created Adam prior to God having prepared his habitation—the garden. Genesis 2:8 is quite clear that having created Adam (v. 7), God “planted a garden in Eden” and there God “put the man whom he had formed.” Then in Genesis 2:15, God placed man in the habitation He had prepared for him, with instructions to “dress it and to keep it.” The verb “dress” (avadh) means “to work, to till” and keep (shamar) means “to keep, guard, protect.”
Thus man had primacy in God’s creation, and as His stewards and vice-regents, men were to “dress it and to keep it” Gen. 2:15), which means to cause it to bring forth its fruit and to be developed in renewable ways for human benefit and betterment.
This divinely decreed and designed human preeminence and responsibility in the created order survived the calamity of man’s Fall (Gen. 3:1-19). After the flood, God tells Noah, “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, now I give you everything” (Gen 9:3 NIV). The Psalmist declares that God has given man “dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas” (Psalm 8:6-8 ESV).
God’s care of His creation survives the Fall, and in Genesis 9:8-17 God tells Noah that he has established a covenant “with you and with every living creature” (NIV). Then He speaks of a “covenant between me and the earth.” And the sign of that covenant was the rainbow.
God’s design for creation, even after the Fall, included divinely imposed limits on what man may do to God’s creation and those other creatures with whom God has entered into covenant. Throughout the Pentateuch we find divinely mandated limitations concerning what man may do with and to the rest of God’s creation:
-
Fields are not to be reaped to the border (Lev. 19:9).
-
The grower may harvest only from trees five years old (Lev. 19:25).
-
The land is to be idle regularly (Lev. 25:1-12).
-
Fruit trees may not be used for siege works (Deut. 20:19).
-
A mother bird is not to be taken with her young (Deut. 22:6).
-
An ox is not to be muzzled when treading corn (Deut. 25:4).
God continues as the landlord of His creation, with human beings His stewards and leaseholders who will give an account of their stewardship of His creation.
A decade and a half ago, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission convened a seminar on creation care and biblical environmental stewardship. The logo depicted the planet Earth with the phrase “Divine Ownership” around the globe’s top and the phrases “Human Stewardship” and “Personal Responsibility” occupying the rest of the planet’s circumference. “Divine Ownership” acknowledged the Bible’s declaration that “The earth is the Lord’s” (Ps. 24:1). “Human Stewardship” referred to God’s giving humankind “dominion” (Gen. 1:26). “Personal Responsibility” delineated each individual’s responsibility to both develop and preserve God’s creation (Gen. 2:15).
In summation, these passages taken together form the foundation of a biblical theology of creation care. The creation belongs to God. As stewards of His property, human beings are responsible to Him for developing and protecting His creation.
Furthermore, while God clearly grants preeminence to human beings in His creation and human life demands reverence as created in His image (Gen. 1:26), all life deserves respect. We have the right to use animals and plants for human good. We do not have the right to disregard living things or to treat them as inanimate objects. We have the right to domesticate and raise cattle and other livestock for human sustenance. We do not have the right to act in a callous, cruel or cavalier manner toward any living creature.
We have the right to use, as painlessly as possible, animals in research to better human health. We do not have the right to abuse animals or to cause them discomfort merely to develop new cosmetics.
These biblical passages further reveal that as stewards of God’s property we are responsible to develop, but not to desecrate or dissipate, God’s creation. We are required to develop God’s creation and to bring forth its fruit and increase for human benefit. The Lord’s Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30) underscores the Genesis admonition to “dress” the garden. There, the servant who buried his talent was seriously castigated for his poor stewardship and lack of productivity with the talent (resources) entrusted to his care (Matt. 25:24-29).
One additional point should be made. If we believe that God the Creator designed everything for a purpose, then it is for the Christian an act of faith, stewardship, and worship to seek the perpetuation and viability of at least some of everything in the created order until we can discern and discover what purpose God has for every living creature and plant.
A classic example is Madagascar’s rosy periwinkle, which has been proven to contain unique enzymes with significant, lifesaving, cancer-fighting properties. This enormous benefit would have been lost to humanity if this endangered plant had been eradicated before its anti-cancer potential had been discovered.
For those who have expressed concerns for the planet’s environment from a secular perspective, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we repent of past insensitivity and neglect. The bad news, from your perspective, is that
There is . . . a distinctively Christian response to ecological concerns. The Christian doctrine of creation approaches the study from a different perspective, reaches conclusions from different assumptions, proposes solutions from those different assumptions and works at ecology for different reasons.
Consequently, sometimes we will agree with secular environmentalists. We will often disagree, however, because we have a different perspective, from a different world-view, with different priorities, which will often require different conclusions and different actions.
Dr. Land is the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
No comments yet
