New Article: Ecotheology: Developing New Perspective

Introducing ecotheology: What it is, and ways we can use it to evaluate how we as Christians interact and care for the earth.

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Sustainability in practice.
Deuteronomy 22:6-7 If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young 7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.
Do your _________ (agricultural, energy, construction, economic development, etc) practices kill the geese that lay golden eggs?

Inseparable goods.
Exodus 23:10-11 “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Eco-theology= what is good for the land should also be good for the creatures living on it.
Contains the additional element of dependence upon God to meets needs in the fallow years. Can this be legislated in a free society?

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That is one thing I’ve always thought was best when reading through the Torah that there was actually laws in place about animal welfare and letting the land “rest”.

In genesis 1-2 it also mentions that vegetation was for animals and the fruits of the trees was for humanity. I think it was there way of saying leave stuff behind for the animals as well.

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It is interesting that some scientists are in favor of going back to the beginning and recategorizing the division between plants and animals because it’s apparent now that older theological bias clouded classification from the beginning. Plants are more like animals than we have thought. It seems like even secular scientists need to go back to square one to undo their theological underpinnings. Exciting times.

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What do you mean? I’ll have to reread the article because I don’t remember that. I’ve not seen much with scientists wanting to change the taxonomic clades of animals vs plants. Not even animals vs fungi. I’ve not seen any scientists really arguing for plants being conscious.

But definitely curious what you were meaning. I’m a big fan of nature and my favorite part of nature is the flora.

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Yes, the land must lie fallow every seven (?) years. [ oops I meant to say the land not the lend]

The Talmud also has lots of passages on the humane treatment of animals. People are supposed to feed their animals first before having their own dinner.

I feel like someone told me that before. I know that there is some stuff about “ beasts of burden “ but honestly it always seems a bit weak. It’s like the argument that a women from a tribe that was just defeated and all their males were killed were given the loving option of choosing to be a sort of sex slave or get caught by another tribe of people, assuming they survive the wilderness, and ends up in a worse sex slave condition xd.

Not at all like that.

I think it’s exactly like that.

The rise of ecotheology-type thinking is natural as climate change and loss of habitats and species are causing more serious problems. I guess this kind of theology has a more favorable ground where people suffer from these problems. In western societies, modern technology and all the other benefits given by developed societies have masked the actual state of these environmental problems and left a possibility to close the eyes from the environmental problems and focus on the other matters. There are always plenty of problems to think and some other problems may seem more acute than the somewhat obscure concepts of climate change and loss of biodiversity.

It is interesting that even the goal to evangelize the world got a flavor of ‘ecotheological’ spices when the meetings were switched away from the western societies. The Lausanne movement (lausanne.org) connects people behind the common goal of global mission. The first meeting in Lausanne produced the ‘Lausanne covenant’. Later meetings were in Manilla and Cape Town. The ‘Cape Town Commitment’ shows how the emphasis switched towards a more holistic understanding of Christian mission. It is not enough to tell the good news about Jesus or to help the poor (social activities), the lifestyle of Christians should also show how we care for the Creation. In this way we demonstrate the transforming power of God and love through our lives.

Telling the gospel or helping the poor are well understood needs even in the western societies but the more holistic view to how the life of Christians should reflect the will of God is often missing. Creation care is part of this more holistic understanding of the Christian way of life.

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Great thoughts, Knor, thanks for sharing.

Pushing this idea a little further still, I think we need to help Christians see that ‘creation care’ is also self-care, since, we are ourselves apart of, and interconnected with, Creation itself.

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I read The Overstory not too long ago and our relationship to trees is noted here:

You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes. . .

This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.

Is this along the lines of what you had in mind?

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Great quote and a greater reminder that humility is needed in our conversations and interactions with the natural world. Thanks, Mark.

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Yes, that is part of it for sure! That is a lovely way to help us see our humble position in the pattern of things. As a horticulturalist, it seems to be everywhere in the dialogue recently that we have underestimated plants in how they interact with one another. There is so much we do not know, and the first step to learning more is to reassess how we got to where we are in our assumptions. Whether or not plants are sentient by our estimation, they have more to teach us.

The questions that this article raises for me as a Christian horticulturalist are: How else has our former language of “dominion” affected our assumptions? Has it affected our scientific categorization? How we name plants and animals? How we view their processes and interactions?

The definition of nature is currently, “the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.”

It is uncomfortable to me that it was the thoughts of Christians long ago that propelled us into such definitions and assumptions. But hopefully we will be brave and humble enough to be part of the recovery of true stewardship and understanding in ecology.

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Maybe we’re being called to greater empathy beyond those who look most like us in the mirror.?

I haven’t been baptized as a horticulturist but I attend many of their meetings. :wink:

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To be fair, morality is a moving target. I try not to pull people out of history and hold them up against modern ideas of morality. Like or not, we are all products of the society and culture we live in. There is a lot of inertia in cultures, so it takes a while to move things in a better (by our estimation) direction.

I tend to view conservation as being a good neighbor which should fit in well with Christian theology. If there is a church picnic at the local park I would bet $100 that the congregation will go out of their way to leave the park in the same shape they found it, or even better. The same idea extends to all of nature. If you enjoy the beauty of untouched nature, then preserve it so others can enjoy it too.

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