The Environment

Introduction

This essay was written for a conference sponsored by the Episcopal Church in 1996. I was asked to present a paper and did so. The paper was rather quickly written since I almost no advance notice that I would be presenting. As a result, I have edited it slightly. There are no footnotes, although the bibliography at the end listed the books that contributed to this paper. The paper follows.

A Christian Environmental Ethic Is Given by Revelation, not Creation

Athanasius, the father of the Nicene Creed, made a critical distinction. He expressed it in these words. "This distinction, then, Holy Scriptures very plainly makes between the eternally begotten and made or created. It declares the Son of God to be the former . . . and that the being and substance of creatures are wholly external and foreign to the divine nature."(1) Athanasius distinguishes the created from the eternally begotten because he distinguishes God's revelation in creation from that of the eternally begotten Son. If these are not distinguished then the Father who creates is identical to the Son who redeems, and therefore, Father and Son are not two distinct persons of the Trinity but one as in the heretic Arius.

For Athanasius, creation can only tell us that God is infinitely wise and powerful. It can tell us nothing of his character because creation is "wholly external and foreign to the divine nature." The divine nature is revealed in the Son. The Son as man was created, but it is his words and deeds that reveal God. That is why the Creed insists that the Son, not creation, is "God of God," "Light from Light" "very God of very God."

Jesus and an Environmental Ethic

The distinction between creation and the eternally begotten is important because it tells us that ethics is not revealed in creation but in the Son. When we look at Jesus we discover three qualities directly relevant to an environmental ethic. First, Jesus Christ lived and proclaimed a radical economic ethic based on compassion, sharing, simplicity, and limits on the accumulation of wealth. Secondly, he rejected the usual power relations of dominance and insisted that his followers seek the welfare of others. Finally, he rejected the idea that his fundamental biological needs, such as the need for bread, or his relations with his family, were paramount. Rather, all things were subject to the Word of God and the ethic of the Kingdom. These three aspects, biological needs, wealth, and dominance are the fundamental causes of environmental destruction in our time. They were conquered by Jesus in his temptations where the devil offered him food, the earth's kingdoms, and preeminence by leaping off the temple.

Biblical and Pagan Ethics Contrasted

The ethics of Jesus has its roots in the Old Testament revelation. This revelation did not begin with creation. Rather, it began with the Exodus and the entrance into the Promised Land. This was a profound social, political, and economic revolution which was undergirded and reinforced by a religious revolution. The books by Gottwald, Boling, Mendenhall, Frankfort, and others make this clear. The character of this biblical revelation can be seen against the background of Israel's neighbors which was a religion taken from nature.

The religion of Israel's neighbors began with creation as formulated in their creation myths. These myths varied in detail, but essentially they envisioned creation as a process of birth from above. Higher deities gave birth to lower, working down through the hierarchy to the higher humans, the divine king, his divine escort the queen, the bureaucracy, priestly caste, army, and finally, down to the lowest peasant. Furthermore, those directly born of the gods were themselves divine, since birth produces like.

For ancient peoples, life on earth reflected heaven, and therefore, the hierarchy of the gods was reflected in a stratified social organization with those at the top controlling those at the bottom. Those directly born of the gods (the Egyptian pharaoh), were divinely sanctioned to rule and own the land and its people. This social order was reinforced in religious rites and festivals in which the creation myths served as liturgical texts celebrating the rule of the elite as ordained in the beginning. In this way, the creation stories of Israel's pagan neighbors validated a stratified political, economic, and religious social system. As will be seen later in this essay, a similar economic and political order of dominance is now being implemented on a world scale. It is this structure of dominance that lays waste to the environment.

Israel did not begin with creation, but with God's historical act of deliverance from Egypt and the gift of the Land. With time, however, Israel reflected on creation and its relation to God's acts in history. This led to the two creation accounts of Genesis. They were not derived by observing nature as it is, but by reflection on nature in light of God's intent for nature as revealed in the gift of a land flowing with milk and honey. In this way they differ from other creation myths which begin and end with nature as it is and not as God intends it. This difference can be seen in the Genesis creation accounts.

In both creation accounts of Genesis one and two, God is one and creates directly without an intervening hierarchy between God and humanity. Further, neither account makes any distinction between persons except for male and female whose relatedness reflects the divine image. Secondly, both accounts avoid the metaphor of birth for creation. In the first account, God creates through his Word, and in the second, humans are made from very earthly materials, clay, and given breath by God as were all animals. There is no hierarchy which ranks people in a dominance order, but all are created equal before God and each other.

Further, both Genesis accounts place limits on the human use of the environment. In the first, humans are given the right to rule over creation (Gen. 1:26), but this dominion was to preserve God's original goodness for creation, and further, it was limited by God's rest of the seventh day (Gen. 2:2-3). This rest was reflected in Hebrew legislation that protected the land and its animals (among many passages, note Lev. 25:1-7, 26:34-35). Further, in the second account, earth is seen as a garden, an Eden, a delight, and the role of humans is to preserve and enhance the original beauty of God's world.

According to the Genesis creation narratives, God is wholly good and his creation is good. Unlike other creation accounts, the Genesis creation narratives contain no violence. There is no killing, disease, floods, or chaos in any form. Plants provide the only food. Because of a mysterious primordial sin, violence and chaos entered the world and nature is corrupted as seen in Genesis chapter three. We now live in that corrupted world. The creation narratives describe how God intends the world to be, not as it is. God's intent for creation was fulfilled in Jesus who overcame chaos by his miracles and mighty resurrection.

For pagan religion, both nature and their gods derived from nature were mixtures of good and evil. There is sunshine and rain, health and happiness. But there is also drought, disease, floods, earthquakes, environmental degradation both human and non-human, and disasters of all kinds. For affluent moderns, this often makes little sense. For them, creation is ideally a pristine wilderness posing little threat. They are buffered from its droughts, diseases, and floods by access to medical care and the local supermarket. Ancient peoples, poor peoples, agrarian societies, know the environment is dangerous and invaded by chaos. This power of chaos cannot be overcome by humanity alone, only God restrains the chaos of creation. In Christ, however, human beings are given the grace to restore the environment to its original condition as a garden. Therefore evangelism, conversion to Christ is of supreme importance. The gospel is only relevant, however, if it proclaims Eden's original purpose -- a place of delight where the poor can find food and not just a pristine wilderness. Moreover, this gospel requires a return to the biblical vision of a just society.

The fact of evil within creation, however, poses a problem. If God is good, how can creation contain any evil? For classical Christian thought, the chaos of creation does not begin the Creator. God created all things good. Both creation stories make this utterly clear. According to both accounts, creation became corrupted as a result of human sin. Human sin not only directly destroys the environment, as for example in strip mining and excessive logging, but sin releases non-human powers, the powers of chaos that have invaded God's good earth. This can be seen throughout Scripture--the curse on the ground of Genesis 3, the Flood, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, numerous eschatological passages, such as Isaiah 11:6-9, Amos 9:13-15, Isa. 41:17-20, 55:12-13, Rev. 21:1-4, and above all in Jesus who fulfilled the covenant and established a new creation by his healings, nature miracles, and mighty resurrection.

To summarize, the Hebrew revelation of God contradicted the religions of nature in several critical points. First, it eliminated hierarchy and dominance. For Israel only God was divine and no human could claim divine status as did the divine pharaoh and his elite. Secondly, it limited territorial ambition by the distribution of the land and it forbade its sale outside the family. The story of Naboth's vineyard is paradigmatic. There were limits on wealth and ownership of land. It also envisioned creation as a garden and limited it use by the Sabbath rest. And finally, and this will developed later, it laid the foundation for a subsequent understanding of marriage as a lifelong union between one and one woman. As will be seen later, this denies one aspect of biology, the urge toward polygyny. Although these aspects of Hebrew faith can be seen in their creation accounts, their prior and ultimate ground is the Exodus -- God's concern for the oppressed and his desire that all have land as well as mates.

The Hebrews did not fully realize their new social vision. It was continuously corrupted by baal worship which justified the rule of power and wealth. Nevertheless, the vision was placed before them. It formed the basis of the prophetic critique of religion, the apocalyptic hope of a new heaven and new earth, the dream of a just ruler, and it was realized fully in the life and proclamation of Jesus. From there, it provided a goal for western civilization, a goal that has now been abandoned.

The unique perspective of the Hebrews has theological implications. First off all, the Hebrew God transcended nature. Alone among its neighbors, Israel was forbidden to worship images because all images derive from nature. Rather, Israel's God revealed himself in specific events. This entailed a differentiation in God, a God who transcends nature yet speaks and acts. The aspect of God speaking or acting was denoted by such terms as the "Word" of God, or God's "right hand," or visually, the "face" of Yahweh. Once God spoke, he continued to act in fulfillment of his Word or deed and this continued action shaped history and formed community in accordance to the spoken Word or deed. These three aspects, God beyond all reality, God speaking and acting, and God forming community, later came to correspond to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the Father cannot be seen or grasped. God the Father sends or begets the Son the Word, from whom both the Spirit proceeds to realize the realities given in the Word. This trinitarian and incarnational faith is summed up in the Creeds. It is the foundation of a Christian understanding of the environment.

A few more comments are in order. To say that evil has invaded creation, that God's good earth has been corrupted, is not to say that matter is evil. An almost unconscious modern assumption is that matter is impervious to grace which lead to the conclusion that its corruption implies ultimate evil. The Manicheans held such a view. They believed in the two ultimate principles of good and evil and assigned matter to the latter. That position was rejected by the church fathers. Matter, the cosmos, its plants, animals, and persons, participate in the drama of salvation. All of creation participates in the Fall of Genesis three. Augustine was wrong to think that sexual intercourse was the primal instance of original sin, but he was right that our genetic inheritance carries what the sociobiologist Symonds describes as a "nightmare from the past." (2) Nature may be corrupted, but all of it is redeemed in Christ. This is utterly different from Manicheanism which holds that matter cannot be redeemed.

The Example of Sociobiology

One way of understanding the consequences of an ethic based on nature is to consider the results of sociobiology. Sociobiology is the study of the genetic roots of human social behavior. As such, sociobiologists study human beings in the wider context of animal behavior. In relation to other animals, it can be seen that humans are territorial, aggressive, dominance hierarchical, polygynous, reciprocally altruistic, highly social, and able to make and use tools. The fact that humans are aggressive and territorial means that humans expand territories by conquest. This behavior carries on the genes of the conqueror and therefore warfare is adaptive. Wilson suggests that genocidal war was and is one of the primary ways human beings have assured the survival of their own genes. (3) Furthermore, common to many animals, humans develop hierarchies of dominance where dominance is understand as having the best access to food, sex, resting places, and so forth. Studies have shown that the offspring of dominant animals are much more likely to survive and therefore dominance is adaptive. Furthermore, since females parent only a few offspring and only after prolonged gestation, they are concerned to ensure that those offspring survive. They seek mates who possess power and wealth and males that are adaptive have the capacity to obtain these resources. This trait, in common with virtually all mammals, means that polygyny, whether serial or simultaneous, is the normal human arrangement for sexual reproduction.

Altruism is a behavior that denies or endangers an individual's survival for the sake of others. It has been a knotty problem in sociobiology, but its solution is formulated in terms of kin. A species possessing a gene pool reinforcing altruistic behavior may survive as a species through the sacrifice of some of its members who share its gene pool. Nevertheless, an individual cannot be expected to be altruistic toward other species and the environment. For example, it is not hard to image what would happen to a human subspecies whose individuals cared more for animals and plants than for themselves or their offspring. They would soon be extinct. Their genes would not be propagated. Humans may show pity or compassion toward animals, and they do, but not to the detriment of their own children. Therefore, since reproduction is genetically adaptive, and since parents provide for their offspring at all costs, we cannot expect our genetic endowment to induce a strong concern for the environment. From a sociobiological perspective, all organisms are simply the packaging for DNA replication. To put it simply, DNA just doesn't care about the environment.

For millions of years successful species have exploited their environment up to its limits, or exceeded that limit by destroying the environment and themselves in the process. It still goes on today. Locusts strip their environment of all vegetation, rats have escaped from ships onto South Sea Islands and killed off their rare bird populations, and a number of large animals were driven to extinction when a land bridge made possible the arrival of humans in the Americas. In terms of nature, or an ethic derived from nature, it is "normal" for species to destroy each other. For example, there is strong evidence that human beings were a significant factor in the killing off the larger fauna in both North American and Australia.(4) There have been those who have claimed that the Christian religion, with its command to subdue the earth, Genesis 1:26, provides the impetus for environmental destruction. Apart from revelation, however, it is more reasonable to think that human beings, like other animals, simply follow their biological urges.

In short, a sociobiological study of human beings shows that they are capable of mixing altruism and aggression, but for individuals and the species as a whole, the drive toward territory, control of resources (dominance), and reproduction, is extremely powerful. This is the drive that leads to the destruction of the environment.

The Emergence of the Pagan Form in the West

The Kingdom of God as lived and proclaimed by Jesus has profoundly effected Western society. It began with the proclamation of the gospel in the ancient pagan world and it unleashed social forces that formed the West for centuries. The classic by Charles Cochrane gives a brilliant account of why western civilization broke with its pagan past and adopted a new social vision. In many ways, however, the vision was scarcely ever implemented. By and large the social and economic systems of the West have been controlled by elites who monopolized wealth and power. There were always exceptions, the monastic movements for examples. These efforts were only possible because medieval society honored the witness of Scripture and Christian tradition. That is no longer the case.

In the eleventh century improving economic conditions and the formation of towns put pressure on the original ideal. Some of the limits placed on economic life were undermined. Aristotle was brought into relationship with Christian theology. The starting point of his thought was nature, and he easily justified oppression in its various forms (slavery, women) by an appeal to the evident fact that the strong dominate the weak.

Momentous and extraordinary changes occurred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, the Discoveries, and the Enlightenment ushered in a new age. The new technology enabled the human species to exploit the environment on an unprecedented scale. There was a spectacular increase in population linked to an ever increasing degradation of the environment. For this to happen, the vestiges of Christian economic thought had to be discarded. This was easily accomplished. The book by Tawney gives an excellent description of the process. Furthermore, an ideology had to be developed to justify the exploitation. That ideology was and is capitalism.

Capitalism abolishes the biblical restrictions on usury, on limits, and on a concern for one neighbor. It was and is believed that the free play of the market harmonizes the drive for greed and power into a grand advance for all. The heart of the system is investment for profit. The system annually requires profits beyond investment which means continuous growth entailing an ever increasing use of natural resources and the relentless destruction of the environment. This bears repeating: continual growth is vital if a corporation is to prevail in the marketplace, and profits must always increase, leading to continual expansion and exploitation of the environment. Expansion, accumulation, are at the heart of the present order and therefore, continuous exploitation follows inevitably.

Adam Smith used the Greek idea of an intrinsic natural harmony to disguise the real heart of his system -- a pagan return to dominance and territorial acquisition. A great deal of contemporary social thought continues the deception by separating economic analysis from political and historical analysis, thereby disguising the terrible social impact of capitalist economics on the human community. Though lacking any real solution, Marxist thought at least lays bare the root of the problem, the inordinate drive to accumulate in relation to all aspects of life. Marxist thought is logically able to relate imperialism, war, extraordinary waste, and the relentless exploitation of workers and the environment to the capitalist lust to accumulate. Samir Amin, for example, makes "primitive accumulation" his central theoretical concept, an approach which is congruent with that given here.

In actual practice Marxism produced its own elite and did little for the environment. The Soviet elite exploited its workers, and the pollution of their environment has been appalling. In the more democratic countries a limited democracy humanized the face of capitalism, but has done little to protect the environment. The real face of capitalism, however, can be seen in the non-democratic "lesser developed" countries, those ravaged by imperialism and run by elites who exploit the environment and their populations. Out of desperation these impoverished populations then turn on the environment itself. They slash and burn, and they, along with the loggers, the petroleum interests, the mining corporations, eco-tourism, and expanding populations, devour the earth in the relentless thirst for profits, pleasure, and living space.

As it stands now the entire world is integrated into an international economic order. This order has granted inordinate political power to a wealthy global elite, undermined democracy world-wide by removing real economic decisions from popular control, contributed to the devastation of the world's environment, substituted monolithic, violent, and insipid entertainment for indigenous cultures and religious faiths, escalated the gap between the world's rich and poor, and all this has and will require the use of military force which has been selectively measured out against those judged unable to really defend themselves. In short, the ancient pagan system is being implemented on a world scale.

Theologically, the worst thing we can do is to return to the ancient pagan perspective. That, of course, is what is happening. That perspective has already been thoroughly lived, tested, examined, and rejected. Nevertheless, it reappears in each and every generation. Adam Smith was typical. He was an enlightenment gentleman who believed his grand harmony belonged to the eternal order of things. That is and was a fantasy to think there was an invisible hand that would subdue the pagan impulse to dominate, acquire, and exploit. It is also a fantasy to believe that reverence for nature, the presumed virtue of pagan thought, will result in less environmental destruction. Native Americans, ancient Celts, or African tribesman may have apologized to the animals they killed, but they killed them none the less. Humans have been exterminating other species from the beginning, although the advent of advanced technology has now made the killing remarkably efficient. The human species, then and now, knows very well that the name of the game is "survival of the fittest."

When one compares nature as presented in the Christian vision with that of pagan myth, one cannot help but note the difference. Gone is the inherent violence, the killing of Tiamat by Marduk, the partitioning of her body to form the earth and sky. The Christian vision has no need of these insights. God intends creation to be good, very very good, where good is not defined by nature but by God's vision of a new heaven and a new earth.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The suckling child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned young child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6-11).

Concluding Comments

Finally, let me conclude with a few words on theology. In my view, a great deal of the environmental thinking fails to make the Athanasian distinction. It sees no real difference between creation and redemption, and between Father and Son within the triune life. It is essentially monist. I'm thinking of people like Matthew Fox, Sallie McFague, or Elizabeth Johnson. I suggest reading Karl Barth and Robert Jenson. Barth's theology was worked out in the midst of the most terrifying example of paganism the world has probably ever seen, the Nazi pagan religion and program. The way forward is not to adopt the concept of nature as a harmonious self-regulating system. From a scientific point of view, the world may be self-regulating, but it is also utterly blind. It may seem reasonable to some that we should preserve the environment in all its beautiful diversity, but that is not a conclusion drawn from nature. Nature has little or nothing to say on this matter. In fact, if scientific studies of the earth's history are correct, there have been several massive extinctions over the last billion years. One more won't hurt anything. The microbes will survive, and a few million years from now, the diversity, beauty, and harmony will be restored.

If we want an environmental ethic, the way forward is a strong affirmation of Trinitarian and Incarnational faith that grounds ethics in the action of Christ who redeems creation by suffering for sin on the cross and establishing a new world by his mighty resurrection.

What must we do? First, we must affirm and return to our Christian heritage. This means conversion, conversion to Jesus Christ the Lord. Christ is the redeemer of the world and that includes the environment. Secondly, we must deny by word and deed the principles that govern today's world. This means simpler living, a refusal to climb the ladder of success, and limits on our own wealth and number of offspring. The monastic orders can provide guidance at this point. Further, the church itself reflects the world order. Action in both church and world is needed to reduce gross economic inequalities, to give power to those affected by it, and to limit the devastation of the environment.

Finally, I do not think the present order can be stopped until it exhausts itself. In the meantime, those of good will must work together to hold the line as much as possible, and to keep a alive the vision until circumstances makes its adoption the only viable and sane alternative.

Here are some of the books that contributed to the writing of this paper.

Bibliography

1. Amin, Samir. Accumulation on a World Scale. Translated by Brian Pearce. New York and London: Monthly Review Press, 1974.
2. Ardrey, Robert. The Territorial Imperative. New York: Atheneum, 1966.
Athanasius, St. The Orations of S. Athanasius Against the Arians. London: Griffith Faran and Company.
3. Baran, Paul A. The Political Economy of Growth. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1957.
4. Barnet, Richard J. and Cavanagh, John. Global Dreams Imperial Corporations and the New World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
5. Barnet, Richard J. The Global War Against the Poor. Washington, DC: The Servant Leadership Press.
6. Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics. Vol. I-IV. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1936 61.
7. Boling, Robert G. Judges. The Anchor Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1975.
8. Boling, Robert G. and Wright, G. Ernest. Joshua. The Anchor Bible Series. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1982.
9. Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982.
10. Cochrane, Arthur C. The Church's Confession Under Hitler. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1967.
11. Cochrane, Charles Norris. Christianity and Classical Culture. New York: Oxford university Press, 1957.
12. Cross, Frank Moore. Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973.
13. Doehaerd, Renee. The Early Middle Ages in the West: economy and society. New York: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1978.
14. Finegan, Jack. Myth and Mystery An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989.
15. Finley, M.I. The Ancient Economy. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973
16. Fox, Matthew. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.
17. Frankfort, Frankfort, Wilson, and Jacobsen. Before Philosophy. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973.
18. Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. The Rise of Modern Paganism. New York: W.W. Norton and Company,
19. Gottwald, Norman K. The Tribes of Yahweh. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979
Jenson, Robert W. The Triune Identity. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982.
20. Johnson, Elizabeth A. She Who Is. New York: Crossroad, 1992.
21. Little, Lester K. Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe. Ithica, New York: Cornell Univrsity Press, 1978.
22, Lorenz, Konrad. On Aggression. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1963. Translated by Konrad Lorenz
23. McFague, Sallie. Models of God. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987.
Mendenhall, George. E. The Tenth Generation. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1973.
24. Pois, Robert A. National Socialism and the Religion of Nature. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1986.
25. Ruether, Rosemary. Sexism and God-talk. Boston: Beacon Press, 1983.
Ruether, Rosemary. Woman-Church. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.
26. Symonds, Donald. The Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
27. Tawney, R. H. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. New York: The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., 1955.
28. Wilson, Edward O. Sociobiology, The New Synthesis. Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 1975.

Endnotes

1. Athanasius, St. The Orations of S. Athanasius Against the Arians, (London: Griffith Faran and Company), pp. 150-1.
2. Donald Symonds, The Evolution of Human Sexuality, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 313.
3. Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology, The New Synthesis, (Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 1975), p. 573.
4. For Australia, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_megafauna. For North America, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010608081621.htm.

Manhattan, Kansas, 1996