Environmental Stewardship: A Theological Model for the Environment
- Aug 12, 2005 - comment
There is great need for Christian discussion of and involvement in proper use and protection of the environment. Richard John Neuhaus declares, “Too many philosophers and religious thinkers, including serious Christians, have thought it necessary to look outside the Christian tradition for a way of understanding the nature and destiny of the universe, when a more convincing account can be developed from within the tradition1.” This is definitely true when it comes to the environment. Nature is God’s creation and there should be none more qualified to speak wisely and act prudently when discussing care for it than Christians. As Francis Schaeffer states, “It is the biblical view of nature that gives nature a value in itself [italics his]: not to be used merely as a weapon or argument in apologetics but of value in itself because God made it2.” However, that has not always been the case, as humans from all areas of the globe and all walks of life, including Christians, have been involved in ecological carelessness. The Western world, which is often noted for being founded on Christian traditions, has been a leader in misusing God’s creation. But, this should not be the case, for there is a clear biblical directive to support environmental care, and it works in conjunction with God’s direction for man to “fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). This can be summed up in God’s requirement for man to “work [the earth] and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). As seen through God’s created order, man has a clear industrial and caretaking responsibility for nature.
The reason for man’s abuse of nature, like all other negative aspects of humanity, is because of sin and the Fall. When God created the heavens and the earth, He deemed all of creation “very good” (Gen. 1:31). In doing so He created land, water, plants, animals, and humans, and the entirety of creation worked together in a perfect ecosystem. Because of the Fall, however, nature changed from working in perfect harmony with man to a developing struggle between man and the land. Due to the curse of sin, Adam was forced to toil with the earth (Gen 3:17-19).
Sin not only caused the development of a difficult struggle between man and the ground, but sin also invaded the heart of man. Greed, a lack of knowledge, and carelessness have often influenced man’s relationship with nature, leading to overuse, unneeded destruction, and improper care. But, there is good news, because through Christ, God has redeemed those who trust in Jesus, and through His Word, God has given Christians guidelines for properly handling and interacting with the environment. Like all other beliefs a Christian holds, Christian theology, found in God’s inspired Word, is the basis for an environmental ideology.
Environmental Theology
A Christian basis for an environmental theology is developed directly out of the Bible’s Creation record. Norman Geisler explains that Christians have a temporal view of creation, because God created the world at a specific time. There is a Creator, and the earth has a beginning (Gen. 1:1). These two facts greatly influence the Christian view of the environment. If there was not a Creator, then divinity could be found in either man or nature, if at all. However, this is not the case. God is the Creator of the universe and the focus of all actions must take place in accordance with His desires and His created order.
There are also two key aspects concerning the environment that flow out of creation: divine ownership and human stewardship3. In the Psalms David declares, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Ps. 24:1), and the Lord also says to Job, “Everything under heaven belongs to me” (Job 41:11). The Lord declares in Genesis 1 to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen. 1:28). But, this is predicated upon the fact that God is the ultimate owner of everything. Man has dominion over the earth and the environment, but he is not sovereign over it—God is. Man is to rule over the earth and nature, but he is to be a biblical ruler who is modeled after Jesus Christ, a servant king (Mk. 10:45), who keeps and protects the environment. Robert Manahan develops an ethical framework for this: nature must obey humanity and humanity must obey God, and in turn, God will be beneficent to humanity and humanity will be beneficent to nature4.
The biblical witness also makes clear that man is given certain specific jobs pertaining to nature. First, he is to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen. 1:28). Humanity is charged with procreating and multiplying the human race and then acting with dominion over all the creation. But, as already seen, dominion is to be carried out through servant stewardship. God clearly declares that man is to “work [the land] and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). It is evident that man is not to simply leave nature to itself, but rather, man is directed to work the land while at the same time caring for it. Man is created in the image of God, and by using what God has provided, he can bring forth unrealized beauty and accomplishment to God’s creation. This human-induced development, in turn, points back to the amazing creation with which the Lord blessed humanity, emphasizing God’s design for it to provide humans with goodness and prosperity. Using nature for industry in this way is a command and desire of God, but this industry is coupled with a directive to protect the land, for it should be used but not abused. This is the key to biblical stewardship of the environment.
This pattern from the creation account is continued throughout the Scriptures. God developed specific laws for His people in the Old Testament in order to ensure that they care for nature. He established laws of Sabbath rest and land resting to promote the health of the people, the land, and the animals and to prevent all from being overworked (Ex. 23:10-12). The book of Leviticus promotes proper sanitation and provides legislation against improper disposal methods. Even in times of war God demanded that the fruit trees not be indiscriminately destroyed5 (Deut. 20:19-20).
Along with these laws, God has specifically established the fact that He is the owner and true ruler of the earth (Ex. 9:29, 19:9; Is. 45:12). Everything comes from God, so He is the ultimate owner. Yet, as Psalm 115:16 states, “the earth [God] has given to man.” Because God has given humans nature and the earth, they should honor God with their use of it. Man is obviously to subdue and till the earth, but he is also to care for it. Clearly, man is the steward of God’s resources, and this stewardship requires a two-fold response: using and caring.
Connected to stewardship is an environmental ethic based on God’s creation. Christians should care for the environment because what God originally created was deemed “very good” by Him. Nature has since been corrupted by sin, but the physical and spiritual aspects of creation were made “good,” and because of Jesus Christ there is redemption of both the physical and spiritual aspects of God’s creation. At the end there will be a restoration of the goodness of humanity and nature that God originally created. Paul declares, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom. 8:19-21).
This redemption of creation is not supposed to be put off until the ultimate liberation. Because of Christ and His redeeming work on the cross, there can be substantial healing now. Schaeffer proclaims, “The Christian who believes the Bible should be the man who—with God’s help and in the power of the Holy Spirit—is treating nature now in the direction of the way nature will be [when Christ returns]6.” This is environmental theology, and it impacts directly the stewardship principles of using and caring, both of which are derived from God’s directives and the fact that His creation is “good.”
Christians should neither reject God’s call for humans to be industrious with the physical world He has provided nor His call for caring for that same physical world. A proper view of environmental stewardship requires a dual emphasis based in God’s creation ethic. However, in society and some parts of the Christian community, environmental views have developed that are contrary to God’s revealed Word. They include materialism, pantheism, and dualistic and defeatist Christianity.
Misguided Views of the Environment
Materialism
Materialism is a belief that nature simply exists, energy is unlimited, and humans can solve any world problem through science and technology. It is purely anthropocentric, denying the existence of God as a Supreme Being and Creator. Materialism is a very misguided view of the environment because it places the focus on man and his ability to reconcile environmental problems, though it was man who caused the problems. Also, materialists believe that most environmental problems stem from the maldistribution of resources. They believe that if others were simply educated on the need to redistribute the resources and care for the environment, all would be better7.
This is a highly humanistic view that believes in humanity’s basic goodness and ability to solve its own problems. However, it is not maldistribution or lack of education that has caused environmental problems. Rather, it is the sinfulness of man. No educational system and technology will ever completely heal the environment, because as Paul declares, nature is groaning and waiting for the holistic regeneration of the earth that will take place when Christ returns (Rom. 8:22).
Materialism does not lead to a biblical stewardship of creation. When one believes that nature exists eternally and that all problems can be solved through the education and enlightenment of man, nature is devalued, leading to further ravaging of its beauty and resources. When there is no value attached to nature beyond its existence and outward beauty, humans, with their fallen human natures, will destroy it in the name of economics and self-interest. A true view of nature must be grounded in its worth as a wonderful creation of Almighty God, and an environmental theology must be based on His revealed Word.
Pantheism
While materialism suffers from having no spiritual grounding of creation in the Divine, pantheism suffers from the exact opposite effect. Pantheism is the belief that all things are God or God is all. Thus, nature is revered because it is divine. Because pantheists believe that nature is divine, they desire not only to protect it from destruction and misuse but also from being used for human improvement and human purposes. They put humans on an equal level with nature because all is God. Consequently, pantheists abhor the way man uses nature, because they believe man has no right to dominion over nature and instead should be a servant of nature.
Though it has a spiritual basis, pantheism is not Christian by any means. Geisler describes it as “distinctively anti-materialistic and mistakenly anti-Christian8.” The ironic thing about pantheism is that by adhering to the belief that all is God, God is devalued. As Richard John Neuhaus states, “When all is God, there is no need for God9.” This is why Schaeffer derides, “Any ‘results’ one does get from pantheism are obtained only by projecting man’s feelings into nature10.”
Pantheists are clearly mistaken because nature is not God. Rather, God created nature, and for this reason alone it deserves respect. Nature does not have to be God to have respect; God demands respect for nature because He created it beautiful and wonderful. Also, while man and nature are equal in the fact that both were created, the Creator gave man dominion over nature leading to an unequal relationship between man and nature. God created humans in His image and gave them souls, separating them from all other living beings (Gen. 1:27). Therefore, “while there is a unity of human beings and nature, there is no identity between them11.” Furthermore, while God has given man dominion over nature, it is not a dominion to destroy. As seen earlier, it is clearly dominion to use nature and care for nature, because God desires man to be good stewards of the gift of nature, using it wisely and purposefully.
Dualistic and Defeatist Christianity
Christian groups have also held to misguided views of the environment, often leading to much destruction and poor handling of God’s gift of nature. These misguided views have typically fallen into two categories: the dualistic and the defeated. Dualistic Christians claim that the natural and physical world is evil and it cannot be redeemed to something good. Therefore, they believe they are free to treat that which is physical with disrespect and keep the focus of good things only on the spiritual. Along with dualistic Christianity, some also cling to defeatist Christianity, which is a belief that since this world is wasting away it does not matter what one does about the current earth or environment. Schaeffer calls this “poor Christianity” and cites Byzantine pre-Renaissance Christianity as an example12. These pre-Renaissance Christians only believed the heavenly was important and the rest did not matter. Some with a defeatist view also believe that Christ’s immanent return should cause Christians to worry only about witnessing and salvation, and place little focus on the environment. In many ways defeatist Christianity is similar to dualistic Christianity because both see the physical world as negative or hopeless.
This negativity is explicitly inappropriate according to God’s revealed Word. God purposefully called His creation “good” throughout each step of its creation and “very good” at the end. While it is true that Adam’s sin in Genesis was not only personal but also cosmic, affecting all of nature along with Adam’s relationship with God, God will redeem the physical along with the spiritual (Rom. 8). Indeed, God is, Himself, working toward its ultimate restoration. Paul teaches that Christ is the Second Adam, and as such, He will restore everything the first Adam corrupted through his sin (Rom. 5), returning the earth to its original Genesis relationship to man and God.
The restoration of the earth and the universe is a vital dimension in the understanding of the kingdom of God. Gordon Zerbe states, “The presence of the kingdom means that the restoration of creation’s wholeness has already begun in a real, evident, and substantial way, yet the kingdom will not be manifested in its totality and perfection until the future13.” This is an important understanding that should inform a Christian attitude toward the environment. God has already begun His restoration process with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but it is not yet finished and it will not be so until Christ returns. Nevertheless, while the intervening period of the world’s environmental and political prospects may be bleak, Christians should not simply disregard the ecology and the protection of nature. God did not call Christians to be conquerors but to be good stewards of His creation. Though Christians will not completely win and solve all of creation’s problems until Christ returns, they should not give up on striving toward improvement. Their efforts directed at improving the environment advance the kingdom of Christ over all of creation. Such an understanding runs counter to the negativity of dualistic and defeatist Christianity, which leads to gross misuse of the environment.
Conclusion
Christian environmental stewardship is derived from the biblical record of God’s created order. Gen. 2:15 records the basis for this stewardship. It is based in God’s instructions to Adam to use and care for the natural world that God gave him. While sin has since corrupted man and nature, causing greed, torment, and improper viewpoints toward the environment, the spiritual and physical perfection of the Garden of Eden will eventually be realized because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christians should look forward to the day in which the physical will no longer groan to be returned to its originally designed state and predicate their actions upon such a promise. They should properly use and care for God’s creation as good stewards of what He created and what He has given them. This proper viewpoint provides worship and respect to the Creator, humbling man under the authority of God and the saving work of Jesus Christ. Apart from the biblical views of creation, nature, and stewardship one cannot come to a truly proper view of the relationships between man and nature and the spiritual and the physical. But, once man realizes that God created nature to be “very good” and has a plan for nature and its relationship to mankind, he will be able to properly understand the need to care for it and use it, thereby fulfilling God’s stewardship requirements.
Footnotes
1 Richard John Neuhaus, “Christ and Creation’s Longings,” First Things 78 (December 1997), 20-25.
2 Francis Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man. London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1970.
3 Norman L. Geisler, Christian Ethics: Options and Issues (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1989), 302.
4 Robert Manahan, “Christ as the Second Adam,” in The Environment and the Christian: What does the New Testament Say about the Environment?, ed. Calvin B. DeWitt (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991), 51.
5 Geisler, Christian Ethics, 306-07.
6 Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man, 50.
7 Geisler, Christian Ethics, 294-296.
8 Ibid., 298.
9 Neuhaus, “Christ and Creation’s Longings,” 20-25.
10 Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man, 25.
11 Geisler, Christian Ethics, 301.
12 Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man, 28.
13 Gordon Zerbe, “The Kingdom of God and Stewardship of Creation,” in The Environment and the Christian, Calvin B. DeWitt (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1991), 85.
Further Learning
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