Christian view on environmental responsibility
Hadden Turner, Sedbergh, UK. Writes at: https://overthefield.substack.com
“The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the Jubilee Centre or its trustees.”
Christians, especially evangelical Christians, have sometimes found themselves designated as the chief culprits of environmental destruction, a mainstream position ever since the publication of Lynn White Jr’s hugely influential paper The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis.[1] Though White’s thesis is deeply flawed, as Francis Schaeffer[2] has demonstrated, his argument is sadly not without some degree of justification. All too often, the Bible has been misused to sanction or even encourage environmental neglect, abuse, and degradation,[3] and many modern conservative evangelicals have been too dismissive of environmental concerns.
This is a tragic situation, not only in light of the abuse and destruction that has been sanctioned and caused by the hands of Christians, but also because Christian doctrine, contrary to what many scientists and environmentalists are led to believe, provides the most powerful, comprehensive, and effective basis for environmental protection and is a force for creation’s good. I strongly believe one of the greatest needs for the modern world is for evangelical Christians to rediscover their biblical environmental responsibilities and thus retake the helm of environmental action as stewards of God’s very good earth. To this end, we need an articulation of a set of guiding environmental principles that are biblically and ecologically based. I have briefly sketched out a few such principles that I have found helpful in my own environmental engagement and action below.
Firstly, we must begin with God. He is the ultimate steward of the earth and as the Creator He alone sets the terms and the agenda for His creation and our involvement within it. In this regard, it is important to note that God has intentions for the flourishing of creation beyond mankind, as he also gave the wild creatures the command to fill the earth (Genesis 1:22). Our actions, lifestyles, and economic activity should not overly and unnecessarily impede creation’s fulfilment of this command, which represents God’s desire for His wonderfully made creatures.
Secondly, we must note that though God reigns over His creation, dominion has been given to mankind, along with the permission to change and enhance creation through our subduing of the earth. Though Eden was “very good”, it was not in a finished state; mankind had plenty of good work to do! However, it is vital to stress that our dominion is qualified and limited: it is not a blanket permission to do as we like as tyrants. Our dominion as image bearers is meant to reflect God’s dominion over us, which is shown to be throughout Scripture as wise, loving, and caring.[4] Our stewardship of creation is likewise meant to be performed in ways which are wise, sustainable, practical, and caring. All this is for the good of both mankind (for example in sustainable agriculture) and also for the flourishing, enhancement and protection of creation, so that creatures great and small can thrive and multiply.
However, in all our discussion of environmental responsibility and action, it is easy to stray from the essential theocentric perspective and become overly concerned with both anthropocentric and ecocentric concerns. The chief end of our stewardship ought to be the glory of God, and this is the singular most important principle of Christian environmentalism.
Creation, as the Bible and numerous commentators and writers throughout history have affirmed[5], displays the glory of God and reveals something to us of Him. However, though this revelation of God can never be destroyed, and His glory can in no way be lost, the expression of His glory can be obscured and marred by our sinful misuse of creation, just as the image of God in us has been obscured by sin. For example, no one surveys decimated landscape and praises God, but many are inspired to praise and worship Him after standing in front of an awe-inspiring landscape or after seeing a beautiful creature. Conservation ultimately matters because God’s glory matters. Supremely so.
A significant part of our stewardship, therefore, is safeguarding what is beautiful, useful, and diverse in creation, not only for the sake of ecosystem services that benefit humanity, but because creation showcases the glory of the Creator. Though much of modern conservation advocates for a strict preservationist position in order to safeguard creation,[6] a Biblical alternative emphasises the good done by active human management and intervention within creation.
Conservationists should already be aware of this. It is well established that the biodiversity of a given habitat is often enhanced after the reimplementation of traditional human management such as in hay meadows and the unique Welsh habitat of ffridd.[7] There is a sound ecological explanation for this. As habitats become more complex through low-intensity disturbance/modification (e.g. creating a mosaic of open and closed spaces in amanaged woodland), the range of macro and micro habitats for different species increases, which concomitantly increases species richness and biodiversity. The wonderful truth is that when mankind interacts with creation in a wise, careful and benevolent way, creation flourishes. Semi-natural habitats can be, therefore, just as important as pristine wilderness and nature reserves.
Biblical stewardship keeps us from two serious errors that characterise some secular environmentalist dogma. Firstly, anti-human attitudes are illegitimate. Though conservation and ecological stewardship do call for restraint and costly sacrifice in terms of our desires, they must not lead to human suffering or anti-humanism. Humans are not a curse, the world would not be better without us, and each life is precious. Thus, some conservation actions, such as fortress conservation where tribes have been forcefully evicted to make way for national parks, are morally impermissible.[8]
Finally, in opposition to what many young people are told at university, we should not through our environmental action aim to “save the world”. This is a false philosophy that easily leads to despair as it is an intolerably great burden to be placing on people’s shoulders, as well as being an incredibly hubristic aim. Nowhere in the Bible is any one person commanded to save the world; that is Jesus’ work alone, and neither is it possible from anecological perspective.
However, I do believe that we have a God-given responsibility for the local places where we are.[9] If we opened our eyes to the environmental needs around us, we would find more than enough work needing to be done to bring about their “substantial healing”, a term Francis Schaeffer used to describe the scale and extent of our environmental responsibilities. True, some Christians will be called to the serve in the global environmental policy arena, but this will be a minority. For most of us, our environmental stewardship will be confined to our local places, which coheres with the physical, mental limitations we have as creatures. However, all this being said, when individual Christians commit to stewarding and protecting their local places around the world, this good work will accumulate at the global level to begin to look something like the “saving of the world” secular environmentalists are after.
I believe when Christians live out the ecological stewardship implications of their faith in light of the principles above, the benefits for creation will be substantial and the good witness to the secular world will be significant. In fact, I believe the greatest need for the modern environmental movement, and indeed for creation, is for Christians globally to commit to living holy, righteous lives and to live out the good, wise, human-affirming, God-glorying work of stewardship that God originally intended for us in the local places that we find ourselves in.
In all this, we act in hope. We know God is still in control. We know He will bless our work of stewardship and will one day bring it to completion in the new creation, where mankind and all creation will exist in total harmony- for the glory of God. There is hope for creation, and it is found in Jesus: in His ongoing work of sustaining creation and his accomplished work of redemption. This is a message this despairing world desperately needs to hear.
References
[1] The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis, Science, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1720120
[2] See Pollution and the Death of Man. https://www.crossway.org/books/pollution-and-the-death-of-man-tpb-2/?srsltid=AfmBOoq8WiCKXzqDTktnAV1ga1YoPhYhHnxavhkLGYiNpAgdUqALo3NJ
[3] For a thorough historical treatment of changing attitudes towards nature see, Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural Worldhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_and_the_Natural_World
[4]See Ed Brown, Ruling God’s World God’s Way: Dominion in Psalm 8in Colin Bell and Robert S. White [eds.] Creation Care and the Gospel, (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2016), 107-108.https://www.careofcreation.net/product/creation-care-and-the-gospel/
[5] E.g. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion,1.5.1; Seth Lewis, The Language of Rivers and Stars. https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/the-language-of-rivers-and-stars?srsltid=AfmBOore_DiEiu_fURT6AXoXrJGKlkavp2ye6ZyoHDexJ1GVx0s9Vtev
[6] In a limited number of habitats, especially pristine, fragile, or especially beautiful ones, this approach is necessary.
[7] See Carwyn Graves book Tir, The Story of the Welsh Landscape. https://www.uwp.co.uk/book/tir-graves/ for a thorough treatment of the beneficial interaction between humans and natural environment, in terms of biodiversity and human culture.
[9] See my essay Where You Are is Where You Are for an extended treatment of this. https://overthefield.substack.com/p/where-you-are-is-where-you-are
