Christianity and the Environment
Liberation Theology
Week 8: Christianity and the Environment
Christianity: The Most Anthropocentric Religion
Lynn White Jr. published an article in 1967 claiming that Christianity is to blame for our current crisis. White was a professor of medieval history at Princeton. He outlines the shift of humanity’s relationship to nature. In the 7th century, northern European peasants created a new type of plow that enabled them to more forcefully till the earth, and thus they no longer relied on farming to sustain themselves. In 830 A.D. there are illustrated calendars that depict images of man lording over nature. This is a marked shift from man’s relationship to nature previously, and it is augmented by theological thought.
“Is it a coincidence that modern technology, with its ruthlessness toward nature, has so largely been produced by descendants of these peasants of northern Europe?”
- Lynn White
The middle ages began with the fall of the Roman Empire and its infrastructure. The middle ages are typically viewed as a backslide in societal and cultural advancement. Yet sadly, much of our religious and theological thought is deeply rooted in medieval thought. We have yet to correct some of the deep fissures brought upon our faith due to the dark ages. Theologians and philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas and Anselm of Canterbury have had a lasting impact on Christian’s relationship to the Earth. Aquinas asserted God created nature for man to dominate and use. Anselm wrote Cur Deus Homo or “Why God Became Human” in 1098, which is where we get the satisfaction theory, or Jesus paying for our sins through death on the Cross. The idea of atonement and Jesus dying to cleanse us of sin. He was trying to answer the question of why Jesus died, but we see even in his argument he didn’t leave room for the environment. Anselm lived in the middle ages, where the feudal lords ruled in lieu of a centralized state. If there was any sort of wrong done to the Lord and his household, the wrongdoer had to pay penance in order to set things right. That was the cultural reality Anselm existed in. You can see the undertones of this feudal substitutionary atonement in his view of the crucifixion. This theory idealizes violence and decreases hope while increasing apathy. In his view, life on earth is rendered irrelevant because it is all about the end destination—heaven. Thus there is an apathy towards lived life and its consequences. There is also little regard to the earth because heaven will be a “new earth”.
Dominion: Genesis 1:26-31
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion (radah) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue (kabash) it, and have dominion (radah) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Our view of humanity and our place in the universe is largely informed by Thomas Aquinas’ theology, which he brings from Genesis 1, which is the Priestly Creation story written around 550-450 B.C.E. The words dominion and subdue used in the Genesis 1 passage can be traced back to two Hebrew words: radah, and kabash. Radah refers to humans’ relationship to animals and kabash to earth. The English words dominion and subdue have violent war-like connotations. However, this is skewed from the original intent of the author of this text. It is meant to represent a loving dominion, promoting peace and unity.
“As God is to the entire universe—the One who creates a good, blessed, nonviolent place where life is possible and order reigns—so Humanity is to be to the world. We live up to this responsibility when we make the world good, live in the just nonviolence, and render the blessed life possible here” - David Cotter
This view of dominion, paired with Anselm’s understanding of the cross has had catastrophic consequences. It has caused a celebration and condonation of violence on the earth and all its inhabitants, both human and non-human, living and non-living. This mindset has not always existed. It is only with the rise of Christianity that we see a trend towards humankind dominating the Earth, instead of tending to it. It is not the original intention.
Crew Discussion Questions:
Do agree with Lynn White that Christians are to blame for our current climate crisis?
How do you think Anselm’s understanding of the gospel creates apathy towards the earth and non-humans?
What have you been taught about dominion?
What do you think is our responsibility to the earth as Christians?
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