Nature and Christianity

I was interested to read through this week’s anthology primarily because it contained ideas that I had thought about before. Apart from most of the “hot topics” (excluding the death penalty), the biggest problem I have always had with the Church was its treatment and consideration of animals and the environment. I believe, like Lynn White suggested in the Ecology article, that the Judeo-Christian emphasis on the “transcendence of God above nature and the dominion of humans over nature has led to a devaluing of the natural world and a subsequent destruction of its resources.” (Anthology 28)

I never fully accepted the idea of stewardship: basically that the Earth is ours but we should take care of it. (Although it's not bad!)

http://www.bne.catholic.net.au/data/portal/00005057/0000/005/078/content/61961001172448723578.jpg

If anything, this mindset may be irreconcilable with my world views and is driving me away from the Church. I never liked that animals “didn’t have souls” when I was younger and have now concluded that if any living thing has a soul, every living creature must. I also am uncomfortable with the notion of “stewardship.” While I understand that this is an important principle which reconciles proper treatment of the environment with a mindset which doesn’t always make the need for taking care of the environment apparent, I think it ultimately creates the wrong thinking. (I wrote a little bit about this in my P2.) While the word “stewardship” implies servitude, the notion itself is more like a caretaker providing for its property. This creates the idea that nature is unintelligent and incapable of providing for itself, that if we weren’t on the planet, nature may be having a very hard time...when in fact we are the ones causing all the problems! Stewardship also reinforces the idea of a natural hierarchy that “humankind is superior to animals, animals to plants, plants to inanimate.” (Anthology 30) The notion of a hierarchy is unhealthy and encourages us to take license as the dominant beings of the planet—a spiritual get out of jail free pass. While those acting under the principle of stewardship are doing good by helping the environment and its creatures, the idea of stewardship itself is dangerous, enabling people to believe that “every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for [us]” as long as we treat it relatively compassionately before we eat it. (Anthology 117B)

The Church still has consideration for nature. St. Francis of Assisi is my favorite saint (and Frances my confirmation name!) because of his love of animals.

http://www.religious.marksanislo.com/gallery/pg2/oils/st_francis_tn.jpg

But I didn’t intend to make this DB entirely about criticizing the Catholic conception of environment. My careful reading of the Bible’s creation story in Genesis was particularly interesting through an environmental perspective. Initially God provides “all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven” to Adam because “It is not good that the man should be alone.” (Anthology 115) He intends the animals and creatures of the Earth to be man’s company. I thought this was a very important point when compared to God’s later treatment of the serpent after his deception. God says to the serpent that he will make man and the serpent “enemies of each other” and that future humans will “crush [serpents’] head[s]” while future snakes “will strike [humans’] heel[s].” (Anthology 117A) Animals have gone from man’s comfort and companions to his enemies in one story! I thought that in some ways the tree of knowledge could represent the realities of human existence. Humans and most other creatures have been forced to kill each other for their entire existence when it would obviously be more peaceful to live, Eden-like, in harmony with one another. While it wasn’t right to villianize the snake throughout history because of this passage, the story of Genesis just shows that animals and humans cannot always be “friends.” But another important point we can get from this story is that they can be friends.

Snakes are something to watch out for, but they're still beautiful animals that don't deserve the "bad reputation" they've been given!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7605380@N08/2982881861/

Other readings reveal a similar longing to be united. In Isaiah, “the lion shall eat straw like the ox” and “the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.” (Anthology 118) Similarly Virgil’s fourth eclogue tells the tale of a utopian world where nature willingly and peacefully provides for people and other creatures, where the “she-goats then bring home/their udders swollen with milk, while flocks afield/ shall of the monstrous lion have no fear.” (Anthology 124) While many of us, myself included, may think that Western religions have little interest in the environment, there are obvious cases where we are encouraged to think of an ideal natural world. Perhaps this imagery will encourage people to work toward such a situation and lessen the negative impact we have on our environment.

Most images of "utopia" bring up some sort of connection to nature. This one shows an ideal world integrated with nature and humanity.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeloosu/392062965/in/set-72157594243010068