Climate
Chaos
What‟s Love Got
To Do With It?
Rev Dr David Gregory
Senior Minister,
Croxley Green Baptist
Church, UK
Variations in Earth‟s Temperature 1000 - 2100AD
2100 : +1.5 to 5.5oC
“The ecological crisis
caused by the progressive
destruction of nature was
brought about by
Christianity and science
together; and if man and
nature want to win a chance
to survive, then Christianity
and science must revise
both the picture of man
found in traditional belief …
and the picture of man
reflected in Cartesian
science”
J.Moltmann,
The Future of
Creation (1979)
New
Zealand
Coastal Wetland,
Portugal, 1990-present
“The potential impact of the
world‟s major faiths on
mitigating dangerous climate
change is enormous … Faith
community leaders can help
communicate the message …
You can – and do – inspire
leaders to change”
Ban Ki-Moon (Windsor, 2009)
Chaos
“In the beginning God
created the heavens and
the earth… the Spirit of
God was hovering over
the waters”
(Gen 1v1,2)
“Let the waters under
the sky be gathered into
one place, and let dry
land appear”
(Gen 1v9)
Order
Creation is open
- free to change +
fulfill potential within
purpose of God
- Disconnection with
God means that
fulfillment of potential
is limited
-Human action
contributes to
unfulfillment
Chaotic Attractor
“Let us
make
humankind
in our
image …”
“… let them
have
dominion ..
over .. the
earth”
(Gen 1v26)
(Gen 1v26)
All rubbish in the end
Plato
“Let us
make
humankind
in our
image …”
“… let them
have
dominion ..
over .. the
earth”
(Gen 1v26)
(Gen 1v26)
All rubbish in the end
Plato
Francis Bacon
The goal of science was ..
“the restitution .. Of man to
the sovereignty and power
… which he has in his first
state of creation”
(16th Century)
DISCONNECTION
“Let us
make
humankind
in our
image …”
(Gen 1v26)
“God took
the man
and put
him in the
garden of
Eden to till
it and keep
it”
(Gen 1v26)
“through (Jesus) God was
pleased to reconcile all
things .. By making peace
through the blood of his
cross”
Col 1v20
“Then I saw a new a
heaven and a new earth
… and the sea was no
more … See I am making
all things new”
Rev 21v1,5
Celtic
Christianity
6-7th
Century
Francis of
Assisi
12th Century
“Praised be You my
Lord with all Your
creatures,
especially Sir
Brother Sun,
Who is the day
through whom You
give us light.”
“Underlying this love of
nature was a deeper sense
of the sacredness of the
earth itself and its
closeness to human kind”
The Celtic Way
(Bradley, 2003)
“Caring
for
Creation”
1983
Eternal life of new
creation begins now,
living and working with
God towards fulfilment of
human and creation
potential
1999
“Creation
Care”
2010
Creation Care - Environmental Ethics
Utilitarian
Rule
Virtue
Mills
Kant
Plato
“Needs of the
many outweighs
the needs of the
few”
(Star Trek 2 “The
Wrath of Khan”)
“If you will only
obey the LORD
your God …
blessed shall be
the fruit of your
ground”
Deut 28v1ff
Love is …
bringing the
best out of
each other
Utilitarian
Mills
“Needs of the
many outweighs
the needs of the
few or the one”
(Star Trek 2 “The
Wrath of Khan”)
Rule
Kant
Environmental Ethics
"When you reap the harvest of your
land, do not reap to the very edges of
your field or gather the gleanings of
your harvest. Leave them for the poor
and the alien. I am the LORD your God.“
Lev 23v22 (The Bible)
“The
“If you will only
obey the LORD
your God …
blessed shall be
the fruit of your
ground”
Deut 28v1ff
FIFTETH YEAR .. do not sow .. it is a
jubilee .. ; eat only what is taken directly
from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee
everyone is to return to his own
property.”
Lev 25v11-13
Environmental Ethics
“ „Love the Lord your
God with all your
heart and with all
your soul and with all
your strength and
with all your mind„;
and, „Love your
neighbour as
yourself.‟ ”
Luke 10v27
Virtue
Plato
Love is …
bringing the
best out of
each other
" Love the Lord
your God ..”
“God saw all that
he had made, and
it was very good.”
(Gen 1v31)
Love what God
loves?
Creation Care
WHAT? HOW?
Maintain potential of creation?
T
CO2
Love your neighbour
as yourself.‟
“All countries will be
affected … the poorest
countries and
populations will suffer
earliest and most, even
through they have
contributed least to the
causes of climate
change”
(The Stern Review, “The
Economics of Climate
Change”)
The Parable of the Good
Samaritan
“We call on our sisters and
brothers in Christ ..
especially in churches in
highly industrialised nations
.. to take responsibility for
the ecological damage they
have caused”
Pacific Conference of
Churhes, Sept 2007