Christian Ecotheologies

…the killing of Mother Earth in our time is the number
one ethical, spiritual, and human issue of our planet.
~Matthew Fox
CLIMATE IS OUR PLANET’S LARGEST, MOST IMPORTANT VULNERABLE
INTERLOCKING SYSTEM; IT ALLOWS FOR AND SUSTAINS LIFE.
DESTABILZATIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES….”
BOOKS RECOMMENDED
Sallie McFague, A New Climate for Theology: God, the
World, and Global Warming
 Denis Edwards, Ecology at the Heart of Faith
 Charlene Hosenfeld, Eco-Faith: Creating & Sustaining
Green Congregations
 Leonardo Boff, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor

DAN SPENCER, GAY AND GAIA
UCC ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICIST
Ecological location is where we are situated within human
society and the wider biotic community. The biotic
community and the Members of the biotic community are
active agents interacting with and shaping the other
members of biotic ecological community.
 We are shaped by the land, water, air, and fire (energy
used) as well as the creatures of a given locale.

OUR ECOLOGICAL LOGCATION
We live in a semi-arid to arid environment in SoCal
 We are in a serious drought; It effects not only humans
and other life.
 Farming, drilling for fossil fuels, energy used to transport
water to us from Northern California.
 Polluting aquifers
 Excessive consumerism

PROBLEMS

Lynn White, “The Historical Root of Our Ecologic Crisis,”
1967.
ANTHROPOCENTRISM
Genesis 1:38 “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth
and subdue (kabash) it, and have dominion over (radah)…
 two verbs radah and kabash signify violent assault and
crushing—image of conquest of subduing

ANTHROPOCENTRISM
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“God planned all this for this explicitly for man’s benefit
and rule; no item in physical creation had any purpose
save to serve man’s purposes…Christianity is the most
anthropocentric religion the world has see.” White
PROBLEM 2
Genesis 2-3 are an etiological story about the human
condition
 Adam and Eve were never historical.
 The interpretation of Western Christianity understands
original sin as transmitted through sexuality.
 The Earth was tainted by human fallenness.

CONSEQUENCES
The Fallenness of the Earth
 The Development of Atonement Model (Anselm of
Canterbury)
 Protestant & Catholic theologies of redemption are
heavily indebted to sin-guilt model.
 Therefore, redemption is an Incarnation rescue mission to
save humanity from sin.

MOVE FROM A SIN-GUILT MODEL TO GRACE MODEL
This existed in Celtic Christianity and Orthodox
Christianities
 Read: Patrick Cheng, From Sin to Amazing Grace.

WHAT IF WE LEFT BEHIND THE SIN-GUILT MODEL OF
ATONEMENT?
John Duns Scotus God intended Christ’s Incarnation
before Creation.
 This moves in the directions of modern Catholic,
Protestant and Orthodox theology to understand Creation,
Incarnation, and Salvation as the Flow of God’s Divine
Love.
 We need to reframe our theologies with an ecological
perspective.

RESULTS OF ANTHROPOCENTRISM
Man is superior to and separate from Nature.
 Everything is for the benefit and use of humanity.
 Loses the Theocentric perspective of the text
 Callous Indifference to other life

ECOLOGICAL CHRISTOLOGY

“An ecological Christology means that God is with us—we
are dealing with the power and love of the universe; it
means that God is with us—on our side, desiring justice
and health and fulfillment for us.; it means that God is
with us –all of us all people and other life forms, but
especially those who do not have justice, health, and
fulfillment.” Sallie McFague
DIVIDES CHRISTOLOGY INTO 2 FORMS.

Prophetic Christology

Sacramental Christology
PROPHETIC CHRISTOLOGY
Jesus’ ministry to the oppressed should be extended to
nature
 Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
 Should we not extend the model of loving others to
Nature? Deserving justice and compassionate care?
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SACRAMENTAL CHRISTOLOGY
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“The incarnation is a crucial feature of an ecological Christology
for two reasons. By bringing God into the realm of the body, of
matter, nature is included with the divine reach.”
“Incarnational Christology means that salvation is neither solely
human not spiritual. It must be for the entire
creation…Incarnational Christology says that God wants all of
nature and all other entities to enjoy well-being to both and spirit.”
INCARNATION

“The flesh that is embraced by God is not limited to the
human. It includes the whole interconnected world of
fleshy life and, in some ways, the whole universe to which
flesh is related and on which it depends.” Denis Edwards
NEW ZEALANDER NEIL DARRAGH

“To say that God became flesh is not only to say that God
became human but to say also that God became an Earth
creature, that God became a sentient being, that God
became a living being, that God became a complex Earth
unit of minerals and fluids, and that God became an item
in the carbon and nitrogen cycles.”
NIELS GREGERSEN

“…the incarnation of God in Christ can be understood as
a radical or deep incarnation, that is, an incarnation into
the very tissue of biological existence, and system of
nature. Understood this way, the death of Christ became
an icon of God’s redemptive co-suffering with all sentient
life as well as with the victims of social competition. God
bears the cost of evolution, the price involved in the
hardship of natural selection”
AN ECOLOGICAL CHURCH
Churches are not ecological
 Bringing the Church back to the Earth
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“The world cannot be left out. The church must become
ecological through and through.”
“GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD (COSMOS) THAT GOD GAVE GOD’S ONLY CHILD SO THAT
EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN GOD MAY NOT PERISH BUT MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.”
JOHN 3:16
“OIKOS”
Oikos—household, the Church
 We derive the words, ecumenical, ecology, and economics
from oikos.


Household is the whole planet; it is composed of human
beings in interdependent relations with all other life-forms
and earth processes
OIKOS--ECOLOGY

Ecology is the study of earth’s organization along with
everything that affects them: it is the study or organisms
in their homes and their interactions with one another.
Once this basic knowledge is learned is difficult to deny.
WESTERNERS THINK OF THEMSELVES AS INDIVIDUALS, NOT AS A MEMBERS OF A
COMMUNITY AND EVEN LESS OF PART OF A PLANETARY COMMUNITY
Solutions: Ecological Literacy
 She quotes Wallace Stevens: “ Nothing is itself taken
alone. Things are because of interrelationships.”
 Everything is related to everything else.
 See ourselves as part of the web of life, an incredibly
vast, complex , subtle, beautiful web that amazes us
can call forth our concern.

CHANGE OUR THINKING
Ecological unity of ourselves, life, and our planet is not an
interpretation of reality, it is what science describes as
our “interconnectedness.”
 We must begin to see ourselves as interrelated and
interdependent with animate and inanimate elements of
our planet and begin to earth’s rules of limited use,
recycling, and long-term sustainability.

EARTH CHARTER: FIRST PRINCIPLE

“Respect Earth and life in all its diversity. Recognize that
all beings are interdependent and every form of life has
value regardless of its worth to human beings.”
EARTH-HUMAN RELATIONS
“The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the
Earth.” Chief Seattle
 “We, human beings, men and women, have exiled
ourselves from the homeland we shared in common, the
Earth. We have forgotten that man was made from humus
and that Adam and Eve, son and daughter of the Earth
and our ancestors, came from Adamá, land of fertility.”
Leonardo Boff

TO BE HUMAN MEANS
Part of the Biotic Community.
 All life interrelated to us.
 Francis of Assisi: All life and the Earth processes are our
siblings.”
 Imago Dei (image of God)

RECLAIMING INCARNATION
Belief that God is incarnate in the world implies rethinking
the issues of creation and providence in light of the world
as internally related to God—the world as within God or
the world as God’s body—rather than externally as an
artist to his or her production.
 Incarnation mean—we and God are in the same place and
that we share responsibility for the world.
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SACRAMENTAL VIEW: THE EARTH AS GOD’S BODY
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“Those living within the model of the world as God’s body
see the world differently: not as an object or machine or
simply a resource but as sacred, valuable, and needing
care. The world, including nature, is not ours to do with
as we wish. It all belongs to and tells us of God.”
THOMAS BERRY

“We should be clear about what happens when we
destroy the living forms of this planet. The consequence is
that we destroy modes of divine presence…”
CLIMATE CHANGE IS TELLING US THAT MUST LIVE
DIFFERENTLY.
Human need is more basic than human greed; we are
relational beings from the moment of conception to
our last breath. The well-being of the individual is
inextricably connected to the well-being of the whole.
 Ecological economics begins with sustainability and
distributive justice
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ECOLOGICAL SIN
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“Ecological Christology defines sin as the refusal to share
the necessities of life with other humans and other life
forms. Sin is insatiable greed, wanting to have it all. Acting
justly toward nature and other human beings demands
sacrifices from Christian elites. Sustainable living involves
acceptance of finite limits such as how we drive our cars,
emissions controls and carbon taxes on industry.”
OIKOS--ECONOMICS
Household Rules
 Take your share
 Clean up after yourself
 Keep the house in repair for future occupants
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TAKE YOUR SHARE
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“Overall the condition can only be described as
unsustainable, which means that we are changing the
world and using its resources much more rapidly than
they can be renewed, and leaving for our children and
grandchildren a world that will be much less diverse, rich,
healthy, and resilient than the one in which we live now.”
Peter Raven
CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF
CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELVES
KEEP THE THE HOUSE IN REPAIR FOR FUTURE
OCCUPANTS
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The Earth is alive – just like the biological patterns found
in cells, species, individual organisms, and ecosystems;
only at a different scale – and thus can die if boundary
conditions for health are exceeded.
KEEP THE HOUSE IN REPAIR FOR FUTURE OCCUPANTS
IT WILL TAKE ALL OF US!
 “Care
for the earth is our primary vocation as God’s
partners in helping creation to flourish . . .God loves the
world and expects us to as well” Sallie McFague
SALLIE MCFAGUE

“God is the thread of hope that desperate people hold on to. God
is the scrap of life and goodness still in us. God is what keeps us
from giving up. God is not a being, but whatever life or love there
is, no matter how small. We hold on to whatever shred of hope is
left. It is very small sometimes—but it is enough. “Because the
Holy Ghost over the bent/ World broods with warm breast and ah!
Bright wings.” Gerard Manley Hopkins S.J.