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Christianity
and Ecology:
Wholeness, Respect, Justice, Sustainability
Dieter T. Hessel
Program on Ecology, Justice,
and Faith
Increasing numbers of Christian theologians and ethicists
are responding to the environmental challenge as the world
gets hotter, stormier, unequal, crowded, more violent,
and less biodiverse. In this pivotal time, what do Christian
ecotheology and ethics contribute to the struggle to secure
the earth community's well-being? The multiple traditions
of Christianity take competing and cooperative forms and
convey an emphasis that can be either constricting or
liberating. The focus here is on recent ecumenical Christian
thought that emphasizes seven key themes.1
The first theme reexamines elements of scripture and
tradition and refocuses Christian affirmations and ethics
in ecologically-alert terms. All of the earth community
is valuable to God, who continues to create, sustain,
and redeem the whole. God relates directly to and cares
for the well-being of otherkind, created to enjoy being
in their own right and not only function as companions
or helpers of humankind. Christians are recovering an
earth-centered pneumatology that experiences God's spirit
immanent in creation as the power of life-giving breath
(ruah), the Wisdom (logos) continually
working to transform and renew all life and the love
that sustains it. Biblical images portray the Spirit
as “a healing and subversive life-form—as
water, light, dove, mother, fire, breath . . . wind,”2
and comforter of the suffering.
The second theme explores the complex relation between
cosmology, spirituality and morality, knowing that the
cosmos (and this planet) bodies forth the power, wisdom,
and love of God. Christianity in the modern period lost
interest in the revelatory power of the natural world
and set humanity over against nature in a manipulative,
polluting way of life. Contemporary cosmology rediscovers
the universe and Earth's nature to be a dynamic relational
system—in Thomas Berry's term, “a communion
of subjects” with whom humans are to live fittingly.
“Our great work,” he says, “is to support
a new pattern of human presence on the planet.”
The third theme offers a deep critique and response
to disastrous assumptions underlying modern philosophy,
religion, technology, and politics. Christian theology
played a key role in cultural and ecological malformations
by giving impetus to the rational, scientific conquest
of nature. Now it can contribute to achieving a sustainable
human-earth relationship by utilizing the relationality
paradigm of contemporary physics and ecology and connecting
it effectively with the ecojustice sensibility of the
biblical Sabbath and kingdom of God vision.
The fourth theme notes that in theology and praxis,
sacramental sensibility and covenantal commitment3
are joined together because both are required for a
sustainable community. Christianity is well-supplied
with prophetic, sacramental, and wisdom traditions,
as well as eschatological, process, and liberation theologies
to address ecological issues with a christology that
comprehends “God with us” fully in sacramental
and prophetic dimensions.4
Eastern Orthodoxy's trinitarian iconography works in
aesthetic and liturgical ways to foster communion with
the natural world by imaging the ultimate, beautiful
source of value and vitality.
The fifth theme reconstructs affirmations about God,
Christ, finitude, world, soul/body relations, sin, evil,
redemption, and the “end” with ecological
seriousness. Also, traditional categories that are socially
and ecologically inadequate need to be critically reexamined.
For example, as Christian ecofeminists emphasize, the
Church must discard the pattern of colonial thinking
and gender hierarchy that was built into its doctrine
of creation and that shaped the popular map of social
relations.
The sixth theme illuminates the emergence
and transformation of Christian ecological virtue ethics
that lead to a praxis of frugality, humility, esteem
for everykind, beneficence, and justice toward all.
Also, it grapples with dilemmas of human intervention
in natural processes, lifting up theological pointers
and ethical imperatives for the age of high technology
and genetic manipulation. In other words, show bio-responsibility
for places and species (be stewards of life's continuity);
respect the evolutionary wisdom and divine activity
embodied in the natural world; be accountable to the
common good and to future generations; foster a communal
and less resource-consumptive vision of “the good
life.”
The seventh theme emphasizes human obligations in every
place and pursuit, that express respect and care for
Earth as God's creation and life's home, while seeking
justice for biodiverse otherkind as well as humankind.
Ecojustice, the focus of several recent publications,5
offers a dynamic framework for thought and action that
fosters ecological integrity with socioeconomic justice
through constructive human responses serving both environmental
health and social equity. In this spiritually-grounded
moral posture, all beings on earth make up one household
(oikos) which benefits from an economy (oikonomia)
that takes ecological and social stewardship (oikonomos)
seriously. Such Christian praxis discards religious
beliefs and rituals that are solely preoccupied with
human salvation and challenges expressions of grassroots
environmentalism or of religious community that are
indifferent to socioeconomic justice. The four basic
norms of ecojustice ethics include: solidarity with
other people and creatures—companions, allies,
victims—in the earth community, reflecting a deep
respect for creation; ecological sustainability—environmentally
fitting habits of living and working that enable life
to flourish and utilizes ecologically and socially appropriate
technology; sufficiency as a standard of organized sharing,
requiring basic floors and definite ceilings for equitable
or “fair” consumption; and socially-just participation
in decisions about how to obtain sustenance and to manage
community life for the good of the commons.
These norms illuminate a biblically-informed imperative
to pursue in reinforcing ways what is both ecologically
fitting and socially just. Solidarity comprehends the
full dimension of the earth community and of inter-human
obligations. Sustainability gives high visibility to
ecological integrity and wise behavior throughout the
resource-use cycle. The third and fourth norms express
the requirements of distributive and participatory justice
in a world that has reached or is exceeding resource
production, pollution, and population limits.6
An “Ecological Reformation” is now on the
agenda of Christian theology and ethics. It intersects,
rather than competes, with human rights struggles for
racial, gender, and economic justice. The need for ecological
reformation arises from the fundamental failures of
Christian and other religious traditions: to adapt to
the limiting conditions of life, to recognize the intricate
and interdependent relationships between humankind and
the rest of nature, and to respond with benevolence
and justice to “the theological and biological
fact of human kinship with all other creatures.”
An ecologically-reformed Christian theology will reinterpret
basic doctrinal themes in ways that integrate ecological
insight and value and reconceive Christian ethics to
encompass human relationships with other beings in the
biosphere.7
Ecologically-attuned faith and ethics should utilize
knowledge gained from contemporary biophysical sciences
and foster social praxis concerned with reducing consumption
and adopting habits of sustainability while encouraging
the positive responsibility of government to protect
the commons, preserve biodiversity, advance human environmental
rights, curtail polluting technologies, and limit urban
development, wants-oriented consumerism, and population
growth.
Christian thought derives fresh insights from rereading
the Bible with an ecological awareness and interpreting
it contextually in light of contemporary science, archeological
findings, as well as sociological and literary methods
of interpretation to uncover its hidden treasure. This
cuts through an overlay of modern anthropocentric interpretation,
exposing how much scripture has to offer as a guiding
resource for life with the rest of nature. For example,
the Psalms celebrate nature and link creation with redemption.
The Revelation vision of a New Jerusalem on Earth concluding
the New Testament pictures a city of justice and well-being
with springs of living water flowing from God's throne.
There, trade in luxury goods will be supplanted by an
economy that provides essentials of life “without
payment” (Rev 21:6, 22:17).8
Ecologically-aware biblical studies may also examine
canonically-submerged passages to show independent or
contrary meanings of texts that would otherwise be trumped
again by reasserters of tradition, or cheerleaders for
destructive development. For example, the “J”
or Yahwist account of primal humans in the Garden of
Eden (Genesis 2 and following) contrasts sharply with
emphases of the “P” or Priestly creation liturgy
(Genesis 1). Given the disastrous ecological and social
results of modern human dominion, the second creation
saga's emphasis on humans as earthly creatures—adama,
from the soil, sharing the same Creator's breath as
do other animals—deserves more attention and emphasis.9
Urgent environmental problems are receiving disciplined
reflection among Christian ethicists who find their
and other world religions to be accountable for failing
to address environmental racism and injustice, human-induced
climate change, unsustainable development and resource
use, sacralized marketism, and the realities of the
population-consumption explosion.10
In response, the churches are beginning to foster earthkeeping
habits or ecologically just patterns of ecclesial and
social praxis—encompassing liturgy, lifestyle,
work, leisure and politics—to meet the deepening
environmental challenge.
Dieter Hessel holds a Ph.D. in Social Ethics and resides
in Princeton, NJ, where he is a member of the Center
of Theological Inquiry, Director of the Ecumenical Program
on Ecology, Justice, and Faith, and Codirector of Theological
Education to Meet the Environmental Challenge (TEMEC).
From 1965–1990 he was the Social Education Coordinator
and Social Policy Director of the Presbyterian Church
(USA). Recent books include: Theology for Earth Community:
A Field Guide (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1996); The
Church's Public Role: Retrospect and Prospect (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1993); After Nature’s
Revolt: Eco-Justice and Theology (Minneapolis, Minn.:
Fortress, 1992); and Social Ministry (Louisville,
Ky.: W/JK, 1992).
1
See the overview essay and annotations of Peter Bakken,
Joan Gibb Engel, and J. Ronald Engel, “Ecology,
Justice and Christian Faith” (Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 1995); and chapters on state-of-the-art
scholarship in Dieter T. Hessel, ed., Theology for
Earth Community: A Field Guide (Maryknoll, N.Y.:
Orbis, 1996).
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2
See Mark Wallace, “The Wounded Spirit as the Basis
for Hope in an Age of Radical Ecology,” in Christianity
and Ecology, eds., Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary
Radford Ruether (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard/CSWR, 2000),
51–72.
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3
See Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist
Theology of Earth Healing (San Francisco: Harper,
1992), 205–53.
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4
See Sallie McFague, “Ecological Christology: Does
Christianity Have It?” in Christianity and Ecology,
eds., Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary Radford Ruether
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard/CSWR, 2000), 29–45.
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5
See Dieter T. Hessel, ed., After Nature's Revolt:
Eco-Justice and Theology (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress
Press, 1992); Charles Pinches and Jay B. McDaniel, eds.,
Good News for Animals? Christian Approaches to Animal
Well-Being (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1993); Viggo
Mortensen, ed., “Concern for Creation: Voices on
the Theology of Creation,” in Tro and Tanke
(The Lutheran World Federation, [1995] 5); Drew
Christiansen and Walter Grazer, eds., “And God
Saw that it was Good,” in Catholic Theology
and the Environment (Washington, D.C.: US Catholic
Conference, 1996); Jerome A. Stone, ed., “Eco-Justice
and the Environment,” in the American Journal
of Theology and Philosophy, 18, no. 1 (January 1997);
and Stephen Bede Scharper, Redeeming the Time: A
Political Theology of the Environment (New York:
Continuum, 1997).
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6
See Dieter T. Hessel, “Ecumenical Ethics for Earth
Community,” Theology and Public Policy,
VIII, no.1, 2 (1996).
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7
See James A. Nash, “Toward the Ecological Reformation
of Christianity,” Interpretation, 50, no.1
(January, 1996).
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8
See Barbara Rossing, “River of Life in God's New
Jerusalem: An Eschatological Vision for Earth's Future,”
in Christianity and Ecology, eds., Dieter T.
Hessel and Rosemary Radford Ruether (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard/CSWR, 2000), 205–24.
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9
Ted Hiebert, “The Human Vocation: Origins and Transformations
in Christian Traditions,” in Christianity and
Ecology eds., Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary Radford
Ruether (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard/CSWR, 2000), 135–54.
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10
See the discussion of economism versus oikonomia,
and the “Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare”
in Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., For the
Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community,
the Environment, and a Sustainable Future, Rev.
Ed. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994).
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This article was originally
published in Earth Ethics 10, no.1 (Fall 1998).
Copyright © 1998 Center for Respect of Life and
Environment.
Reprinted with permission
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