Our planet has a fever. Last summer was the hottest summer on record. There is every indication that this upcoming summer will break that record and that this pattern will continue. We might look at the .5 degree increments in which the global temperature is rising as insignificant, but think of what the change of a couple of degrees does to the ecosystems of our bodies. We get aches and fatigue. We can go from having chills one minute to being unable to cool down. Like our bodies, the warming manifests in less predictable weather patterns, more extreme storms, and droughts. The unfortunate truth about our planet’s sickness is that we have been the cause. There’s likely no need to outline the effects that industrialization and the accompanying burning of fossil fuels have had on Creation. It’s been well documented. Our planet has a fever and we’ve been the cause. I hate the feeling of having a fever but more so, as a parent I hate when my kids have a fever. I hate to see them suffer and much of my life gets reoriented around helping them to get better. That’s where we are now.
My primary work these days is at Creation Justice Ministries, an ecumenical organization whose mission is to help Christian communities and individuals live in better relationship with God’s Creation. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is one of our member denominations. In that capacity, I have seen that the churches that have the most commitment to being a part of finding climate solutions are the ones who hear about these issues from the pulpit and experience them through their liturgies. Sadly, this experience is a rare one for most congregations. When we ask participants in our programs how often they have heard about the climate crisis from the pulpit, the most common answer is “never”, the second most common is once a year on Earth Day. When we ask preachers about why they may not be speaking on these topics from the pulpit, they express worries about being too political, fears of being too uninformed on the science, or simply state that there are bigger concerns in their communities. Helping Christians to see that caring for Creation is both part of the mandate to love our neighbor and crucial to our own well-being in our daily lives is at the heart of the work that we do.
A Brief Overview of the Doctrine of Creation
As the director of theological education and formation for Creation Justice Ministries, it has been reaffirmed for me that our climate crisis is first and foremost a theological issue. It’s not that good theology will save us outright, but examining the theologies that have gotten us to this point and considering the correctives required to get us where we need to be is an essential practice. Good theology may not save us, but better theology is a good place to start! In his foundational systematic theology book Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, Daniel Migliore outlines five ways that Christian theology has been a hindrance to the church being a primary actor on the ecological stage:
1. Anthropocentrism – a belief that the Creation primarily exists to serve the needs and desires of humanity. This denies Creation as an actor and, of course, denies God’s role as the central figure in the story of redemption
2. Power as domination – our misunderstandings of what power is and how it should be used is a major contributor to our abuses of the natural world.
3. Denial of Inter-connectedness – humans rarely think of ourselves as part of an ecosystem. Instead, we think of ourselves as being outside of (and often in control of) natural cycles.
4. Assumption of limitless resources – this assumption has been the engine for consistent extraction with little thought toward the future
5. Unchecked Consumerism – the assumption of limitless resources has led to a belief that we can consume as many of those resources at any rate we deem fit.
Migliore suggests five themes about the doctrine of creation that have emerged both in Scripture and in our traditions that can be used as a roadmap to get to a more whole and just relationship with Creation:
1. God is the central figure of creation – To claim God as Creator is to state that it is God who is outside of Creation, free, and transcendent. It also means that God creates from generosity and hospitality. God creates from an overflow of the shared love of the Trinity and invites all of Creation into that shared love.
2. The world as a whole and as individual beings are radically dependent on God. In that dependence, however, is a freedom that we can choose to live in communion with God and the rest of Creation.
3. Creation, despite its limits and imperfections, is good. This is both a rejection of a dualism that says that “spiritual” things are good and “physical” things are evil and a recognition that Creation is good, despite whatever utility it might have for humans. Creation being good does not free it from the effects of sin but does speak to its inherent worth.
4. Creation was made for coexistence and interdependence. All of Creation is designed to live in communities and ecosystems with mutual benefit.
5. God created with a purpose. The world is not meaningless, as some propose. For Christians, that purpose is made clearer in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
From this brief explanation of theological themes, we can already see a vision emerging of what God intends for our relationship with Creation. Much of this work starts with understanding the Bible as a text that is rooted in Creation. Scholars such as Dr. Ellen Davis remind us, our scripture was written in an agrarian culture where the concerns of the people and the concerns of creation would have been deeply understood and deeply intertwined. She introduces her influential volume Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible with the explanation that “Agrarianism is a way of thinking and ordering life in community that is based on the health of the land and of living creatures” and that this line of thinking is “the way of thinking predominant among the biblical writers, who very often do not represent the interests of the powerful”.
From Stewardship to Kinship
Taken together, these biblical and theological ideas lead us to a place far from where the church usually lands. I have found that even the pastors and green team leaders most dedicated to caring for our shared home often land in the place of stewardship… the idea that God gave us the responsibility to take care of the planet. Obviously, this isn’t a bad thing and, in some places, this line of thinking would still be outside of their comfort zones. But for those of us who see the emerging crisis and want to go deeper, it’s time to see God’s Creation less as a thing that needs to be tended and more as a relationship that needs to be mended.
In her book Creation Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit, my friend and frequent collaborator Rev. Dr. Leah Schade introduces ideas of ecojustice, adopted from the Earth Bible commentaries of Norman Habel. These ideas build on the doctrine of Creation above and help to move us from stewardship as a starting place to kinship and mutual custodianship as a new goal. These six EcoJustice principles are:
- The principle of intrinsic worth – Earth and all of its components have intrinsic worth apart from what they might contribute to humanity.
- The principle of interconnectedness – earth is a web of interconnected living creatures, mutually dependent for survival. Creation needs us and we need all of it.
- The principle of voice – earth is a subject capable of raising its voice in praise or against injustice (think of Jesus’insistence that the rocks would cry out if his disciples were silenced during the triumphal entry)
- The principle of purpose – each element is a small part of a greater design with its own purpose. This is less a principle about “intelligent design” and more an understanding that each member of Creation has its own destiny and “telos”.
- The principle of mutual custodianship – responsible custodians can function as partners, not rulers
- The principle of resistance – Earth suffers from injustice and actively resists in the struggle against injustice
These principles move us to the place of seeing all of Creation as a member of the Beloved Community that Dr. King spoke of and that many of us cling to. Through this lens we see that our beloved siblings are suffering and we should be moved to ease their suffering. Furthermore, we see that we have been the cause of the suffering and that should compel us to make things right. Our Planet has a fever. Let us cease in being part of the sickness and move toward being part of the healing.
Derrick Weston is the Director of Theological Education and Formation at Creation Justice Ministries. Derrick is a writer, filmmaker, podcaster, speaker, and educator whose most recent work has focused on the intersection of food and faith. He is the co-host of the Food and Faith podcast and producer of Spoon, Spade, and Soul, a podcast highlighting food and land-based ministries in the Episcopal church. Additionally, he is the producer of the short film series “A Wilderness Like Eden” highlighting the work of churches engaged in food justice work. After two decades of being a pastor and community organizer, Derrick is a strong believer in the potential of local congregations to enact change in their communities. Derrick received his B.A. in film studies from the University of Pittsburgh and his Masters of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary. He also has a certification in health ministry from Wesleyan Theological Seminary and was a part of the Re:Generate fellowship on food, faith, and ecology through Wake Forest Divinity School. Derrick is the co-author of the book The Just Kitchen: Invitations to Sustainability, Cooking, Connection, and Celebration and has written numerous articles for several publications. He and his wife Shannon have four children and live outside of Baltimore, Maryland.
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