Creation Care and Christian Character: Part 1
July 9, 2008
This post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine.
John Silvius is Senior Professor of Biology and the Center for Bioethics Associate for Environmental Ethics at Cedarville University, Cedarville, OH.
The hurricanes of 2005 and notable weather events across the globe in 2006 have bolstered the attempts of climate scientists to keep global warming in the headlines. In January, out of increasing concern about global warming, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the hands of the “Doomsday Clock” two minutes closer to midnight, bringing the time to five minutes before the “figurative end of civilization.” Then, in early February, Dr. Ken Denman, one of the lead authors of a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) summarized the panel’s conclusions: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal.” He added, “Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” Global consequences of this warming trend, which the IPCC report attributes in part to human activities, include altered precipitation patterns, a global rise in sea levels, altered agricultural production, and increased episodes of violent weather.
The climate change debate calls each of us as Christians make an informed judgment and then act accordingly. Some who believe that human practices are contributing to global warming are adopting a lifestyle that promotes energy conservation, reduces greenhouse gas production, and encourages elected officials to enact policies that favor these strategies. One motivation for such actions is fear of the consequences of global warming.
Fear is a legitimate basis for concern for all who love family, church, and country. Christians who fear God acquire a sense of reverence that motivates obedience and exemplary living. However, the “more abundant life (John 10:10)” that “abides in the vine” and bears fruit (John 15; Galatians 5:22-23) is nurtured more by God’s grace than by our fear. For example, we may avoid financial or moral failure out of fear of legal or physical consequences but miss out on the joy and fulfillment of a Spirit-filled life aimed at pleasing God. Likewise, if it is our moral responsibility to care for God’s creation, then our fear of environmental consequences is also an inadequate motivation.
Thankfully, there is a clear Scriptural basis for environmental stewardship, or creation care, which has deeper roots than fear of consequences. In Genesis 1, after God pronounces the creation as good and He blesses it, He creates humankind and grants them dominion over the Earth as image-bearers of His righteous rule (v.26-28). This dominion is further prescribed in Genesis 2:15 as “keeping” or “serving” the creation. In return, God has equipped His creation to “serve” humankind with the fruits of their labor. Here, the Scripture supports an ethic based upon duty or moral responsibility as the proper motivation for serving God and caring for creation.
This duty ethic is evident in the challenge of Joel Hunter, pastor of Northland Church in Orlando, Florida, who, when asked for his position on global warming, is quoted as saying, “…we need to do this regardless of what the science of it is. We need to take care of the earth and do what we can to stop the pollution and accumulation of gasses, because it’s just the right thing to do.” The biblical environmental stewardship ethic recognizes the importance of scientific data in making personal lifestyle and institutional decisions. But, it also calls Christians to do more than simply fashion lifestyle according to the current estimates of planetary “health.” Instead, as Edward Brown writes in Our FatherÕs World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation (Doorlight, 2006), “Creation must be cared for because God made it, because he made it as a sacred worship space in which we could meet him, and because he himself walked along its paths, sat under its trees and used it for worship himself.”
Environmental stewardship rests heavily upon duty ethics, but arguably it can be supported more strongly from the perspective of virtue ethics.
Virtue ethics focuses upon how we develop virtues– those habits that produce godly character and moral excellence. It is concerned not only with what we do, but the kind of person we are becoming by our doing. Thus, a virtuous person who understands biblical dominion and stewardship will perform acts of creation care (e.g. bicycling to reduce carbon emissions; leading a Bible study on stewardship; aiding an urban gardening project) not only from a sense of duty, but also as an outward expression of moral virtues such as love, discretion, moderation, and justice. Result: Both God’s creation and His kingdom benefit while obedient Christians experience joy and fulfillment as these virtues are expressed and nurtured.
Part 2 will appear tomorrow . . .
Comments
One Response to “Creation Care and Christian Character: Part 1”
Got something to say?
[…] post originally appeared in Creation Care Magazine. Part 1 appeared […]