18 Christianity, Creation, and the Climate Crisis …
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in the creation narrative rather than having the Creator as the focus in conversations
about sustainability. Contemporary scientific principles of sustainability and ecology
challenge the largely anthropocentric perspective of Christian ‘stewardship’ as not in
keeping with the ecological “web of life” perspective from the Earth sciences (Macy
and Brown 2014, p. 4).
3. The Partnership Prism
This green prism explains that creation has value because of its relationship to God
rather than its utilitarian function. Built on the redemptive teachings of Jesus about
the Kingdom of God, his resurrection is taken as not just renewing divine-human
relationships, but also renewing the divine-nature relationship. In this prism perspective, creation has value to God, not because humans are doing anything to it (or ‘stewarding it’) but simply because it exists. Whilst still based on a reading of Genesis 2: 15
and the principle of ‘care and work’ (gardening), now the resurrection of Jesus is used
to signal a renewing of the relationships between human and non-human creations.
To only think about the Earth as a source of resources that can be accessed through
care and work overlooks the knowledge that the creation itself is a source of divine
delight. Animals and plants have value “in and for themselves” as well as “for God”,
quite apart from their usefulness to humans (McDaniel 1990, p. 165). Using New
Testament teaching in this way forces a reappraisal of stewardship and establishes
the partnership prism on a theology of interrelationship (Romans 8: 19–23). This
prism is still largely human-centred given that, in practice, partnership often means
that humans rely on technology to improve or solve ecological problems rather than
on behavioural change as the solution to today’s environmental crisis.
4. The Covenant Prism
This prism is the first from among these five perspectives to move away from the
Genesis 1–2 creation accounts. The covenant God made with Noah following the
flood (Genesis 9: 11–13) shows us for the first time that God cares for all life in his
creation and not just for human life. This perspective favours the view that the “cosmic
covenant” acts to restore the “primal harmony between human beings and the animal
and physical worlds” (Barton 2010, p. 51). The covenant reinstates a direct link
between human conduct and wider, more universal forms of human flourishing. In this
prism, the “cosmos flourishes when … humans act harmoniously with one another”
and it becomes a disastrous “world turned upside down when bad behaviour brings
about the divine destabilizing of cosmic order” (Stavrakopoulou 2010, p. 17). The
Covenant prism also draws on the Psalms or wisdom literature of the Old Testament
which is often sharply critical of anthropocentrism. Texts such as Psalm 104 portray a
world that does not involve humans at all and suggests the possibility that humans can
learn something from the non-human creation about the interactions and relationships
between the created and the Creator (Dell 2010, p. 57). Theologians who argue for
or from this viewpoint see that the complexity of the natural world requires an
acknowledgment of the richness and diversity of all non-human life that is both
created and sustained by its Creator (Dell 1994).
363
in the creation narrative rather than having the Creator as the focus in conversations
about sustainability. Contemporary scientific principles of sustainability and ecology
challenge the largely anthropocentric perspective of Christian ‘stewardship’ as not in
keeping with the ecological “web of life” perspective from the Earth sciences (Macy
and Brown 2014, p. 4).
3. The Partnership Prism
This green prism explains that creation has value because of its relationship to God
rather than its utilitarian function. Built on the redemptive teachings of Jesus about
the Kingdom of God, his resurrection is taken as not just renewing divine-human
relationships, but also renewing the divine-nature relationship. In this prism perspective, creation has value to God, not because humans are doing anything to it (or ‘stewarding it’) but simply because it exists. Whilst still based on a reading of Genesis 2: 15
and the principle of ‘care and work’ (gardening), now the resurrection of Jesus is used
to signal a renewing of the relationships between human and non-human creations.
To only think about the Earth as a source of resources that can be accessed through
care and work overlooks the knowledge that the creation itself is a source of divine
delight. Animals and plants have value “in and for themselves” as well as “for God”,
quite apart from their usefulness to humans (McDaniel 1990, p. 165). Using New
Testament teaching in this way forces a reappraisal of stewardship and establishes
the partnership prism on a theology of interrelationship (Romans 8: 19–23). This
prism is still largely human-centred given that, in practice, partnership often means
that humans rely on technology to improve or solve ecological problems rather than
on behavioural change as the solution to today’s environmental crisis.
4. The Covenant Prism
This prism is the first from among these five perspectives to move away from the
Genesis 1–2 creation accounts. The covenant God made with Noah following the
flood (Genesis 9: 11–13) shows us for the first time that God cares for all life in his
creation and not just for human life. This perspective favours the view that the “cosmic
covenant” acts to restore the “primal harmony between human beings and the animal
and physical worlds” (Barton 2010, p. 51). The covenant reinstates a direct link
between human conduct and wider, more universal forms of human flourishing. In this
prism, the “cosmos flourishes when … humans act harmoniously with one another”
and it becomes a disastrous “world turned upside down when bad behaviour brings
about the divine destabilizing of cosmic order” (Stavrakopoulou 2010, p. 17). The
Covenant prism also draws on the Psalms or wisdom literature of the Old Testament
which is often sharply critical of anthropocentrism. Texts such as Psalm 104 portray a
world that does not involve humans at all and suggests the possibility that humans can
learn something from the non-human creation about the interactions and relationships
between the created and the Creator (Dell 2010, p. 57). Theologians who argue for
or from this viewpoint see that the complexity of the natural world requires an
acknowledgment of the richness and diversity of all non-human life that is both
created and sustained by its Creator (Dell 1994).