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The Fate of Nature Christian Spirituality and Science Issues in the Contemporary World Volume 4 Issue 1 The Christian and the Environment Article 2 2003 The Fate of Nature Howard J. Fisher Avondale College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://research.avondale.edu.au/css Recommended Citation Fisher, H. J. (2003). The fate of nature. Christian Spirituality and Science, 4(1), 5-16. Retrieved from https://research.avondale.edu.au/css/vol4/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Avondale Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science at ResearchOnline@Avondale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Christian Spirituality and Science by an authorized editor of ResearchOnline@Avondale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fisher: The Fate of Nature The Fate of Nature Howard J Fisher ABSTRACT The Judaeo-Christian tradition of Creation with its directives for humans to subdue and to have dominion over the Earth has been seen as a factor in the generation of negative or exploitative attitudes towards the natural world, especially among Christians who interpret the Creation stories literally. As a corrective, in recent decades scholars have developed a rationale for stewardship of nature based on these same and other Biblical passages. However, much less attention has been given to the implications of beliefs about the end-time (eschatology). Seventh-day Adventists, along with some other Christians, anticipate that a fiery obliteration of the Earth’s surface will usher in the kingdom of God. Logically such beliefs might not be expected to generate any particular concern for the well-being of the non-human Creation. A few Adventist authors have called for some amendment to or revision of traditionally-held eschatology as it concerns the fate of nature. Nevertheless there is some evidence that many Seventh-day Adventists feel that there is a basis for caring for the Creation in spite of its imminent annihilation. However, in company with many Biblical literalists, practical action is generally lacking from personal agenda. Some reasons for the apparent dissonance between eschatological beliefs and environmental concern are suggested. Over the last few decades it has be- consequences. Stung by White, come popular to place the blame for theologians rushed to reinterpret the the world’s environmental problems Scriptures so that the “dominion” of at the feet of the Judaeo-Christian tra- genesis became “stewardship”, and dition and its allegedly Bible-based just twelve years later Rifkin declared doctrine of human dominion over that “ . one would be hard pressed the Creation. In 1967 Lynn White, to find a leading Protestant scholar . an historian, published an article . who would openly question the in the journal Science in which he new interpretation . .” (Rifkin 1979) claimed that in the medieval era the (emphasis mine). Bible had been understood to mean The 1990s saw the publication of a that the natural world was created number of studies in which social largely for the purpose of meeting data were examined for possible human needs. Most Christians be- connections between religious af- lieved that Genesis 1:26–28 conferred filiation or belief and environmental mastery over nature on humanity. concern (eg, Eckberg and Blocker, In the context of this viewpoint, the 1989,1996; Kanagy and Willits 1993; western, Christianized world ac- Hornsby-Smith and Procter 1995; quired the technological capacity to Blombery 1996; Black 1997). Gen- subjugate nature, with disastrous 5 Published by ResearchOnline@Avondale, 2003 1 Christian Spirituality and Science, Vol. 4 [2003], Iss. 1, Art. 2 erally there have been some sug- been done with the eschatological gestions of an association between aspect of the Bible’s theology of na- religious profession and negative ture.” This is still largely true. Janel environmental attitudes, although Curry-Roper (1990) stated her belief sometimes the link has been weak “. that eschatology is the most and in a couple of instances no link ecologically decisive component of has been demonstrated at all. The a theological system. It influences results obtained by Eckberg and adherents’ actions and determines Blocker (1996) provide an example their views of mankind, their bodies, of a study in which some connection souls and worldviews.” was found: for Americans there was a Intuitively, we might expect that positive correlation between biblical when the eschatological viewpoint literalism and lack of environmental held involves a literalist interpreta- concern. However, it appears that tion of apocalyptic literature, atti- virtually all of these studiEs have tudes to environmental issues will be more-or-less followed White in at- generally apathetic or antipathetic. tempting to make the link between Apocalyptic is here used in the Christianity and environmental popular sense of a way of speaking apathy or antipathy via Genesis of future events that portends disas- 1:26–28 (the “dominion” passage). ter. James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s But given that most are now reinter- infamous Secretary of the Interior preting “dominion” as “steward- (1981–1983), comes to mind. He ship”, those who wish still to test has been “. quoted as belittling White’s hypothesis in fact may not concerns about environmental pro- find appropriate data from surveys tection in part because it would all be of Christians in the late twentieth or destroyed by God in the apocalypse” early twenty-first centuries. For the (Gore 1992, p 263). An American most part the dominion theology has study by Heather Boyd showed that been corrected and Christians have amongst ‘religion variables’, “Funda- been re-educated, at least in theory. mentalist tradition stood out as the While on the one hand our “begin- Christian variable of importance. It nings” have been made environ- predicted lack of support for envi- mentally-friendly, what, on the ron-mentalism. Concern with the other hand, of our “endings”? Very ‘end times’ and evangelizing people few investigators appear to have at- for eternal life in heaven, combined tempted to look at or for connections with suspicion of the environmental between beliefs concerning eschatol- movement as both a liberal and a ogy and environmental attitudes. secular movement may lend itself Thus Gowan in 1986 could conclude to a lack of concern for the environ- (p 108) “. as yet almost nothing has ment” (Boyd 1999). 6 https://research.avondale.edu.au/css/vol4/iss1/2 2 Fisher: The Fate of Nature In discussing Paul Santmire’s Travail nist Rosemary Ruether (1992) was of Nature (1985), Bridger wrote in more blunt. Using Seventh-day Ad- 1990, “. until recently, theological ventists as an example to support her ethicists have neglected the escha- position, she saw apocalypticism as a tological dimension in ecological form of escapism in which its adher- discussion. If Santmire is correct (in ents not only imagine themselves to his eschatological reading of biblical be safe from world destruction, but faith and in Jesus’ proclamation of see world destruction as the very the kingdom and of Paul’s writings) means by which they can escape. we are justified in concluding that Curry-Roper (1990) distinguished with a few recent exceptions (of between several Protestant escha- whom Jürgen Moltmann is the most tological positions, and considered notable) the treatment of ecology has their implications for attitudes to centred almost exclusively on refin- environmental stewardship. Those ing and developing a stewardship that believe that the world is inevi- ethic based on the concept of domin- tably getting progressively worse see ion found in the creation narratives environmental problems as signs of and worked out in Old Testament the end and of Christ’s return. Since social legislation” (Bridger 1990). heaven is to be the inheritance of Just as there is a spectrum of environ- believers, the present natural world mental attitudes within the Christian is not seen to be of any consequence. community, so there is also a spec- Others see history as progressive: trum of eschatological understand- obedience to God’s laws will restore ings, some of them non-apocalyptic. nature to its previous Edenic state: It is not my intention to discuss here the earth is the present and future these various eschatologies: rather home of humanity. A third possible I shall examine one in particular, group consists of those who see some that is, the Seventh-day Adventist partial restoration of the natural tradition, which, like many others, world before a future universal res- is apocalyptic, incorporating a cata- toration when Christ returns. clysmic culmination of history. I will The Seventh-day Adventist tradition attempt to relate this eschatological most clearly fits within Curry-Rop- understanding to environmental at- er’s first group: heaven is to be the titudes held by its adherents. inheritance of the saints (although Catherine Keller (1997) argued that heaven will ultimately be transferred popular Protestant views of heaven to a renewed earth), and at least the which incorporate a literalist apoca- surface of this present Earth will be lypticism tend to associate environ- destroyed, including all life. En- mental concerns with futility and vironmental deterioration is often possibly paganism as well. Ecofemi- regarded as a sign of the imminence 7 Published by ResearchOnline@Avondale, 2003 3 Christian Spirituality and Science, Vol. 4 [2003], Iss. 1, Art. 2 of Christ’s return. Seventh-day that which is about to pass away, and Adventists anticipate a millennium soon. Indeed, this under-standing during which the Earth will be deso- seems to exclude the non-human late, inhabited only by Satan and his creation from God’s redemption, angels. It is believed that the saved, with the human species providing both resurrected and living, will be the only continuity between the transported with a returned Jesus to Old Earth and the New.
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