A Historical Examination of the Protestant Stewardship Theological Principle
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“AND THE GREAT DRAGON WAS THROWN DOWN:” A HISTORICAL EXAMINATION OF THE PROTESTANT STEWARDSHIP THEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE BY HANNAH M JAMES A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Religious Studies May, 2018 Winston-Salem, North Carolina Approved By: Lucas Johnston, Ph.D., Advisor Stephen Boyd, Ph.D., Chair John Ruddiman, Ph.D. ii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. III INTRODUCTION: DEMYSTIFYING A MEMORY ........................................................................ IV SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................................. V METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................... VI PART I: HISTORICAL THEOLOGICAL STANDARDS OF STEWARDSHIP ............................ 1 JUSTIFICATION LITERATURE .................................................................................................................... 3 THE UNLIMITED ABUNDANCE OF NATURE ...................................................................................... 6 AMERICAN INDIAN RELIGIOSITY ............................................................................................................. 7 MORAL SETTLEMENT LITERATURE .................................................................................................. 17 MORAL SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMICS .......................................................................................... 19 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 21 PART II: HISTORICAL EXPANSION OF THEOLOGICAL STANDARDS ............................. 22 THE UNITY OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND RELIGION ............................................................... 22 INCREASE MATHER ....................................................................................................................................... 23 COTTON MATHER ........................................................................................................................................... 31 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 37 THE UNITY OF NATIONALISM AND RELIGION ............................................................................ 38 THE BASICS OF MANIFEST DESTINY ................................................................................................... 40 LYMAN ABBOTT ................................................................................................................................................ 42 OTHER RELIGIOUS DEFENSES OF THE WAR ................................................................................. 49 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................... 52 PART III: MODERN TURN ................................................................................................................. 54 INTRODUCTION: THE GREEN DRAGON ............................................................................................ 54 THEOLOGICAL STANDARDS ................................................................................................................... 55 BIBLICAL INERRANCY AND AUTHORITY .......................................................................................... 55 HUMAN NATURE ............................................................................................................................................. 59 STATE OF NATURE ......................................................................................................................................... 64 GOD’S ROLE IN NATURE ............................................................................................................................ 66 MODERN CONCERNS ................................................................................................................................... 67 CORNWALL ALLIANCE: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ECONOMICS ............................................... 70 ANSWERS IN GENESIS: CONCERN ABOUT “NATURE RELIGIONS” .................................. 72 CASE STUDIES .................................................................................................................................................. 73 E. CALVIN BREISNER .................................................................................................................................... 73 KEN HAM .............................................................................................................................................................. 78 CONCLUSION: “RESISTING THE GREEN DRAGON” .............................................................. 83 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................... 85 PRIMARY SOURCES ...................................................................................................................................... 85 SECONDARY SOURCES ............................................................................................................................... 87 CURRICULUM VITAE ........................................................................................................................ 90 iii ABSTRACT This work is a study of the “stewardship” program promoted by modern Evangelical Protestants, and its historical context and predecessors. Critical to the modern movement’s fundamentals is the notion that this concept is itself ethereal and apart from human origins. This work seeks to demystify this notion through an examination of the historical roots of this movement, and the greater communal narrative it draws from. Part I explores the historical theological standards of stewardship. Part II explores the expansion of these standards to the two issues of natural science and religion and American nationalism. The final part explores the modern representatives and continuances of these historical fundamentals. The modern stewardship movement has not sporadically awakened with the modern Evangelical political movement, nor has it been a constant fundamental of Christianity. It is a uniquely American experience, driven by the relationship between the American Protestant community’s relationship with the land and expansion, its religious culture, and its changing political situation over several centuries. iv INTRODUCTION: DEMYSTIFYING A MEMORY As environmental concerns have grown in prominence in the mainstream political discourse, numerous religious leaders within the American Protestant and evangelical communities have responded in kind and developed their own environmentally related doctrines. The most prominent is a strain of “stewardship” as defined by the two organizations the Cornwall Alliance (established 2005), and Answers in Genesis (established in 1994), in which environmental responses are grounded in both anthropocentric and theocentric doctrines. These two organizations have popularized an understanding of stewardship as a biblically justified response to the rise of the new spiritual enemy, the “Green Dragon,” which is the modern mainstream environmental movement. Both the Cornwall Alliance and Answers in Genesis argue that the modern environmental movement threatens to undermine the very foundation and the survival of evangelical beliefs and practices. Stewardship is meant to replace more “liberal” interpretations of environmentalism and to provide Protestants with a properly biblical approach to understanding environmental issues and practicing healthy “creation care.” Those religious leaders who support stewardship often teach this theological stance as though it is a universal aspect of the Christian faith and community, and that it is spiritually ethereal and beyond human influence and creation. This work will examine this claim, and explore the historical development of the stewardship model. Stewardship in the Protestant community is a definitive example of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of misrecognition, in which a social element is misrepresented as having some ethereal, logical, or permanent origin apart from its actual historical context with the actions and practices of the individuals interacting with it (Bourdieu, 1972, 97). This modern v interpretation of stewardship has not sporadically appeared in our modern society, but rather has a definitive origin that can be traced to the American Protestant community in the 17th century. The Protestant theological issues I focus on have influenced both historical and modern attitudes towards the environment and include questions of biblical inerrancy and authority, the state of human nature, the state of the natural environment, and God’s expected role in nature. These standards have led to unique relationships between the Protestant community and their study of the natural sciences and their approach to American nationalism. SUMMARY Part I of this work will explore