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A New Creation: Reimagining the Beginning, the End and Everything in Between Toward an Evangelical Environmental Ethos Russell Jerrold Pierson George Fox University

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A New Creation: Reimagining the Beginning, the End and Everything in Between Toward an Evangelical Environmental Ethos Russell Jerrold Pierson George Fox University Digital Commons @ George Fox University Doctor of Ministry Seminary 1-1-2012 A new creation: reimagining the beginning, the end and everything in between toward an evangelical environmental ethos Russell Jerrold Pierson George Fox University This research is a product of the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program at George Fox University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Pierson, Russell Jerrold, " A new creation: reimagining the beginning, the end and everything in between toward an evangelical environmental ethos" (2012). Doctor of Ministry. Paper 36. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dmin/36 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Seminary at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Ministry by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. GEORGE FOX UNIVERSITY “A NEW CREATION: REIMAGINING THE BEGINNING, THE END AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN” TOWARD AN EVANGELICAL ENVIRONMENTAL ETHOS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GEORGE FOX EVANGELICAL SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY RUSSELL JERROLD PIERSON PORTLAND, OREGON OCTOBER 2012 George Fox Evangelical Seminary George Fox University Newberg, Oregon CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL ________________________________ D.Min. Dissertation ________________________________ This is to certify that the D.Min. Dissertation of Russell Jerrold Pierson has been approved by the Dissertation Committee on November 6, 2012 as fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Global Perspectives Dissertation Committee: Primary Advisor: Steve Lewis, D.Min. Secondary Advisor: Daniel Brunner, PhD. Lead Mentor: Jason Clark, D.Min. Expert Advisor: Linda Clare Copyright © 2012 by Russell J. Pierson All rights reserved Unless otherwise noted, the scripture quotations contained herein are from the English Standard Version Bible, © 2001 by Standard Bible Society, Wheaton, IL. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION PAGE To my bright and beautiful companion in life, my wife, Tami. We have lived, loved and learned together on this planet well over thirty years now. It is not nearly long enough. To my brilliant children, Blake, Holly and Matthew. I am thankful for everything you continue to teach me, now as adults. I have always been proud to be your father; I am even prouder to be your friend. To Katelyn, my daughter-in-law and the mother of my grandboys, Avery and Micah; and to Jason, my son-in-law: thank you both for the wonderful people you are and the delightful assets you bring to our family table. iii EPIGRAPH I have been puzzled most of my life by this contradiction: How can one believe deeply in God and yet be so cavalier about God’s creation? —Bill McKibben, The Comforting Whirlwind1 Good human work honors God's work…. It honors nature as a great mystery and power, as an indispensable teacher, and as the inescapable judge of all work of human hands. —Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace2 1 Bill McKibben, The Comforting Whirlwind : God, Job, and the Scale of Creation (Cambridge, Mass.: Cowley Publications, 2005), xi. 2 Wendell Berry and Norman Wirzba, "Christianity and the Survival of Creation," in The Art of the Common-Place: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry(Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2002), 312. iv Table of Contents FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... XIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ XIV ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... XV INTRODUCTION: THE BEGINNING, THE END AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN ........................................................................................................................ 1 SECTION ONE: THE PROBLEM ................................................................................. 8 Cultural Cognition .......................................................................................................... 8 A New GroupThink ........................................................................................................ 9 SECTION TWO: OTHER PROPOSED SOLUTIONS .............................................. 11 The Lay of the Land ...................................................................................................... 11 A Model to Build On .................................................................................................... 12 SECTION THREE: THE THESIS ............................................................................... 15 PART ONE: EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN .............................................................. 16 CHAPTER 1 THE BIG WORD: DUALISM ............................................................... 17 Examples of Dualism within Evangelicalism ............................................................... 18 Hearing the Heart of Ecofeminism ............................................................................... 20 The Road to Wholeness ................................................................................................ 22 CHAPTER 2: POSTMODERNISM ............................................................................. 23 Postmodernism: What is it? .......................................................................................... 24 Postmodernism: Why Does it Matter? .......................................................................... 27 The Push-Me, Pull-Me Relationship with Science ................................................... 27 v Matrix Reloaded........................................................................................................ 28 CHAPTER 3: A REDUCTIONIST GOSPEL .............................................................. 31 Your Gospel is Too Small............................................................................................. 31 Back to the Future ......................................................................................................... 33 East Meets West Meets North Meets South ................................................................. 34 Ancient (Church) History ......................................................................................... 34 Orthodoxy ................................................................................................................. 35 Out of Africa ................................................................................................................. 36 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 36 PART TWO: “THE BEGINNING” .............................................................................. 38 CHAPTER 4 THE BIG WORD: COSMOGONY ......................................................... 39 CHAPTER 5: THE S WORD: SCIENCE .................................................................... 43 Popular Science ............................................................................................................. 43 The Coming Global Ice Age ......................................................................................... 44 The Firewall .................................................................................................................. 46 God of the Gaps ............................................................................................................ 48 CHAPTER 6: THE E WORD: EVOLUTION .............................................................. 50 Monkey Town ............................................................................................................... 51 Everything Old is New Again ....................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 7: THE M WORD: MYTH WITH A CAPITAL M ................................. 56 The M-Word ............................................................................................................. 59 The New Mythbusters and The “Legends of the Fall” ............................................. 61 CHAPTER 8: THE A WORD: ANTHROPOCENTRISM .......................................... 65 vi Project Genesis.............................................................................................................. 65 Anthropocentrism Defined ............................................................................................ 67 Lessons From Job ......................................................................................................... 71 The Red Herring ........................................................................................................... 73 PART THREE: “THE END” ........................................................................................ 74 CHAPTER 9: THE BIG WORD: ESCHATOLOGY ................................................... 75 CHAPTER 10: STAR TREK THEOLOGY .................................................................. 77 “Left Behind” … in Dublin........................................................................................... 78 The Late, Great Postmillennial Movement ................................................................... 79 Left Behind and the Bible ............................................................................................. 80 CHAPTER
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