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Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston

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Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston ed to research and, more important, to with help from his grandfather. He made advocacy. He needed to articulate an his way on the ancient southern Saving Creation: ethics of nature that scientists could Presbyterian path to Davidson College Nature and Faith in the respect and take seriously, so he steered near Charlotte, North Carolina, and clear of religious foundation and formu- Union Theological Seminary in Rich- Life of Holmes Rolston III lation. He was able to establish moral mond, Virginia, then traveled to Edin- By Christopher J. Preston grounding in the reality of "information burgh for graduate study, where he found Trinity University Press, 256 pp., $25.95 transfer," which establishes continuity himself ill at ease with the "theology of sci- among the generations in a species, and it ence" offered there by Tom Torrance. The tombstone, already in place though was that grounding that permitted him to Rolston served as pastor in two happily not yet in use, reads, "Philosopher make a compelling argument concerning Presbyterian parish churches. The first Gone Wild" Philosopher refers to the the claims and rights of all species. position did not work out at all; the sec- lifelong critical reflection of a man who In 1975 Rolston published an attention- ond gave him ample room to walk the found philosophy a way to mediate getting article on the possibility of an eco- hills and eventually to gather his energy between his grounding in theology and his logical ethic, and his work blossomed from and courage to break the mold of his commitment to science. Wild refers to the there. He urged that nature has intrinsic southern Presbyterianism and to go in most elemental condition of the fruitful value in and of itself and does not depend new directions. He moved toward natu- earth before human culture was imposed on human use or human valorization for its ral theology, which entailed an important upon it. The phrase Gone Wild is a play on worth. Thus the "planet is replete with nat- departure from his educational pedigree. words that evokes a subject who is so ural value at every level." In a highly con- After he received a master's degree in unrestrained with his passion for untamed troversial opinion, he contended, with ref- philosophy at the University of Pitts- creation that more sober citizens might erence to Yellowstone, that nature should burgh, he was on his way to his life's think him "gone." The tombstone will not be excessively managed but that it work of discernment and advocacy. someday mark the grave of Holmes should "run its own course." Preston's story of Rolston's life con- Rolston III. In Saving Creation, Christo- This commitment to intrinsic value cludes with a splendid reflection on how pher Preston (of the University of Mon- led him to advocate that protection for Rolston has managed, in a bold and tana) offers a winsome, straightforward the wilderness be given priority over any imaginative way, to bring coherence to account of Rolston's life, bringing him the human agenda—even if such protection his Christian nurture and his passion for recognition and full appreciation that are meant strenuous resistance to human nature. While he paid some attention to appropriate for this remarkable character intrusion. He refused political correct- the "argument from design," he was too and his unassuaged passion for the subject ness as he insisted on the moral signifi- alert to the continuing inventiveness and of honored, protected creation. cance of nature: "Wilderness is not a innovation in natural processes to settle As a longtime faculty member at state of mind; it is what existed before for a deist God who simply provides Colorado State University, Rolston has there were states of mind." He earned design. Rather he focused on the "bent had a remarkable career as a researcher, the label "ecofascist" when he argued toward life" that is evident in natural educator and advocate, making full use of that "one ought not always to feed peo- processes as an exhibit of God's continu- his local environment, exploring and ple first, but rather one ought sometimes ing grace toward creation, so that he learning from the natural riches and varie- to save nature." This bold advocacy came to see God's generous generativity gated landscape all around him. Because evoked enormously positive affirmation in nature as a "cascading serendipity." he found philosophy to be the bridge as well as major criticism, and it led to an He concluded that it was necessary to between theology and science, he did not invitation to deliver the prestigious "detect something 'extra' lurking within have an easy time of it in the academy. His Gifford Lectures for 1997-1998 and to the serendipitous processes" that looked colleagues in several academic disciplines Rolston's winning the Templeton Prize in like "the mask worn by God." were suspicious of his work because it did 2003. More important than such recogni- With appreciation for the diversity, not fit any of their conventional slots. That, tion, his advocacy has changed the focus complexity and generativity that were all of course, was the daring brilliance of of perception and of the policy debate, so evident to him from his careful long- Rolston—that he refused conventional that much of what he urged has now term observation, Rolston turned back categories and in the end carried out and become accepted as a commonplace to his religious roots for a way to under- legitimated a whole new field of environ- baseline for future policy and practice. stand what he observed: "Some force is mental ethics, for which he has become As always in good biography, the pages present that sucks order in superseding the godparent and leading advocate. on the subject's early years are both inter- steps out of disorder." He judged this As a faculty member, Rolston covered esting and defining. Rolston was born in force to be the God he had known in his all the usual bases of faculty responsibili- 1933 into a southern Presbyterian family Calvinist tradition, whom he now termed ty, but his passion and energy were direct- in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He "the atmosphere of possibilities." learned his moral passion from his parents Finally, as all theology must, Rolston Reviewed by Walter Brueggemann, emeritus pro- (his father was a Presbyterian minister) came to the issue of theodicy, for his fam- fessor of Old Testament at Columbia Theologi- and got his start in environmental biology ily, like every family, had known inexpli- cal Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. © Christian Century January 26, 2010 37 http ://www. christiancentury. org/ cable suffering. In a most majestic inter- pretive maneuver, Rolston showed that in nature there is an endless process of dying and new birth, of relinquishment and fresh gift—a process that exhibited for him the grace of God. That reality is an enactment of crucifixion and resur- rection, of nature consistently suffering through to something higher: For longer than we can remember flowers have been flung up to argue against the forces of violence and death, because that is what they do in and of themselves, and thus they serve as so ready a sign for any who encounter them in a pensive mood, wearied of the winter, frightened by the storm, saddened by death. Preston adds, "The pilgrimage is more than a habit. It is an affirmation." Rolston's interpretive work bears a personal stamp. In his grounded imagina- tion he has a remarkable capacity to coin phrases, informed by good science, that make connections in a poetic way that moves across the disciplines. Saving Creation is a rich appreciation of a most distinctive contribution to common work, a remarkable attestation to how a daring interpreter can modify perception and policy. Along the way the reader learns a great deal about how the ecological crisis has come about, with its summons beyond the convenient. Preston makes clear, moreover, how Rolston's Calvinism per- mits him (and us) to see nature in moral perspective. So far as I know, the term providence is not used here, but it is not far away from the facts on the ground. All that is required is a capacity to make informed connections in the data; Rolston does that magnificently. 39 Christian Century January 26,2010 .
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