Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology: Foundations in Scripture, Theology, History and Praxis by Daniel L. Brunner, Jennifer L. Butler, and A.J. Swoboda sounds about as intense as a title like that and a book co-written by three authors would have you guess. At times I felt like I was back in Biology III class at Northwestern, and the word document of saved notes brings back memories of preparing for one of those papers that includes a full page bibliography. Not joking, my notes are 11 pages long. All of this to say that while this environmental book was an academic and slow read, it was an awesome one that is founded in the Bible. My original goal with these “Books Clubs” was to give summaries that primarily recommend books and secondarily let you into my thoughts on it (well ours, as almost everything is discussed between both of us…no fully thought-out idea is completely mine anymore). Turns out, only the main themes are remembered as well as offshoot ideas in regards to topics mentioned. Therefore, this blog will be broken into the main themes I took away from how we as humans are involved with the environment. Everything will flow from quotes from the book! They will be italicized.
Politically:
Being in a different country has been a unique experience in how many normally-very-biased things seem to be viewed more objectively. This definitely involves politics from home but also issues here within Peru and South America. I’m sure even just the thought of reading a blog on the environment let alone a book brings automatic subconscious thoughts to mind. This happens to me, but is something that step by step is occurring a little less frequently. Similar to as the authors write below, I am trying to replace “tolerance” towards people, even if that’s on topics way crazier than being more green, with “hospitality”.
In both the right-wing and the left-wing sides of Christianity there is the tendency to stereotype, to overlook the nuance in differing opinions, or to distrust the good intentions of others….tolerance allowsdivergent opinions to exist; hospitality welcomes and invitesothers into dialogue in a spirit of love and trust.
Grouping politics into two huge categories, left and right, ends up turning way too many things into political agendas to serve our official’s jobs. I wish more people would stand for important topics as being important topics, not just tossing it back or forth across the political aisle. Here’s an example of what politics does to influence what we stand for:
An evangelical friend of ours received generally favorable responses to the following post on Facebook: “The more deeply I search for the roots of the global environmental crisis, the more I am convinced that it is an outer manifestation of an inner crisis that is, for lack of a better word, spiritual.” Later, after our friend clarified that the quote was from Democrat Al Gore, the comments turned less complimentary.
This political issue seems to directly influence the environment. Are we listening more to Republican ideology or to God’s word with this topic?
Economically/ Privileged versus Underprivileged:
“The truth is that the underprivileged in the world experience the desolating effects of ecological degradation disproportionately in comparison to the economically privileged.”
I think this is what might have hit me the hardest with the book. I realized how naïve I was about environmental destruction. I would look outside and see beautiful Wisconsin or Minnesota looking as pristine as ever and think, “Well, it seems like all this environmental talk and whining is a waste of time. Aren’t creating jobs and helping issues like poverty way more important?” In the book as well as some documentaries about the food and fast fashion industries, results of environmental damage rarely takes place in the States, but our consumerism is a big part to blame. Countries in Africa, Asia, and South America take the brunt of the punishment. Even beyond everyone’s opinion on global warming being man-made or not, pollution alone is devastating other people’s back yards, by pumping gallons of factory waste from clothes or insecticides from farms into water sources. Meanwhile, we get upset about finding one bag of trash in the BWCA.
I’ve also began to witness personally and see how privilege isn’t just a frustrating thing, but something that can change the course of someone’s life.
Privilege exists when one group has something valuable that is refused to others, not because they are undeserving but because of the group to which they belong.
Here was a stat and comment that speaks for itself:
Women do 66 percent of the world’s work and grow 50 percent of the world’s food, yet they only take home 10 percent of the world’s income and own 1 percent of the land… Sexism can be unintentional, impersonal, subtle, and even benevolent.
Lastly, just like with our retirements, we need to think more long-term with how each decision we make not only affects us in the gorgeous Midwest, but others too.
Too often our solutions have been to discover more carbon-based fuels or to develop new technologies; it is striking how seldom we think of consuming less.
Our economically driven world makes this feel like an impossible task; well, for at least as long as money is most important in our lives.
Church Culture:
It’s been very difficult, but I’ve also really been trying to view Jesus through both a multi-cultural lenses and more importantly, solely Biblical. This is a lot harder than it seems, and I’ve realized sometimes I don’t even know why I believe certain things. I think Church Culture can very easily do that in subtle ways. Many times this seems to benefit believers, but sometimes the pendulum sways maybe too far, sinfulness intrudes, or something has just yet to be discovered? Here are some quotes in regards to that:
Nonetheless in the centuries that followed, whatever Creation-affirming beliefs the Reformers held faded away, and their attention to personal salvation primed Protestants to secularize and disregard nature.
It is remarkable how long it took Protestantism to grasp the human role and responsibility in evangelization and mission.
They say it, and I believe it’s absolutely fair to point out the problems within ideas and tendencies that humans, even the best Christians, have pushed into the beliefs of the rest of us.
Even today Western Christianity struggles with ambiguity between spirituality and the body. It is time to speak less often of denying our bodies and more often of embracing the body as a vehicle of wisdom and divine grace. It is time to end the dichotomy between exercises that are “spiritual”—prayer, meditation, Scripture reading— and those that are “embodied”—taking walks, practicing Pilates, eating well.
What’s Our Role as Believers?
I believe we need to do our best to be hospitalto the biases and block the blinders that influence our reading of the Bible, whether that’s the political figure we don’t like, or subtly from the Christian lessons that have been passed on for generations. Our role as believers is to reflect Christ and work to reconcile ourselves and the world to be more like heaven. Does the world being more like heaven include how we take care of the environment/Creation? This book helped me more firmly say yes to that question.
Because Adam’s sin undermined the harmony established between God, humanity, and Creation, Creation is healed along with humanity.
In the Scriptures, for instance, the Earth suffers the reverberations of humanity’s sin in the Creation story (Gen. 3:17–18).
My Biggest Personal Desire to Change from this Book Is…
TO SLOW DOWN:
When we take time to slow down and notice God’s everyday wonders in the world, we become aware of God’s character and are compelled to gratitude.
Sophie, my wife and fellow Go-ers, and I frequently ask each other, “What have you been working on lately?” My most common answer goes between “being patient” and “to never be in a hurry”. I don’t want time to fly by and miss what God wants to show and teach me. I want to be fully present with Him and with everyone and everything around me. Whenever I’ve been forced to slow down and be in His presence and especially within Creation (at home in Wisconsin and Minnesota as well as here in Peru), I feel the most close to the Lord.
One writer emphasizes that “we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.” To do so, he recommends the practice of “slowing.” By slowing down and allowing nature to ground us in visceral reality, we see what is, and what is, is enough.
Slowing down is hard, but I’m seeing that by doing less, I’m actually experiencing more. More of God and more of His Creation.
God Bless you All,
Matt
Here’s just a cool quote in regards to how communion as well as what we eat can change so much in the lives of a person:
The Table does change everything. A little bread and a little wine may seem insignificant, but it epitomizes and re-creates God’s gracious love in physical form. We become what we eat and drink.