Religion and Ecology

Religion has surprisingly great impact on the environment. One of today's greatest challenges is the environmental crisis. Many religious men are trying to figure out how to respond to a secular crisis in a religious manner. Christians refer back to the Bible for the answer, and they come up with different answers from the text.

Lynn White, a medieval historian, suggests that "the emphasis in Judaism and Christianity on the transcendence of God above nature and the dominion of humans over nature has led to a devaluing of the natural world and a subsequent destruction of its resources for utilitarian ends" (28). Perhaps, this view best describes our attitude towards nature. We treat the environment as if we own it, and I suppose we pretty much do own it. Yet, it seems that we are mistreating our possession. If we were to think that we own the environment, then we have responsibility as its owner to preserve and utilize it well. However, according to Norman Solomon, Judaism fails to implement such responsibility to humans: "In Judaism... humankind is superior to animals, animals to plants, plants to the inanimate. There is a hierarchy in created things" (30). In Jerusalem Bible, God expresses his worries for other creatures as humans are in charge of them: "Be the terror and the dread of all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on the ground and all the fish of the sea; they are handed over to you" (Genesis 9:2-3).

As children of God, we are at the top of the hierarchy.

On the other hand, Christianity teaches Christians to value and preserve nature: "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Genesis 9:1). God gives many instructions to Noah and his sons, but most importantly God tells them to REPLENISH the earth. If we were to follow the teachings of Christianity.

We are suppose to replenish earth,
but it seems as if we're just destroying it.

Virgil expresses his concerns for the environment in his poem Eclogue IV. He is worried that even though mother earth "[shall] pour freely forth/ Her childish gifts, the gadding ivy-spray/ With foxglove and Egyptian bean-flower mixed,/ And laughing-eyed acanthus," she will eventually be unable to provide for us (123-4). He tells people to "begin to greet thy mother with a smile" (125).