Activity 8: Primary Sources on Ecological Theology

Preparation (2 hours)

Keep a dictionary or related technology handy while reading. If you don’t know what swaddling bands are or what girding loins means, look it up. Otherwise, try to answer the questions below on your own based on the text in front of you.

Genesis

[After creating the sky, land, and bodies of water, then populating them with plants, stars, fish, birds, and land animals] 26Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth. 27God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. 29God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; 30and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened. 31God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. (Genesis 1:26-31 NABRE)
  1. How might a Christian read this passage as endorsing consuming natural resources to the point of destruction of nature?
  2. How might a second Christian read this passage as demanding that Christians protect and preserve nature, in a good way?
  3. How might a third Christian who cares about the environment still not like the interpretation of Christian #2?
  4. What are the key words in the passage that are read differently?
  5. Would you expect a vegan to like this passage? Does “dominion” over animals include the right to eat them?
  6. How does this passage present the centrality of humans in the universe and God’s attention? How would you characterize the relationship between God and humans, and humans and nature?

Job

1Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm and said:
2Who is this who darkens counsel with words of ignorance?
3Gird up your loins now, like a man; I will question you, and you tell me the answers!
4Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5Who determined its size? Surely you know?
Who stretched out the measuring line for it?
6Into what were its pedestals sunk, and who laid its cornerstone,
7While the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8Who shut within doors the sea, when it burst forth from the womb,
9When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling bands?
10When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door,
11And said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves stop?
(NABRE Job 38:1-11)
  1. How does this passage present the centrality of humans in the universe and God’s attention? How would you characterize the relationship between God and humans, and humans and nature?
  2. What are the implied answers to the rhetorical questions?
  3. Who are the sons of God?
  4. How would you characterize the relationship between God and the sea?
  5. How would Christian #3 from the previous passage read this passage?

Isaiah

17See, I am creating new heavens and a new earth; The former things shall not be remembered nor come to mind.
18Instead, shout for joy and be glad forever in what I am creating.
Indeed, I am creating Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight;
19I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people.
No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there, or the sound of crying.
20No longer shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, nor anyone who does not live a full lifetime;
One who dies at a hundred years shall be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred shall be thought accursed.
21They shall build houses and live in them, they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit;
22They shall not build and others live there; they shall not plant and others eat.
As the years of a tree, so the years of my people; and my chosen ones shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23They shall not toil in vain, nor beget children for sudden destruction;
For they shall be a people blessed by the LORD and their descendants with them.
24Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25The wolf and the lamb shall pasture together, and the lion shall eat hay like the ox (but the serpent’s food shall be dust).
None shall harm or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
(NABRE Isaiah 65:17-25)
  1. What is new about the new earth? What is wrong with the old earth? What happens to the old earth?
  2. What images of this passage resonate with your own experience? What images require you to try to understand the experiences of others through their stories?
  3. When is the last time you shouted for joy?
  4. What does it mean to rejoice in others?
  5. Hebrew poetry works with repetition and amplification, such that verse 19 could be taken as “not only will there not be weeping, there won’t even be crying.” Do you have experience of weeping, more than just crying?
  6. Do you have experience or knowledge from others of an infant dying at just a few days old?
  7. Do you have experience or knowledge from others of an elderly person dying and everyone says they lived a long life but you still wish they lived longer?
  8. Do you have experience or knowledge from others of people building houses but not living in them? Does that seem normal and okay to Isaiah?
  9. Do you have experience or knowledge from others of farmworkers who do not have enough to eat? Does that seem normal and okay to Isaiah?
  10. Do you have experience of someone not answering when you call, or liking your post or whatever happens today? Have you ever felt like the person you were talking to was not listening to you? Have you ever felt like God was not listening to you? Does that seem normal and okay to Isaiah?
  11. If we leave it to the genetic engineers to decide whether we can and should turn wolves and lions into herbivores, how achievable is the new earth Isaiah describes?

Peter

12Wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. 13But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (NABRE 2 Peter 3:12-13)
  1. What is new about the new earth? What is wrong with the old earth? What happens to the old earth?
  2. How is Peter interpreting Isaiah?
  3. How might a Christian read this passage as endorsing consuming natural resources to the point of destruction of nature?
  4. How might a Christian read this passage as endorsing amassing nuclear weapons?
  5. How might a Christian read this passage and still think we should take care of the ecosystem?

Revelation

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them [as their God]. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.” 5The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” (NABRE Revelation 21:1-5)
  1. What is new about the new earth? What is wrong with the old earth? What happens to the old earth?
  2. How is this passage interpreting Isaiah?
  3. Where is the new Jerusalem?
  4. Besides heaven and earth, what specifically passes away?
  5. How might a Christian read this passage as endorsing consuming natural resources to the point of destruction of nature?
  6. How might a Christian read this passage and still think we should take care of the ecosystem?

Francis of Assisi

Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
and through the air, cloudy and serene,
and every kind of weather through which You give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water,
which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night;
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth,
who sustains us and governs us and who produces
varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
(Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Sun (excerpt))
  1. If you didn’t know that Francis of Assisi lived 800 years ago, when you would have guessed this was written?
  2. Does this family sound more weird or less weird than yours?
  3. Which of these images are most striking to you?
  4. Popes choose their pope names. Why would the person who became pope in 2013 think it was time for another Francis?
  5. Does it seem weird to you to treat sources from scripture and tradition together in the same exercise?

In-Class Collaboration (20 minutes)

  1. Find your assigned collaborators and introduce yourself
  2. What questions did you not understand or were not able to think of an answer (however subjective)? If the whole group is stumped ask Dr. Hanneken.
  3. What questions were most interesting to you, or most left you wondering what your peers would say?
  4. You probably won’t have time to discuss each question, but make sure you touch on most passages.

Reporting from Small Groups to the Whole Class (20 minutes = 3:20 for each of six groups)

  1. Introduce self and other members of the group
  2. Did your group spend time on any of the questions that other groups have already reported on? If so, does your group have any different perspectives? If not, we don’t need to spend time reiterating what has already been said.
  3. If not, what questions led to the most engaging conversation between different perspectives within your group? Look beyond “we all agreed” in favor of differences or at least different reasons for agreeing.

Individual Written Report (10 minutes)

  1. What did you learn from a person in your group about one of the sources that you did not catch reading on your own? (Please show specific learning)
  2. What did you learn from the reports to the whole class that you did not catch on your own or in small groups?
  3. Do you think documents written 2500 years ago, 2000 years ago, and 800 years ago speak to climate change as we know it in our century?
  4. What would someone who disagrees with you on the previous question say?