The Human Animal and Christian Ecotheology
Reflections on Taking Biology Seriously
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v8i1.85Keywords:
Christian ecotheology, evolution, coevolution, free will, determinism, theology, environmentalism, intrinsic value, self-interest, altruism, the FallAbstract
Christian ecotheology tends to emphasize human identity with the rest of nature while also arguing that human society requires transformation through appreciation of intrinsic value in non-human nature. Since this sets up a tension between notions of humans as natural beings and as free to choose among alternative motivations, it would bene?t Christian ecotheology to think more consistently about implications of humanity’s belonging to nature. Science has provided compelling reasons for thinking that egoism is an incorrigible dimension of human life, thereby suggesting that abusive exploitation of nature has deeper roots than cultural constructs. This realization calls for fundamental rethinking of several traditional Christian doctrines, including the Fall, original sin, and free will. In fact, some theologies already anticipate these revisions, though more remains to be done. Moreover, Christian ecotheology’s attention to concepts of connections between humans and nature and of nature’s value remains important, but some of its emphases need to change.
References
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———. 1978. ‘The Future of Compassion’, The Ecumenical Review 30.2: 99-109. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.1978.tb03508.x.
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Wilson, Edward O. 1978. On Human Nature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
———. 1998. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (New York: Vintage Books).
———. 2002. The Future of Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
———. 2012. The Social Conquest of Earth (New York: W.W. Norton).
Wimberly, Edward T. 2009. Nested Ecology: The Place of Humans in the Ecological Hierarchy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Berry, Thomas. 1988. The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books).
Bouma-Prediger, Steven. 2010. For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2nd edn).
Brown, Warren S., Nancey Murphy, and H. Newton Malony (eds.). 1998. Whatever Happened to the Soul? Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature (Minneapolis: Fortress Press).
‘The Buzz’. 2010. ‘Poll: Floridians Have Soured on Oil Drilling Off State's Coast’, Tampa Bay Times, 7 May. Online: http://www.lifetimes.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/poll-floridians-have-soured-oil-drilling-statescoast/2033657.
Cobb, John, and Charles Birch. 1981. The Liberation of Life: From the Cell to the Community (New York: Cambridge University Press).
Dawkins, Richard. 2006a. The God Delusion (New York: Houghton Mifflin).
———. 2006b. The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 30th Anniversary edn).
Diamond, Jared. 1997. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York: W.W. Norton).
French, William C. 2000. ‘Ecological Security and Policies of Restraint’, in Hessel and Ruether 2000: 473-91.
Gazzaniga, Michael S. 2011. Who’s in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain (New York: HarperCollins).
Gregersen, Niels Henrik, Willem B. Drees, and Ulf Görman (eds.). 2000. The Human Person in Science and Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans).
Harris, Sam. 2010. The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (New York: Free Press).
Hessel, Dieter T., and Rosemary Radford Ruether (eds.). 2000. Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans (Cambridge: Harvard University Press and Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions).
Jackson, Wes. 2006 [1987]. Altars of Unhewn Stone: Science and the Earth (Wooster: Wooster Book Co.).
Kellert, Stephen R., and E.O. Wilson. 1995. The Biophilia Hypothesis (Washington, DC: Island Press).
Kelsey, David H. 2009. Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology, vol. 2 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press).
Kierkegaard, Søren. 1980. The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Orienting Deliberation on the Dogmatic Issue of Hereditary Sin, by Vigilius Haufniensis (ed. and trans. Reidar Thomte, with Albert B. Anderson; Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Leary, Alex. 2010. ‘Poll: Support Fades for Oil Drilling Ban as Spill Is Plugged’, Tampa Bay Times, 16 August. Online: http://www.tampabay.com/news/ politics/pollsupport-fades-for-oil-drilling-ban-as-spill-is-plugged/1115501.
Marsh, George Perkins. 1965 [1864]. Man and Nature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
McDaniel, Jay. 1995. With Roots and Wings: Christianity in an Age of Ecology and Dialogue (Maryknoll: Orbis Books).
McFague, Sallie. 1993. The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press).
———. 2008. A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress).
Midgley, Mary. 2000. ‘Consciousness, Fatalism and Science’, in Gregersen et al. 2000: 21-40.
Moltmann, Jürgen. 1993. God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God (trans. Margaret Kohl; Minneapolis: Fortress Press).
Murphy, Nancey. 1998. ‘Nonreductive Physicalism: Philosophical Issues’, in Warren S. Brown, Nancey Murphy, and H. Newton Maloney (eds.), Whatever Happened to the Soul? Scientific and Theological Portraits of Human Nature (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress): 127-48.
Nash, James. 1991. Loving Nature: Ecological Integrity and Christian Responsibility (Nashville: Abingdon Press).
———. 2000. ‘Seeking Moral Norms in Nature: Natural Law and Ecological Responsibility’, in Hessel and Ruether 2000: 227-50.
———. 2008. ‘The Bible vs. Biodiversity: The Case against Moral Argument from Scripture’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 3.2: 213-37.
Nash, Roderick Frazier. 1989. The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press).
Niebuhr, Reinhold. 1960 [1932]. Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons).
———. 1964 [1941]. The Nature and Destiny of Man. Vol. 1, Human Nature (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons).
Oelschlaeger, Max. 1991. The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Pannenberg, Wolfhart. 1985. Anthropology in Theological Perspective (trans. Matthew J. O’Connell; Philadelphia: Westminster Press).
Ponting, Clive. 1991. A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations (New York: Penguin Books).
Shepard, Paul. 1998. Coming Home to the Pleistocene (Washington, DC: Island Press/ Shearwater).
Sideris, Lisa. 2003. Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology, and Natural Selection (New York: Columbia University Press).
Tattersall, Ian. 1998. Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness (New York: Harcourt Brace).
Taylor, Bron. 2012. ‘Wilderness, Spirituality, and Biodiversity in North America: Tracing an Environmental History from Occidental Roots to Earth Day’, in Laura Feldt (ed.), Wilderness in Mythology and Religion (Berlin: de Gruyter): 293-324.
Traina, Christina L.H. 2000. ‘Response to James A. Nash’, in Hessel and Ruether 2000: 251-60.
White, Jr., Lynn. 1967. ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis’, Nature 155: 1203-207.
———. 1973. ‘Continuing the Conversation’, in Ian G. Barbour (ed.), Western Man and Environmental Ethics: Attitudes toward Nature and Technology (Reading: Addison-Wesley): 55-65.
———. 1978. ‘The Future of Compassion’, The Ecumenical Review 30.2: 99-109. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.1978.tb03508.x.
Wilkinson, Loren et al. 1991. Earthkeeping in the Nineties: Stewardship of Creation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, rev. edn).
Williams, Patricia A. 2001. Doing without Adam and Eve: Sociobiology and Original Sin (Minneapolis: Fortress Press).
Wilson, Edward O. 1978. On Human Nature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
———. 1998. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (New York: Vintage Books).
———. 2002. The Future of Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
———. 2012. The Social Conquest of Earth (New York: W.W. Norton).
Wimberly, Edward T. 2009. Nested Ecology: The Place of Humans in the Ecological Hierarchy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Published
2014-06-03
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Bryant, D. J. (2014). The Human Animal and Christian Ecotheology: Reflections on Taking Biology Seriously. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 8(1), 85-110. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v8i1.85
