ARTICLES
May 2006 ARTICLES
Contents © 2006
by Jim Holman.
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Eco Popes
Are Catholics Tree Huggers?
BY CHRISTOPHER ZEHNDER
Recent popes and devotees of eco-global-feminist-creation theology/spirituality have something in common. Both think there is an ecological crisis and people have a moral duty to do something about it.
Eco-theologian Father Thomas Berry was perhaps a bit shrill when he wrote, "if the life systems are not saved then everything else is irrelevant." But the gravity of John Paul II's message for the 1990 World Day of Peace was unmistakable. "Today the ecological crisis has assumed such proportions as to be the responsibility of everyone," said the Holy Father. "I wish to repeat that the ecological crisis is a moral issue." [Emphases in original.]
But the similarities between the eco-theological crowd and the popes pretty much end here. As I developed in the article, "It Ain't Just Dirt, It's God" (February 2006 Mission), Catholic eco-theologians such as Father Berry, Sister Elizabeth Johnson, and Rosemary Radford Ruether have concocted an entirely new cosmology and theology that derides as static and bigoted any notion of human superiority over beasts, plants, and inanimate creatures. Further, these writers so blur the Creator and creation as to make the universe the body of God. The notion of God, say these thinkers, as well as the biblical account of creation have to be rethought in light of a new cosmology that sees the universe as "dynamic" and ever-expanding. God becomes the great but imminent He/She ("God/ess") while all created beings are but different lumps of "star-stuff."
In contrast, Popes Paul VI and John Paul II have affirmed biblical and traditional accounts of creation and of the Divine Nature and developed from them a teaching of Christian stewardship toward the created order. In doing so, the popes have avoided a crass, capitalistic materialism on the one hand and a murky, but equally materialistic, spiritualism on the other.
Though they don't make it God, the popes affirm that the created order is good; in the creation account in Genesis, God looked at the world He had created and saw it was good. But goodness depends upon order and implies a wholeness, and as the popes insist, this wholeness and order demand respect. "Theology, philosophy and science speak of a harmonious universe, of a 'cosmos' endowed with its own integrity, its own internal, dynamic balance," Pope John Paul said in his 1990 World Day of Peace address. "This order must be respected. The human race is called to explore this order, to examine it with due care and to make use of it while safeguarding its integrity." [Emphasis added.]
But man is not to respect the order of nature as something of greater worth than himself; for man himself is both the crown of creation and its lord. Noting the "recurring refrain" of Genesis chapter 1, "and God saw that it was good," Pope John Paul pointed out that after the creation of man this "refrain changes markedly;" now creation was not only good but "'it was very good (Gen 1:31). God entrusted the whole of creation to the man and woman, and only then -- as we read -- could he rest 'from all his work' (Gen 2:3)." [Emphasis in original.]
God entrusted creation to man because of man's unique role as creation's ruler. "Made in the image and likeness of God, Adam and Eve were to have exercised their dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28)," said John Paul in his 1990 address. To rule, however, is not to despoil; to rule is to perfect. In his 1972 "Message to the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment," Pope Paul VI said, "to rule creation means for the human race not to destroy it but to perfect it; to transform the world not into a chaos no longer fit for habitation, but into a beautiful abode where everything is respected." John Paul echoed Paul in the encyclical Evangelium Vitae, the "Gospel of Life." "The human creature receives a mission of government over creation to make all its potential shine," wrote John Paul. "It is a delegation attributed by the divine King at the very origins of creation, when man and woman, who are the 'image of God' (Genesis 1:27), received the order to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to subjugate it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and over every living being that crawls on the earth (see Genesis 1:28)...."
But even in perfecting the world, man has limitations set on his "lordship," says Evangelium Vitae. This lordship "is not 'absolute, but ministerial; it is a real reflection of the unique and infinite lordship of God. Hence man must exercise it with wisdom and love, sharing in the boundless wisdom and love of God." Man's lordship is sacral; for as John Paul pointed out in the General Audience Address of January 17, 2001, "the faithful is like 'the shepherd of being,' namely, the one who leads all beings to God, inviting them to intone an 'alleluia' of praise."
So intimate is man's lordly connection to the physical universe that his fall into sin occasioned the world's descent into chaos. Our first parents "destroyed the existing harmony by deliberately going against the Creator's plan, that is, by choosing to sin," said Pope John Paul in his 1990 address. "This resulted not only in man's alienation from himself, in death and fratricide, but also in the earth's 'rebellion' against him (cf. Gen. 3:17-19; 4:12)." [Emphasis in original.] In the same address, he continued, "when man turns his back on the Creator's plan, he provokes a disorder which has inevitable repercussions on the rest of the created order. If man is not at peace with God, then earth itself cannot be at peace: 'Therefore the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and even the fish of the sea are taken away' (Hos. 4:3)."
Because of the fall, even man's task of bringing order to the universe betrays signs of disorder -- as both Popes Paul VI and John Paul II have pointed out. Mankind's touted triumph, "scientific and technical progress," said Paul VI in 1972, "bears within it, like every human work, a heavy charge of ambivalence, for good and for evil." The good of such progress is, said Paul VI, the "producing of something useful;" and, said John Paul II in 1990, advances in science and technology reveal man's ability "to participate responsibly in God's creative action in the world." Yet, such progress often rests on what Pope Paul called "the disorderly exploitation of the physical reserves of the planet," which in turn leads to the "wasting of natural resources that cannot be renewed; pollution of the earth, water, the air and space, with the resulting attacks on vegetable and animal life. All this contributes to the impoverishment and deterioration of man's environment to the extent, it is said, of threatening his own survival." Advances in both industry and agriculture, said John Paul, "have produced harmful long-term effects. This has led to the painful realization that we cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without paying due attention both to the consequences of such interference in other areas and to the well-being of future generations." [Emphases added.]
Yet it is future generations, and even the current one, that are ignored by "an economic and technological progress which does not recognize and take into account its limits." (Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Common Declaration on the Environment, June 10, 2002.) For finally, as John Paul said in his 1990 World Day of Peace message, "the most profound and serious indication of the moral implications underlying the ecological problem is the lack of respect for life evident in many of the patterns of environmental pollution. Often, the interests of production prevail over concern for the dignity of workers, while economic interests take priority over the good of individuals and even entire peoples." The pope insisted that everyone must respect "that there is an integrity to creation;" yet, this integrity does not exclude man or subsume him. As John Paul said with Patriarch Bartholomew in their common declaration, "respect for creation stems from respect for human life and dignity."
In subduing the earth, man, then, must not only respect the world's integrity but its ultimate purpose -- to serve the integral, common good of all men. Hence, as Pope Paul said in 1972, "no one can take possession in an absolute and selfish way of the environment, which is not a 'res nullius' -- something not belonging to anyone -- but the 'res omnium' -- the patrimony of mankind, so that those in possession of it -- men in private or public life -- must use it in a way that redounds to the real advantage of everyone. Man is certainly the first and truest treasure of earth." Here Pope Paul merely reiterated the social magisterium, from Leo XIII onward, that (in the words of Vatican II) "God destined the earth and all it contains for the use of every individual and all peoples."
According to John Paul, "the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness -- both individual and collective -- are contrary to the order of creation, an order which is characterized by mutual interdependence." But if human vice lies at the root of "ecological breakdown," purely technical solutions will avail nothing. "Just as the demographic problem is not solved by unduly limiting access to life," said Paul VI in Stockholm, "so the problem of the environment cannot be tackled with technical measures alone." "An adequate solution cannot be found," said John Paul II, "merely in a better management or a more rational use of the earth's resources, as important as these may be. Rather, we must go to the source of the problem and face in its entirety that profound moral crisis of which the destruction of the environment is only one troubling aspect."
Thus Pope John Paul's 1990 statement, "the ecological crisis is a moral issue."
For if the earth fell with Adam, the universe will be redeemed by Christ. "All creation became subject to futility," said John Paul, "waiting in a mysterious way to be set free and to obtain a glorious liberty together with the children of God (cf. Rom 8:20-21)." But the redemption of earth is not to be a merely eschatological event, but a prophetic one; man's task of restoring all things in Christ begins now and is a task incumbent on all. It is an aspect of conversion.
In their joint declaration, Pope John Paul and Patriarch Bartholomew emphasized this point. "What is required," they said, "is an act of repentance on our part and a renewed attempt to view ourselves, one another, and the world around us within the perspective of the divine design for creation. The problem is not simply economic and technological; it is moral and spiritual. A solution at the economic and technological level can be found only if we undergo, in the most radical way, an inner change of heart, which can lead to a change in lifestyle and of unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. A genuine conversion in Christ will enable us to change the way we think and act."
This conversion is not only individual, but social. "Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its life style," Pope John Paul said in 1990. "In many parts of the world society is given to instant gratification and consumerism while remaining indifferent to the damage which these cause.... Simplicity, moderation and discipline, a well as a spirit of sacrifice, must become a part of everyday life, lest all suffer the negative consequences of the careless habits of a few."
"God has not abandoned the world," Pope John Paul and Patriarch Bartholomew reminded us in 2002. But this truth should not lull us into a pious inaction; for, the pontiffs add, "it is [God's] will that His design and our hope for it will be realized through our cooperation in restoring its original harmony." This cooperation requires "humility" and recognition of "the limits of our powers, and most importantly, the limits of our knowledge and judgment."
"A new approach and a new culture are needed," said John Paul and Bartholomew, one "based on the centrality of the human person within creation and inspired by environmentally ethical behavior stemming from our triple relationship to God, to self, and to creation. Such an ethics fosters interdependence and stresses the principles of universal solidarity, social justice, and responsibility, in order to promote a true culture of life."
The lineaments of this "new culture" of "universal solidarity, social justice, and responsibility," though comprehensible to all men, are yet profoundly Christian. Thus, the task of founding the new culture falls uniquely to those who confess the Trinity. They, "in particular," said Pope John Paul in 1990, "realize that their responsibility within creation and their duty towards nature and the Creator are an essential part of their faith."