NatureTheology4

Has humankind’s communion with the natural world completely died out in our collective consciousness? Hopefully not. Yet, it seems that there exist certain phenomena, which greatly accentuate the disintegration of the natural world. One such phenomena is the ever-present one, convenience. In our society, it is part and parcel of the almost inevitable situation known as status confessionis:

[T]hese are…situations in which politics becomes so corrupt that to participate, compromise, or fail to challenge, is to contribute to evil. 25

Society tirelessly offers, and seeks, the most convenient way to do, or to acquire, things, particularly food, a daily necessity. This easy-to-get structure often results in decision-making that doesn’t take into consideration the detrimental effects that occur within the natural environment as a result. Convenience, like a disease, has spread so thoroughly throughout society’s bloodstream, it is difficult to try to act with consideration and care for the natural world, as it is much more convenient to contribute to evil. Thus, humans separate themselves further and further from the natural world. Jennifer Price, a well-known environmental author, addresses the tragedy of our disconnectedness from the natural world, saying,

We don’t personally harvest the abundance of natural resources we use. All of us consume nature from within cities or markets, where nature arrives commodified, transformed, already dead, and way out of ecological context. We connect to nature long-distance geographically, through a complex maze of economic networks. Our connections to nature are highly mediated. 26

Perhaps a less mediated connection to nature would help us to better appreciate and care for the life-sustaining environment upon which we rely each day. Yet, something prohibits us from doing so. What prohibits us is the fact that we frequently underestimate our own abilities. Byron Rushing, a legislator in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, says:

People have been persuaded that it doesn’t matter what they do, nothing will change. That’s the powerlessness that has to be overcome. 27

Rushing calls for a change from our self-perceived attitude of insignificance to one of power. This will allow us to do as Ghandi once said, to be the change we hope to see.

This change may well begin with our espousing a nature theology, coming to the realization that all of creation displays God’s glory. This may then lead us toward a deeper sense of gratitude for all parts of the created world. Such gratitude, though scarce, can be found among people of all kinds. One grateful woman, Michal Smart, a member of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, says this prayer with her family every Sabbath:

We could not thank You enough. 28

This prayer is reminiscent of writings found throughout much of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, which frequently tell of God’s glory found in the natural world. In Job 12:7-10, we read of nature telling humankind of heavenly secrets:

The very beasts will tell thee, the birds in air will be thy counselors; the secret is known in every cranny of the earth, the fish in the sea will make it known to thee; none doubts, I tell thee, that all this is the Lord’s doing; all living things that breathe, all the spirits of all mankind, lie in the hollow of his hand. 29

We also read of nature as the means through which the Creator reveals the artistry used in the creation of all things, in Psalm 18(19):1-7:

See how the skies proclaim God’s glory, how the vault of heaven betrays God's craftsmanship! Each day echoes its secret to the next, each night passes on to the next its revelation of knowledge; no word, no accent of theirs that does not make itself heard, till their utterance fills every land, till their message reaches the ends of the world. In these, God has made a pavilion for the sun, which comes out as a bridegroom comes from his bed, and exults like some great runner who sees the track before him. Here, at one end of heaven, is its starting-place, and its course reaches to the other; none can escape its burning heat. 30

In this passage, nature is given anthropomorphic characteristics. The sun is compared to a bridegroom who gets out of bed (the sun rising), and a runner who runs the track (the sun’s moving quickly across the sky).

Water is another common example of a natural element possessing spiritual characteristics within Judeo-Christian Scriptures. In the Old Testament, Yahweh is accompanied, in fifteen different accounts, by the tempest, or storm. In Hebrew running water is referred to as living. This becomes known, in the New Testament, as water of life. 31 In John 4: 7-15, Jesus Christ, himself a Jew, asks a Samaritan woman for a drink; Samaritans were known enemies of the Jews. This astonishes the woman, and Jesus tells her that if she knew what God offered and to whom she was speaking, she would have asked him for a drink. The woman is further baffled when she notices that Jesus has no bucket with which to get water from the deep well. Jesus informs the woman that his idea of water, as that substance which offers eternal life, is much different than what most understand water to be. Christ said:

Anyone who drinks such water as this will be thirsty again afterwards, the man who drinks the water I give him will not know thirst any more. The water I give him will be a spring of water within him, that flows continually to bring him everlasting life. 32

Yet, even though Judeo-Christian Scriptures are clearly riddled with nature theology, such imagery is rarely used today to describe life in the natural world. Animistic attributions to things like the sun, the wind, grass, or water, are simply not common, let alone celebrated, in the realm of widely accepted religion, particularly in the West. Kahlil Gibran once wrote of a soul-filled and playful earth, saying: “Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.” 33 This is a delectable view of earth, a view that is becoming more rare, as the living soul has been taken out of the natural world and its phenomena. Is it any wonder that there is likewise a growing discontentment, among many people, with the lack of soul found within much of the existing religious structure? Perhaps reintegration of spirit with all living things found in the created world would help to ameliorate this growing discontentment.

26 Jennifer Price, Flight Maps: Adventure With Nature In Modern America (NY, Basic Books, 1999), 54.

27 Byron Rushing as cited in Living In Nature: Religion and Science in Dialogue on the Environment.

28 Michal Smart as cited in Keeping the Earth: Religious and Scientific Perspectives on the Environment.

31 The Oxford Companion to the Bible, eds. Bruce M. Metzger & Michael D. Coogan (NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1993), 792.

NATURE THEOLOGY
HOME	Nature Theology, by Christie Gibbons, page 4 Has humankind’s communion with the natural world completely died out in our collective consciousness? Hopefully not. Yet, it seems that there exist certain phenomena, which greatly accentuate the disintegration of the natural world. One such phenomena is the ever-present one, convenience. In our society, it is part and parcel of the almost inevitable situation known as status confessionis: [T]hese are…situations in which politics becomes so corrupt that to participate, compromise, or fail to challenge, is to contribute to evil. 25 Society tirelessly offers, and seeks, the most convenient way to do, or to acquire, things, particularly food, a daily necessity. This easy-to-get structure often results in decision-making that doesn’t take into consideration the detrimental effects that occur within the natural environment as a result. Convenience, like a disease, has spread so thoroughly throughout society’s bloodstream, it is difficult to try to act with consideration and care for the natural world, as it is much more convenient to contribute to evil. Thus, humans separate themselves further and further from the natural world. Jennifer Price, a well-known environmental author, addresses the tragedy of our disconnectedness from the natural world, saying, We don’t personally harvest the abundance of natural resources we use. All of us consume nature from within cities or markets, where nature arrives commodified, transformed, already dead, and way out of ecological context. We connect to nature long-distance geographically, through a complex maze of economic networks. Our connections to nature are highly mediated. 26 Perhaps a less mediated connection to nature would help us to better appreciate and care for the life-sustaining environment upon which we rely each day. Yet, something prohibits us from doing so. What prohibits us is the fact that we frequently underestimate our own abilities. Byron Rushing, a legislator in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, says: People have been persuaded that it doesn’t matter what they do, nothing will change. That’s the powerlessness that has to be overcome. 27 Rushing calls for a change from our self-perceived attitude of insignificance to one of power. This will allow us to do as Ghandi once said, to be the change we hope to see. This change may well begin with our espousing a nature theology, coming to the realization that all of creation displays God’s glory. This may then lead us toward a deeper sense of gratitude for all parts of the created world. Such gratitude, though scarce, can be found among people of all kinds. One grateful woman, Michal Smart, a member of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, says this prayer with her family every Sabbath: Even if our own mouths were as full of song as the sea, And our lips as full of praise as the breadths of the heaven, And our eyes as bright as the sun, And our hands as outstretched as the eagles of the sky, And our feet as swift as gazelles, We could not thank You enough. 28 This prayer is reminiscent of writings found throughout much of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, which frequently tell of God’s glory found in the natural world. In Job 12:7-10, we read of nature telling humankind of heavenly secrets: The very beasts will tell thee, the birds in air will be thy counselors; the secret is known in every cranny of the earth, the fish in the sea will make it known to thee; none doubts, I tell thee, that all this is the Lord’s doing; all living things that breathe, all the spirits of all mankind, lie in the hollow of his hand. 29 We also read of nature as the means through which the Creator reveals the artistry used in the creation of all things, in Psalm 18(19):1-7: See how the skies proclaim God’s glory, how the vault of heaven betrays God's craftsmanship! Each day echoes its secret to the next, each night passes on to the next its revelation of knowledge; no word, no accent of theirs that does not make itself heard, till their utterance fills every land, till their message reaches the ends of the world. In these, God has made a pavilion for the sun, which comes out as a bridegroom comes from his bed, and exults like some great runner who sees the track before him. Here, at one end of heaven, is its starting-place, and its course reaches to the other; none can escape its burning heat. 30 In this passage, nature is given anthropomorphic characteristics. The sun is compared to a bridegroom who gets out of bed (the sun rising), and a runner who runs the track (the sun’s moving quickly across the sky). Water is another common example of a natural element possessing spiritual characteristics within Judeo-Christian Scriptures. In the Old Testament, Yahweh is accompanied, in fifteen different accounts, by the tempest, or storm. In Hebrew running water is referred to as living. This becomes known, in the New Testament, as water of life. 31 In John 4: 7-15, Jesus Christ, himself a Jew, asks a Samaritan woman for a drink; Samaritans were known enemies of the Jews. This astonishes the woman, and Jesus tells her that if she knew what God offered and to whom she was speaking, she would have asked him for a drink. The woman is further baffled when she notices that Jesus has no bucket with which to get water from the deep well. Jesus informs the woman that his idea of water, as that substance which offers eternal life, is much different than what most understand water to be. Christ said: Anyone who drinks such water as this will be thirsty again afterwards, the man who drinks the water I give him will not know thirst any more. The water I give him will be a spring of water within him, that flows continually to bring him everlasting life. 32 Yet, even though Judeo-Christian Scriptures are clearly riddled with nature theology, such imagery is rarely used today to describe life in the natural world. Animistic attributions to things like the sun, the wind, grass, or water, are simply not common, let alone celebrated, in the realm of widely accepted religion, particularly in the West. Kahlil Gibran once wrote of a soul-filled and playful earth, saying: “Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.” 33 This is a delectable view of earth, a view that is becoming more rare, as the living soul has been taken out of the natural world and its phenomena. Is it any wonder that there is likewise a growing discontentment, among many people, with the lack of soul found within much of the existing religious structure? Perhaps reintegration of spirit with all living things found in the created world would help to ameliorate this growing discontentment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Schuurman, Vocation: Discerning Our Callings In Life, 100. 26 Jennifer Price, Flight Maps: Adventure With Nature In Modern America (NY, Basic Books, 1999), 54. 27 Byron Rushing as cited in Living In Nature: Religion and Science in Dialogue on the Environment. 28 Michal Smart as cited in Keeping the Earth: Religious and Scientific Perspectives on the Environment. 29 Translation from the Latin Vulgate, Holy Bible, 459. 30 Translation from the Latin Vulgate, Holy Bible, 485. 31 The Oxford Companion to the Bible, eds. Bruce M. Metzger & Michael D. Coogan (NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1993), 792. 32 Translation from the Latin Vulgate, Holy Bible, 89. 33 Gibran, The Prophet, 39. page 1<>2<>3<>4<>5<>6
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