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Personal Ethic/Ecotheology Position Paper

Ahnika Boring

24 April 21

This past summer, I read a devotional by Melanie Shankle that proposed getting into the

habit of asking God where we are in relation to him instead of why something happened. The

premise is that “why” focuses on what “I” - the human - am doing, whereas “where” points

attention back to the creator. As I engaged with this posture, I couldn’t help but wonder about

the reality of God’s presence, and how that extended to the physical world of place and time. I

carried this wonder with me through the year until January when I started taking this Creation

Care course. The very first reading, From Nature to Creation by Norman Wirzba, offered an

extension to the point Shankle was making: “Where we are matters for who we think we are,

and thus also for how we think it appropriate to act” (p. 24). It is precisely this question of where

we are that constructs the backbone of my environmental perspective of the world, particularly

as it relates to ethics.

As a Christian, I believe that God created the world with intention and goodness

(Genesis 1:31). As part of his creation, and thus under his standards of goodness, humanity is

called to honor and reflect God and his intentionality. Many Christians (myself included) will

point to Genesis 1:27-30 as God’s mandate to humanity - our purpose, if you will - to be image

bearers and stewards over the environment. I also believe that, although it has fallen into sin,

creation will be redeemed. Here I am drawing from the transformation model outlined in chapter

9 of Moo and Moo’s Creation Care. They present a case for biblically interpreting the fate of

creation as one where it will be restored from sin and brokenness at the culmination of the

God’s redemption plan, as opposed to “burned up” and replaced.

As created beings - part of creation - we too will experience complete restoration with

our creator. After “The Fall,” the profound communion humanity had with God was lost, and

what was considered “good” had to now be understood within the context of sin. Consequently,
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the story of humanity’s restoration heavily involves God showing us how to steward the earth

and love each other well.

Following the Exodus of the ancient Israelites, God specifically outlined what was “good”

and “wrong” in a code of ethics referred to today as the Levitical Laws. This code included

divine decrees that ensured the Genesis mandate was not being neglected, such as letting the

land rest every seventh year (Exodus 23:11). As long as they abided by these rules, God’s

presence was able to dwell among his people. There was a relationship there, but where

humanity was in relation with God was not like it was in the garden.

Then Christ came, and God’s presence on earth took on a tangible and relatable form.

With the death and resurrection of Christ, we are no longer required to live by the same set of

hard-and-fast rules. Rather, Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians that we fulfill our role as

creatures by revealing Jesus through the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). This list suggests

a shift in the biblical story’s ethical framework from deontology to one of areteology, or virtue

ethics. We are supposed to follow the example Jesus gave us, and whether an action is “right”

or “wrong” is determined by how closely it aligns with Jesus’s divine character.

How I recognize Jesus’s character as it relates to creation care is entangled with my

values. Growing up in the United States of America, I realize that leadership is a trait that I give

considerable weight to. In an age of rapid progress (in all its various forms), I get the sense that

leadership is being defined as achieving the next greatest advancement “first,” which possibly

involves steamrolling over others in the process. Jesus sets a different example of leadership

though:

After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, “Do you

understand what I was doing? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right,

because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet,
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you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have

done to you.” (John 13:12-15, NLT)

In this snapshot, leadership is demonstrated to be a sort of humbling, where the “leader”

takes on a posture of servanthood. Servanthood implies that we are, of course, serving

someone - whether it is the “master” or another person. Returning to the Genesis mandate, as

creatures we are representatives of God (His priests and servants) and we have been called to

“reign over” the earth (Genesis 1:28, NLT). According to Jesus’s example, this “reigning over” is

not a dictatorship, but rather stewardship.

In describing stewardship, Pope Francis “identified a relationship of reciprocity that

expects human beings to return the services of the biosphere with services of their own - a

relationship of ‘con-service’ and ‘con-servancy” (DeWitt, p. 273). Along these lines, when I

consider what else I find valuable in regards to creation care, connectivity comes to mind. As

someone skilled in tying things together, it is important to me that those connections are

recognized and honored. Connectivity can refer to any type of connection - from the physical

presence of other people, to the building of knowledge over time, to the fact that we do depend

on the earth’s bounty and that the earth depends on humanity to take care of it. The idea behind

such a broad understanding of connectivity is that the entire universe is deeply interconnected

and interdependent. In order to serve each other and creation well, humanity has to embrace

the community-oriented nature of the universe. In this way, creation carries the fingerprint of the

creator: although God doesn’t “need” creation quite like we need him, he has confirmed himself

to be a relational being through Jesus, who lived with, healed, and suffered alongside the

human race.

As stated previously, it is through my values that I recognize Jesus’s leadership and

relational nature. Although all of the virtues outlined in the letter to the Galatians are

characteristics Jesus embodies in living out those traits, I want to specifically introduce three

virtues I find imperative to creation care that are also broadly encapsulated by Paul’s list. The
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first is attentiveness, or an awareness of detail that comes with a listening heart. Although

creation is active, most of the universe cannot “speak for itself” the same way a human can.

Being able to recognize the value, needs, and beauty of creation is imperative in discerning the

proper way to care for it as outlined in the Genesis mandate. The second is courage, or living

out hope in situations where fear threatens to take over. In a world of sin, we are often required

to break from the status quo in ways that force us to take initiative when, perhaps, no one else

will. And we do this because we choose to live in hope of something better - which ultimately

points to hope in God’s restoration of the world. Finally, there is justice, or the idea of giving

each aspect of creation what it is due. With so many “things” coming together and interacting, it

is easy for any one of them to be left behind or neglected. This is particularly evident in places

where, for example, industry brings in great economic prosperity, but the natural world pays the

price in carrying the pollution. In pursuing justice, we are showing love, kindness, and so on

while keeping any bonds between each other and creation strong.

Not everyone will be called to a life of focused service to the environment, but I believe

that in pursuing Jesus’s example creation care will follow naturally, as the God who has ultimate

control over our ethics also gave us the Genesis mandate. Simply put, knowing that we dwell in

a created world and believing in the divine narrative of ultimate restoration reveals to us our

purpose as creatures made in the image of God to honor Him and the world He has given us to

steward. Because of our own brokenness, God’s goodness and presence had to go through

different frameworks to maintain a relationship with a sinful humanity. The rest of the natural

world also suffered as a result. Through Jesus, we can now live out a relationship with God by

following the example of his son. And if we pay attention to the virtues he demonstrates, Jesus’s

character does show us how we can properly steward creation.