Week Eleven Lecture Two

RLCT 1026 “Introduction to the Study of Religion”

November 11-15, 2021

What Can Religion Offer?

Gottlieb argues that religious groups have powerful resources to help

us understand and respond to suffering and injustice- we have seen this in
the religious campaigns against slavery, in the civil rights movement.
This falls broadly into theological re-evaluation which takes
environmental issues into account with more traditional concerns such
as morality, ritual and social justice. Some of the re-evaluations are from
my perspective among the most exciting and interesting theology ever
written.

One way religious groups can address the problem is within their
own institutions -they retrofit or build energy efficient buildings and
recycle. They also, as we know, have tremendous education resources
and they can teach their members about the issue. As Gottlieb writes on
“ it is clear to most religious environmentalists that pious words about
“caring about God’s creation’ or “having compassion on all sentient
beings” will not come to much unless there are dramatic changes made
in the way we produce and consume, grow food and get from place to
place, build houses and use energy.”

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 And this is an extremely important point and it is interesting to
note that for eco-theologians like Starhawk and Vandana Shiva there is
no separation between theory and action. Both are writers and social
critics but are also out on the barricades and participating in various
protests and actions on behalf of the environment and in defense of
social justice.

Another way in which religious groups can have an impact in this

discussion in through church activism and this has been a feature of
some of the mainstream churches for several decades now.
Interestingly on this issue scientists and religious people have
increasingly worked together.

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 Gottlieb notes that religious groups have challenged the World
Bank’s development programmes which often precipitate
environmental disaster, they have practiced civil disobedience and
recently they have been confronting Wal-Mart over its labour practices.

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 Here we can see that religious institutions are in an excellent
position to critique as they are also not beholden to corporate power
the way that politicians often are. As with members of NGOs such as
Greenpeace or Earthroots ,and I hope academics who are meant to be
non-coopted voices in our society, they can speak honestly and freely on
these issues.

Another important contribution that religion can make is in

offering inspiration, solace and regeneration. Anyone who has worked
in any kind of activism knows there is always a high risk of personal
burn-out. I have been told by several people that social workers last on
average 7 years in the field before burning out.

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 Religious practices can contribute to rejuvenation. Reading on the
hospice movement which brings religion to the centre in the care of the
dying they noted that nurses who had a religious belief were able to
cope better recognizing that they believed there was a Divine Force in
charge and they could only assist it and work to the best of their
abilities.

Religious traditions also offer prayer, meditation, retreats and

other practices that help maintain a focus on the inner life which can
end up being forgotten in the midst of activist work. Spiritual teachings
are also an important counterforce against the forces of despair and
inertia. The great spiritual classics of the world’s religious traditions
continue to provide counsel and inspiration to many who do difficult
work. Religion also recognizes and accepts that there are difficulties and
darkness in all human life and so offers advice on how to deal with
inevitable difficulties.

Gottlieb discusses this in the section entitled Spiritual Challenge.

Spiritual Opportunity comparing this situation to that of theodicy and
the necessary accounting for evil in the world. In furthering the
argument for the joining of environmentalism and religion Gottlieb
notes that it is a fairly simple task as environmentalism “tends to have a
spiritual dimension”.

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Is Christianity to Blame?

Probably the single most influential writing on religion and the

environment is a piece written Lynn White that first appeared in Science
magazine in 1967 just as the environmental movement was ramping up.
The article was entitled “ The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis”.
This essay is startling in its prescience.

White starts out his article by arguing that human beings have
always impacted upon the environment but that the merging of science
and technology is a pivotal moment in human history analogous to the
invention of agriculture. He writes that , “ The emergence of the
widespread practice of the Baconian creed that scientific knowledge
means technological power over nature can scarcely be dated before
1850.”

And this is really shocking when you think about it. That in a little
over 150 years we have created the juggernaut that we are now in. It is
impossible for us to even comprehend what life would be like without
the dangers of the nuclear discovery hanging over us. As White puts it, “
surely no creature other than man has ever managed to foul its nest is
such short order.”

He warns against trying to return to the past and counsels that we

need to return to fundamentals and as he puts it, “ we should try to

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clarify our thinking by looking, in some historical depth, at the
presuppositions that underlie modern technology and science.”

After a short history of science White then turns the medieval

view of nature and he writes that how a person acts is in harmony with
larger intellectual patterns. And “ what people do about their ecology
depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things
around them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our
nature and destiny – that is , by religion.”

He goes on to say that the victory of Christianity over paganism

was the most impactful psychic revolution in the history of our culture.”
And he writes, “ we continue to live as we have lived for about 1700
years, very largely in the context of Christian axioms.” White compares
the creation myths of the Greek and Roman world and shows that they
are understood time as being cyclical whereas Judaism and Christianity
share a linear sense of time and a particular creation story. In this story
it is understood that nature was created for the benefit of humankind as
he puts it, “ God planned all this explicitly for man’s benefit and rule; no
item in the physical creation had any purpose save to serve man’s
purposes.”

Genesis 26:

Then God said, “ Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the

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 air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth”

It continues:
“ God blessed them and God said to them, “ Be fruitful and multiple and
fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the air and over every living think that moves
upon the earth.

White argues that Christianity, in its western form, ‘ Is the most

anthropocentric religion the world has seen.” He makes a demarcation
here between Orthodox and western Christianity that I find interesting
along with his point that the western Christianity especially that of
Northern Europe is interested in action.

He writes that in pagan Europe there was an animistic belief in

spriit in all living things understood as fauns, centaurs and mermaids
and various genius loci. These had to be propitiated before any action
could be taken and he argues that, “ by destroying pagan animism,
Christianity made it possible to exploit nature in a mood of indifference
to the feelings of natural objects.”

This article caused a tremendous reaction and has remained

influential to this day. I teach it in all my religion and environment
classes. Many who have come after have challenged White White was
himself religious and his larger argument that Christianity has to
develop an environmental ethic remains important. He called for
making St Francis of Assisi the patron saint of the environment and this

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has happened. Also the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Popes
have both declared destruction of the environment to be a sin. We are
also seeing changes in ritual such as the increasingly popularity of the
blessing of the animals. With billions of followers worldwide religious
groups are a powerful resource for changing our whole way of thinking
about the natural world and our part in it.