Christians and the Earth: Loving Caretakers, Exploiting Tyrants, Careless Consumers, or?
- Mary Caucutt
- 1 minute ago
- 4 min read
The answer to that question is something of all of the above. The answer is nuanced and complex, not suitable for a soundbite or even adequately managed in a brief blog like this. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this wondering in the comments below.
G-d in the Old Testament is so holy that followers do not speak the Holy Name (Jewish folks still never put vowels in the Holy Name); so holy that when followers draw near, they take off their shoes for the ground on which they stand is infused with God; so holy that G-d’s rule over the cosmos is one of absolute justice filled with a slow to anger loving-kindness and infinitely abiding mercy.
The book of Genesis opens: in the beginning when earth was an empty void and darkness covered the face of the deep, even there the holiness of G-d was present, moving over the waters. G-d issued a holy word and the world was created. After each moment of creation, G-d speaks again and names it filled with ontological goodness. All creation is created and has life by the Holy One and all creation is named good in itself of itself.
And then we come to the moment of human creation. Creating one speaks, Let us create humanity in our image, male and female G-d created them, in G-d’s image they were created. Humans were also created good in and of themselves. They were given a special role in this story of creation, they are called to rule and subdue G-d’s creation.
While the rule of the Holy One is always one of justice and mercy, human rule has not always exhibited that image to which humans were called. The unfolding of the Old Testament chronicles the ways that humans have been exploitative tyrants and exercised their dominion over creation and other humans in ways contrary to those ordained by G-d. As these instances arise in the Old Testament, each is used by the Bible writers as a teachable moment on how this is how it is/was sin rather than holiness exercising dominion, and often moral learnings about how to go about exercising humans' call to subduing dominion in a way that honor’s G-d’s creation and honor’s the Holy Image imprinted on all persons.
Creation is named good in and of itself, not as an object-instrument to be exploited by humans. A holy dominion rule is one that faithfully stewards creation on behalf of the Holy One. There are entire books exploring the Hebrew language understanding of the two key words in the creation text: have dominion and subdue.
The second Genesis story of creation illustrates more about what the word subdue means in a Biblical context. The earth-creature, Adamah, was created of dust before rather than after any plants or animal in the garden. The Creator wanted the earth-creature as a partner to take care of the plants and animals of the garden. Subdue here means to encourage life-giving fruitfulness, to support each creature’s ability to become most that for which it was created, to till and to care for creation on behalf of the Creator.
The early Christians saw all the ways subduing dominion were infected by sin. They experienced this sin as a disease or captivity from which people could not seem to heal of free themselves. In the person of Jesus the Christ, they saw one who perfectly lived out his “created in the image” identity; and because Jesus was fully in G-d, his life and death had the power to save from the dominions of sin and death and deliver his followers into the perfect rule of G-d described in our opening paragraph. Jesus was the first fruits of this abiding promise into which all Christians were called to live. Because of the saving rule of Jesus, Christians have the ability to exercise faithful stewardship of creation for and with G-d, no longer enslaved to the rule of sin and death.
Sadly, although Christians have a taste of the fullness of that promise today, they still live in a world of sin. Much of Christian theology has been a wrestling with the already – not yet nature of G-d’s promise in Christ. Some Christians address this conundrum by doubling down on the Christian responsibility to steward creation as a faithful way to partner with God in growing toward the future promise. Other Christians allow themselves to return into slavery to sin-dominion in order to greedily consume all they want in the "meantime". Still other Christians solve this conundrum by changing the original creation story that names things of the earth as good and blessed into a story where the earth is so infected by sin that the only way for G-d’s promised reign to be fulfilled is by leaving the historical cosmos for a new heaven and a new earth. This theology is often titled post-millennial.
The Old Testament story as interpreted by Jesus invites Christians to live into their created image identity as loving caretakers of the earth. Human sin-nature tempts Christians (and everyone else!) to live as exploiting tyrants in a past-repeating pattern. Christian wrestling with the already not-yet promise of G-d for the cosmos that leans heavily into a post-millennialist theology allows human sin-nature a gold-plated excuse for careless consumption of the gifts of creation.
If you are a Christian, do you find yourself in these Biblical perspectives?
If you are not a Christian, do any of these perspectives resonate and how?
Whatever your sense of the Holy in creation, how does your worldview support and hinder an ethic of sustainability?
What lenses do you find most helpful to support your commitment to care fo the earth?
The author is a retired Episcopal priest with 34 years experience in the pulpit supported by theological study that includes a master's of divinity and a doctorate in ministry.
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