Monday, May 15, 2006
Where the Holy and Secular Collide
Justin Taylor has been wondering what it means to be a Christian Environmentalist. He has pointed to two interesting articles in his search - A brief one from Gene Vieth and an extensive exegete from Trinity Journal. Both articles end up in the same place.
As Christians we clearly have a duty to be good stewards of God's creation.
Great - NOW WHAT?
Some argue that man's efforts are somehow outside of creation as Vieth appears to
You see the dilemma here? Precisely what being good stewards of the environment entails is an incredibly complex question. A question for which there is no scriptural guidance and which involves disiplines of the arts (creating beauty), philosophy (what is beauty?), and the sciences (developing the resources of man-creation.)
And then there is the fact that these disciplines can collide after the same goal. For example, the arts may mandate that creating a beautiful building means building St. Paul's Cathedral - and yet, that structure is enormously wasteful of resources in comparison to today's engineering technology. So what is being a better steward, the beauty or the preservation?
Once we establish that as Christians we are to be good stewards, how do we answer these myriad questions that arise? Which brings me to a point the exegete paper makes
I would argue it is not. You see, when the holy guidlines need the guidance of secular study to be achieved, as is the case here, the best thing to do is to make sancitifed people to conduct those secular studies - and that is precisely the mission of the church.
To address the environmental issue, the best thing the church can do is to make Christians of the people that work in the field, be they scientists and engineers, lobbyists and activists, architects and builders. Indeed, because the issue touches literally all of us (Would a Christian buy a hybrid or a V-8?)- the best thing a Christian concerned about environmental stewardship can do is evangelism and discipleship.
When we all fall in line with God's will, as can only happen when The Great Commission has been accomplished. I think the question of the environment will become moot - our sanctification will handle it on it's own.
Related Tags: Christian, environment, Christian environmentalism, Evangelical Climate Initiative, development, global warming, biodiversity
As Christians we clearly have a duty to be good stewards of God's creation.
Great - NOW WHAT?
Some argue that man's efforts are somehow outside of creation as Vieth appears to
Christians may well oppose commercial developments that replace God-created beauty with man-made ugliness.But wait! - is not man an integral, and the most important, part of God's created beauty? That which is man-made can be ugly, but is that ugliness not a result of our fallen state, as opposed to the fact that we are man? Would not using the resource of God's created systems to create beauty be an expression of our stewardship of those resources?
You see the dilemma here? Precisely what being good stewards of the environment entails is an incredibly complex question. A question for which there is no scriptural guidance and which involves disiplines of the arts (creating beauty), philosophy (what is beauty?), and the sciences (developing the resources of man-creation.)
And then there is the fact that these disciplines can collide after the same goal. For example, the arts may mandate that creating a beautiful building means building St. Paul's Cathedral - and yet, that structure is enormously wasteful of resources in comparison to today's engineering technology. So what is being a better steward, the beauty or the preservation?
Once we establish that as Christians we are to be good stewards, how do we answer these myriad questions that arise? Which brings me to a point the exegete paper makes
At this point it may be necessary to address a fundamental question. Why is it important to preach and teach this? Shouldn't we concentrate our limited time on the more pressing concerns of the gospel and Christian life? While the "environmental issue" is one of particularly poignant current concern about which Christians should be able to think and speak from within a Christian perspective, if for no other reason to engage in potentially productive discussion, if it is considered separately, as some interesting topic, it does pale in comparison to the importance of other Christian categories.The author goes on to argue that it is necessary as an apologetic defense against those that would accuse the Christian of environmental destruction. Perhaps, but to do so drags us down into the endless debates I have just begun to touch on above, and I must ask, are such detailed debates really a place where the church is supposed to expend its time and energy?
I would argue it is not. You see, when the holy guidlines need the guidance of secular study to be achieved, as is the case here, the best thing to do is to make sancitifed people to conduct those secular studies - and that is precisely the mission of the church.
To address the environmental issue, the best thing the church can do is to make Christians of the people that work in the field, be they scientists and engineers, lobbyists and activists, architects and builders. Indeed, because the issue touches literally all of us (Would a Christian buy a hybrid or a V-8?)- the best thing a Christian concerned about environmental stewardship can do is evangelism and discipleship.
When we all fall in line with God's will, as can only happen when The Great Commission has been accomplished. I think the question of the environment will become moot - our sanctification will handle it on it's own.
Related Tags: Christian, environment, Christian environmentalism, Evangelical Climate Initiative, development, global warming, biodiversity
