Choose language:

Christians are familiar with the role of prophets in the Old Testament and later throughout the history of the Church. Prophets were called by God in specific eras/contexts to address various issues of concern. Prophets held various roles, including being spokespeople for God through sharing inspired messages, predicting future events, proclaiming God’s messages to the public, serving as moral/intelligent leaders and/or as critics/rebels/reformers of their societies.^[1] While prophets were known for delivering messages of impending danger and calamity, they also sent messages of encouragement and hope to God’s people. I argue that the American historian Lynn T. White Jr. was a prophet of the ecological crisis in the 1960s. The seeds of his message were later grown into the tree of the care for God’s creation in the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The history of environmentalism under the WCC can trace its beginning to the variety of reactions to White’s famous article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”, in 1967.^[2] White argued that the ecological crisis has deep religious roots, tying it to Western Christianity’s long-standing view that humanity has dominance over nature. White’s article was instrumental in bringing to light the imbrication of Christians’ behaviours and ideologies with environmental damage, and pushing organisations within and between churches to grapple with this legacy and the way forward. In this post, I will connect the intellectual engagement with climate change history to the past and current response of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the climate crisis.

White’s work was compelling, in part, due to the broader context in which it was published: the rising tide of passionate science communications about the consequences of human exploitation on the environment which became prominent in the 1960s, and an undeniable series of major environmental disasters. In the United States, for example, there was widespread smog in New York City and Los Angeles, a significant oil spill in Santa Barbara in February 1969, and fires in the Cuyahoga River in June of the same year. All of these events received widespread public attention in news reporting and caused alarm and concern for Americans.^[3]

In addition to these events, a series of landmark publications grabbed public attention. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring accused the chemical industry of sending disinformation to the public, hiding the truth about the detrimental effects of DDT (a pesticide) on the environment. Carson also blamed government officials for approving the chemical industry’s marketing campaign without questioning.^[4] Paul Ehrlich’s book The Population Bomb, originally published in 1968, brought severe ecological events and the human exploitation of the environment together, helping the public become aware that these issues were all connected. For instance, rapid population growth amounted to rising demands over limited resources, which led to imprudent decisions about resource use. The environmental events around them, plus the effective communication in these texts, pushed the American public to demand change.^[5] This spread to other countries as well.

White’s article attributed the exploitative attitude described in Carson’s and Ehrlich’s work to Christianity’s creation narratives, such as Genesis 2, which declared humanity the centre of creation while relegating nature to a supporting role, serving humanity. According to many ecologists who published after White, because of this Christian belief, Christians had tended to exploit nature for their own gains regardless of the harms being done to the environment and to other species.^[6] This strikingly contrasted with many indigenous peoples’—including Tongans’—beliefs and practices prior to their interaction with European Christian missionaries. Tongans believed in the interconnection and the oneness of creation, and that human beings were just a part of, and not the centre of, creation. We will pick up the story of Tongan churches’ responses to climate change in a later post.

White suggested that Christianity had to revisit its values and beliefs in order to find new approaches to understanding the relationship between humanity and the environment. This included the need for Christianity to transform the theology that declares humanity to have dominion over nature. Although White strongly blamed Western Christianity for the roots of the ecological crisis, his paper did not represent a rejection of Christianity. As he argues, “Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious.”^[7] White proposed some approaches that Christianity could adopt. For example, Christianity needed to revisit its values and beliefs that embrace the environment—such as preserving, respecting and protecting God’s creation (Gen 2:15; Psa 24:1)—and build on those aspects. Another example was to follow the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi, especially his care for nature.^[8]

In the past fifty-six years, many have responded to White’s thesis, both in support of and against his arguments. Globally, this has led to some changes in various church denominations; while Anglicans/Episcopalians have mobilised in support of environmentalism, other church denominations (e.g. Pentecostals and Evangelicals) have strengthened their anti-environmentalism. Some churches are denying climate change while others are revisiting their Christian theology and the indigenous cultures of the places where they are based. Though churches have taken different positions on climate change, it is important to highlight how White’s prophetic message had a significant impact on churches and how they have responded to the natural environment throughout the past six decades.

The solutions he proposed in his prophesies have been largely heeded, too; the Christian alignment with environmentalist theologies has been significant, as is represented by the approach taken by the World Council of Churches (WCC). The WCC comprises most of the world’s Orthodox churches (Eastern and Oriental), African Instituted, Anglican, Assyrian, Baptist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Old-Catholic, Pentecostal, Reformed, United/Uniting and Free/Independent churches, Disciples of Christ and Friends (Quakers). WCC has a long history, from the 1960s to the present day, of caring for the wellbeing of humanity and the environment, especially in its concerns over nuclear weapons testing and proliferation. Through most of its history, the WCC has crusaded for disarmament. WCC’s environmentalism has been encouraged and supported throughout the years via its member churches across the globe. The ecumenical mission, social justice, environmental and other issues of concern/interest in the Pacific region have led to the formation of the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) as a part of the WCC structure and governing bodies in the mid-1960s, the subject of my next post. And yet, for all its claims to care for the environment, and as we will see in the following post, the response of the WCC to environmental issues has been confined to conversations and meetings, without concrete initiatives happening on the ground.

This is the second in a series of four posts. Click here for the first post: A History of Care for God’s Creation within the Church: It’s Time to Walk the Walk! Click here for the third post: The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) and Practical Initiatives Addressing the Climate Crisis. Click here for the fourth post: Churches and Climate Change in Tonga: A Real Measure of the Effectiveness of Pacific Conference of Churches’ Climate Works

Footnotes

¹ Dorothy Emmet, ‘Prophets and Their Societies’, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 86, 1 (1956), 13–23.

² Lynn T. White, Jr., ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’, Science 155 (March 1967), 1203-7.

³ Michigan in the World and the Environmental Justice HistoryLab, ‘“Environmental Crisis” in the Late 1960s · Exhibit · Give Earth a Chance: Environmental Activism in Michigan’, Projects of the U-M History Department (accessed 31 July 2024).

⁴ Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1962). For a reflection on its significance, see: Dorothy McLaughlin, ‘Silent Spring Revisited | Fooling With Nature | FRONTLINE | PBS’, n.d. (accessed 31 July 2024).

⁵ Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (Ballantine Books, 1968). Further discussed in “Environmental Crisis” in the Late 1960s · Exhibit · Give Earth a Chance: Environmental Activism in Michigan’.

⁶ Paul Collins, God’s Earth: Religion as if Matter Really Mattered (A Dove Publication, 1995), 87; Peter Harrison, “Having Dominion: Genesis and the Mastery of Nature,” in R. J. Berry, ed, Environmental Stewardship: Critical Perspectives – Past and Present (T & T Clark International, 2006), 21; Thomas Sieger Derr, “Lynn White and his Magical Essay – Religion’s Responsibility for the Ecological Crisis: An Argument Run Amok”; Lisa Sideris, “Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology and Natural Selection,” in R. J. Berry, ed., Environmental Stewardship: Critical Perspectives – Past and Present (T & T Clark International, 2006), 160, just to name a few.

⁷ White, 1207.

⁸ ibid., 1208.

The post Lynn White Jr. and the Origin of Care for God’s Creation in the World Council of Churches appeared first on He Taonga Tuku Iho.

Time and again the Church^[1] is reminded, “But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”^[2] On the global level, Anglicans, alongside Orthodox churches, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Roman Catholics and Methodists, have long been alarmed by environmental issues, especially the threatening impacts of the climate crisis we are facing today. Yet research shows that most of these churches’ responses over the past five decades have been confined to discussions and meetings, rather than more concrete actions being implemented on the ground. There is a strong need for churches to take urgent concrete actions right now—all the talk agrees—and the consequences of not taking action will be particularly significant for the Pacific region. Considerable research has declared the Pacific Islands to be on the frontline of the climate crisis.^[3] Tonga (which serves as a case study in the series of posts which follow this one) is the second-most vulnerable nation on the globe in terms of the projected effects of natural disasters and climate change, yet the responses of most Tongan churches remain on the dialogue and meetings level.^[4]

In a forthcoming series of posts, I will discuss the history of the care for God’s creation within the Church across three ecumenical organisational levels: 1) World Council of Churches (Global), 2) Pacific Conference of Churches (Regional), and 3) Tonga National Council of Churches/Tonga Forum of Church Leaders (Local). In this first post I will discuss the importance of taking seriously the threatening impact of climate change in our lives, and the need for churches to take action urgently. Next, I will engage with what has been the past/current response of the World Council of Churches and Pacific Conference of Churches to the environmental crisis, by emphasising the prophetic role of Lynn White Jr and the ways his argument disrupted the status quo for churches, leading later to the development of church-environmentalism and the establishment of the Pacific Conference of Churches. In the third post, I will discuss the response of the Pacific Conference of Churches to climate change. This is important because it will show what the churches have done and the outcomes of those actions. Finally, in the fourth post, I will outline how the Tonga National Council of Churches/Tonga Forum of Church Leaders has responded to the climate issue and what has been achieved so far. I will highlight what that means for the South Pacific Anglican structure of a Three Tikanga Church, and close with some recommendations, gesturing towards a way forward in caring for God’s creation.

‘Care for God’s creation’ has been a crucial principle underpinning many church communities, including the Anglican Church and its mission, for over 50 years now. In the Pacific context, the influence of churches on various aspects of life is strong, affecting peoples’ perspectives, behaviour and responses in relation to environmental issues. As such, it is important to explore ways in which churches can be more productive and proactive, as doing so in turn will empower their members to act in ways which demonstrate care for God’s creation. Within the household of the Anglican Church, the care for God’s creation is important because of the effects of the climate crisis on our lives and livelihoods, and also because it is the fifth Mark of Mission.^[5] Through the Anglican Communion Environment Network (ACEN), the Anglican church is committed to protect, preserve, and renew the earth. I cannot overemphasise how crucial it is that we take action, not only because we as humanity are a part of the earth’s body, but we are also dependent on its environment/resources for survival and flourishing. Without a healthy environment, humanity will not be healthy. Each day we are dependent on the earth’s air to breathe, its water to drink, its food to eat. It is of prime importance for humanity to realise that our continued existence is dependent on the earth. We must take care for God’s creation seriously and act urgently in addressing the climate crisis of today.

This is the first in a series of four posts. Click here for the second post: Lynn White Jr. and the Origin of Care for God’s Creation in the World Council of Churches. Click here for the third post: The Pacific Conference of Churches and Practical Initiatives Addressing the Climate Crisis. Click here for the fourth post: Churches and Climate Change in Tonga: A Real Measure of the Effectiveness of Pacific Conference of Churches’ Climate Works

Footnotes

¹ Every time the word ‘Church’ appears with the capital ‘C’ and without a modifier in front, I refer to the whole Christian church, encompassing various denominations.

² James 1:22, The Bible (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, 2022).

³ R. K. Pachauri and L. A. Meyer, eds, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014). Ministry for Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Climate Change and Communications [MEIDECC], Kingdom of Tonga Third National Communication on Climate Change, December 2019, 12; E. H. Havea, ‘Climate Change Education in Tongan secondary schools’ (PhD diss., University of Waikato, 2020); Dhrishna Charan, Kushaal Raj, Ravneel Chand, Lionel Joseph, and Priyatma Singh, ‘At the Frontline of Climate Change: Adaptation, Limitations and Way Forward for the South Pacific Island States’, in Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Strategies for Coastal Communities, ed. W. Leal Filho, (Springer, Cham: 2018), 69–85.

⁴ Peter Mucke, ed., WorldRiskReport 2020; Focus: Forced Displacement and Migration (Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft And Ruhr University Bochum – Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV), 2020), 7. The World Risk Report has been published annually since 2011 by Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft. Since 2017, the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV) at the Ruhr University Bochum has been responsible for the scientific management and calculation of the World Risk Index contained in the report. The figures published this summer by the UN Refugee Agency are alarming: almost 80 million people are currently fleeing their homes, and refugees at the EU’s external borders and internally-displaced persons in their own countries continue to die every day.

⁵ The Five Marks of Mission are widely accepted by Anglicans across the globe. These five mission statements offer a practical guide to the holistic nature of mission. The fifth mark of mission states: “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and re-new the life of the earth”. See ‘Five Marks of Mission’, Anglican Schools of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia (blog) (accessed 29 July 2024), and Anglican Communion Office, ‘Anglican Communion: History’, (accessed 29 July 2024), for further details.

The post A History of Care for God’s Creation within the Church: It’s Time to Walk the Talk! appeared first on He Taonga Tuku Iho.