QESTION: Job C.T.

The Catholic Church makes a lot of interventions for the protection of nature or environment at present. Is it not the Christian vision of the world and nature which objectified and abused it that eventually led to the present ecological crisis?

ANSWER: Saji Mathew Kanayankal CST

The role and responsibility of Christianity in the present environmental Crisis is a debatable topic. In 1967 Lynn White Jr. in his celebrated article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” (Science 155, 1203-7) blamed the “orthodox Christian arrogance towards nature” as the ideological source of the present ecological crisis. White argued that Christian theology justified the exploitation of nature by focusing on the commandment of God “subdue the earth and have dominion” (Gen 1:28) and accused Western Christianity, the ‘most anthropocentric religion, for establishing “dualism of man and nature”. Christianity “insisted that it is God’s will that man exploits nature for his proper ends”. Thus, it permits humans to exploit nature in a mood of indifference to the integrity of natural objects. “God planned all of this explicitly for man’s benefit and rule: no item in the physical creation had any purpose save to serve man’s purposes.” White then concluded that the modern technological conquest of nature that has led to our environmental crisis has in large part been made possible by the dominance in the West of this Christian world-view. However, many biblical authors challenged the way White interpreted the biblical text and they pointed out the logical and theological inadequacy of White’s approach.

The Commandment of God and the Quest of Domination
Even from the early days, this biblical text was interpreted in strong anthropocentrically, which entailed humanity the power ‘to have dominion over nature.’ The English word dominion, which has its root from Latin dominus (lord or master), suggests a strong sense of oppressive mastery or pre-eminence through physical force that misconstrues the Hebrew meaning. In most of the places in the OT, the Hebrew verbs ‘subdue and dominion’ (‘kabash’ and ‘rada’), are used to signify a violent assault or crushing. While using the term ‘dominion’, the image of a conqueror placing his foot on the neck of a defeated enemy, exerting absolute dominion is visualised. These words are also used to identify the process of enslavement. We can also note the influence of the picture of the ‘hierarchical pyramid of value’ in the formation of the traditional outlook on the created world, where man is placed at the top of the pyramid of the biosphere in our formation of the value system. According to this view, human beings are allowed to express their full power upon other beings without considering their worth.
Origen places humanity in a higher place stating; “reason raises the rational being far above all irrational beings.” (Contra Celsum, § IV.). Thomas Aquinas, following the footsteps of Origen, opines that among created beings, only intellectual creatures have the ‘essential character of a principal-agent’ and the non-intellectual creatures have ‘the formal character of an instrument.’ Therefore, the non-intellectual creatures are valued not in themselves or in their own sake but “as useful to the principal-agent.” According to Thomas, only the rational creatures are subjected to divine providence. Since the non-rational creatures (“corruptible creatures”) have no freedom of action, they are at the disposal of free humans and are subjected to slavery (Summa Contra Gentiles, III. 2). Even though these kinds of arguments helped to explain the greater role of humanity on the earth, on the other hand, it led to exploitation and misuse of nature. Many modern commentators say that both Origen and Aquinas base their arguments upon the hierarchical and teleological understanding of the created nature, not from biblical sources but from the stoic and other Greek philosophies.
However, in recent years we have a different understanding of this text. Peter Harrison in his article “Subduing Earth: Genesis 1- Early Modern Science, and the Exploitation of Nature” (1999), argues that the primary meaning of ‘dominion’ is not exploitation, but an “ideal of just and peaceful governance.” According to him “the patristic and medieval accounts of human dominion are not primarily concerned with the exploitation of the natural world.” The common tune of patristic fathers on ‘dominion’ was not in the direction of exploitation of nature, but it was in the direction of the inward faculties of the human soul. We can also see the views of Augustine who says that the non-rational creatures have intrinsic goodness and they contribute goodness to the greater whole that is the universe. For him, non-rational creatures, both by being what they are and by contributing to the universe’s perfection, give glory to God. While Augustine acknowledges that non-rational creatures are meant to serve us, he does not see this as opposed to their giving glory to God; indeed, they only fully give glory to God insofar as they serve us spiritually. Even though Aquinas speaks on the superiority of man over material things, he undoubtedly clarifies the role of individual creatures for the sake of the perfection of the whole universe. For him, the whole universe is ordered to God with an end.
It is true that the literal approach to the biblical text that became prevalent from the sixteenth century onward caused to develop the ‘dominion’ theology and technological mastery. Even then, a closer analysis of the seventeenth century context proves that they too did not mean the ‘exploiting’ dimension of dominion. “It was not arrogance, but modesty, that motivated the first of the modern scientists, and their programme was not on the violation of nature but the restoration of the earth to a paradise in which all creatures could take their proper place,” argues Harrison in the above-said article. The different creative and productive actions on the earth were aimed at the preservation or restoration of the natural conditions of the earth. Thus, as Harrison claims the term dominion has to be understood in its creative dimension. The application of dominion (rada) in the life of the human being should not be guided towards domination; rather as true and authentic images of God, they have to execute ‘God’s dominion’ on earth. In modern times, popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis enrich us with its contemporary meaning and interpretation in terms of stewardship, responsibility, and co-creation. Many contemporary scholars would see the influence of modernity and the technocratic paradigm for the present objectification of nature rather than the biblical understanding.

Trajectories of Modernity
In history, enlightenment was a period of reformation and renewal with various scientific and technological developments. It has contributed enormously to the development of humanity, especially in applying ‘reason’ at various levels. The technical advancement, scientific growth, political artifice after modernity, and the enlightenment in philosophical and theological discourses hail human beings as the strongest biological force on earth but make them increasingly alienated from the earth. The modern concept of individualism has built upon the scientific worldview of Francis Bacon, the anthropological insights of René Descartes, the mechanic interpretation of nature by Isaac Newton, the political philosophy of John Locke, the utilitarian vision of John Stuart Mill and the economic theory of Adam Smith. In order to celebrate human life, the main proponents of modernity attacked the then existing exploitative and dehumanising systems. In the process of the revival, they have propagated the supremacy of the individual and exalted supreme and solitary human will. Michael S. Northcott, in his book ‘A Political Theology of Climate Change’ (2013, 66) asserts, “Descartes inaugurated the split which Newton took up with physics and Metaphysics, and late Kant between Science and ethics, as well as the split between culture and nature. Descartes also inaugurated the dualism in modern culture and philosophy between descriptions of conscious thought and embodiment, … is deeply implicated in the origination of modern ecological crisis”. Along with it, we should also add the industrial revolution and its rapid spread combined with the expansion of deforestation, mining, acceleration of transportation facilities, and deep ocean fishing that increased global warming which led to the contemporary ecological crisis. The post-reformation Europe has witnessed a movement from farms to mines and factories, and from agrarian villages to coal-fouled industrial cities.
The trajectories of modernity have weakened the role of Transcendence in our lives and ignored the inter-human as well as inter-cosmic relatedness. The modern culture, which is deeply shaped by ‘Cartesianism’ and scientific and technological innovations, intrinsically disembodied the realm of spirit and inherited a kind of radical disrespect, distrust and denial of any intrinsic beauty, goodness and truth in the original ordering of life. The nominalist mutation of the doctrine of creation and the replacement of the theistic views with the mechanistic cosmology revised the world order with a techno-centric vision. Consequently, under the banner of progress and development, many components of the earth and its system are despoiled and depleted and the unjust and excessive human intervention and exploitation have increased. The negligence of God in one’s life eventually resulted in the alienation from other people and nature. When an individual, motivated only by their self-interest, strives for their progress and welfare, others – living beings as well as nature – are commodified and objectified. “In the new world of science and the social contract, nature is the objective backdrop for the enlightened renaissance of culture, knowledge, and wealth,” says Northcott. “The earth ceases to be an objective background to human culture when she calls time on the modern project to extend technological control from earth’s depth to the heavens” (A Political Theology of Climate Change, 47).

Evasion of the Role of Transcendence
In the modern period, with the enormous development of new science and technology, human dominion had taken a more exploitative approach with new forms of mastery in the natural world. The replacement of ‘reason’ with the ‘functions of spirit,’ the forgetfulness about the creator and human arrogance are some of the important reasons that intensify this estrangement and alienation. As an effect, the concept of the divine has slowly evaded from the ‘modern’ vocabulary and there is a growing ‘disjunction between our sense of the divine and our ordinary perceptual experience.’ Oliver Davies in the book, ‘The Creativity of God: World, Eucharist, Reason’ (2004, 6) argues that “the lack of coherent theological cosmology today has the consequence that our ordinary intimacy with God is set outside our intimacy with the world, and neither is fully integrated into the concept of createdness as revealing the deepest nature of the world in which – as creatures – we live.” The medieval religions, which had much suspicion on human power, emphasised on human dependence on God. The modernizers, to liberate humanity, have proposed to ‘to get free of God.’ It has led to the emergence and spread of secularisation that ratifies autonomous self-determination and individualism. The idea of human createdness is eclipsed by the autonomous self that prompts one to negate the idea of creation and thus deny the role of God in human lives and society. Thus the ‘autonomous’ human being tries to transform the world according to his/her whims and plans. Consequently, the concept of well-being and happiness has been interpreted in terms of material and economic progress. The contemporary technocratic society which is controlled by corporates and multinationals, with its overturning to neo-liberalism, marketization and consumerism, has forsaken its religious roots and transcendent values and has become a purely economically driven society. To overcome the present crisis of objectification and commodification we have to bring back the transcendental dimension into our academic, social and political realm. Through his teachings, especially through ‘Laudato Si’ and ‘Laudate Deum’ Pope Francis is trying to do it.
Pope Francis starts both his encyclical and apostolic exhortation, by praising God the creator. God as creator initiates one to accept the createdness of all creatures on the earth. The createdness is the fundamental crux in the order of the universe that determines the relationship of any being with its creator. Even if beings are ‘diversified in their various actualisation of existence,’ in essence they are related with the creator. The acceptance of the sovereignty of God helps us to formulate a vision, both in our interspecific and intraspecific stance, for in this view, the horizon, within which one ‘sees and values all things,’ is God. It helps us to “recognize that other living beings have a value of their own in God’s eye” (Laudato Si, 69) and to affirm that “every creature has its own value and significance” (Laudato Si, 76). This awareness helps us to overcome the temptation of objectification and value beings apart from human dominance.