HD643: The Earth is the Lord’s: Ecology, Theology, and the Church’s Witness

Fall 2012

Instructor: Richard Floyd; CH 306; box 34F; 404-574-0754 (cell);

Course Description:

Lynn White’s 1967 essay, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” indicted the Christian tradition for fostering an exploitative attitude toward nature. White contended that the dominion tradition of Genesis 1 in conjunction with the medieval monastic emphasis on holy work laid the “psychic foundations” for industry run amuck. In the years following, others have deepened White’s critique, claiming that the Christian doctrine of creation was deeply anthropocentric, rendering humanity the measure of all things; or that a transcendent summum bonum drained intrinsic value from nature; or else that Christian apocalypticism rendered the earth expendable in the divine drama of human redemption. A host of Christian ecological theologians such as Jürgen Moltmann and Sallie McFague have responded creatively and decisively to these charges.

This course will explore the “ecological complaint” against Christianity (represented by White and others) and how various Christian theologians have responded to that complaint. After reviewing some of the key issues defining ecological theology as a distinct theological perspective, we will trace four major threads that are woven together in various ways in contemporary ecological theology: creation spirituality (Thomas Berry); process theology (Jay McDaniel); ecofeminist theology (Sallie McFague); and what I call “ecclesial” eco-theology (Jürgen Moltmann).

In addition to reviewing these major thinkers, we will take on various “working issues” in ecological theology. I have suggested evolution and theodicy, and the ecological witness of the church, as two possible “working issues.” However, if other pressing issues emerge in our work together, we can turn our attention to those.

This is a theology course, so our primary focus will be on the theological challenges posed by an ecological perspective. However, lurking beneath and behind our theological reflections are several other strands. This is not a science course (and I am certainly not a scientist), but the basic sciences of ecology and climate change will be relevant to our work. This is not a biblical studies course, but we will certainly brush up against biblical texts and their eco-theological implications. This is not a spirituality course, but there is a necessary spiritual, not to mention affective and practical, dimension to our engagement with ecological questions and with nature itself. This is not an ethics course, but there are crucial ethical implications to the theological questions we are discussing. And while this is not a course in ecclesial practice, the question of how the church should respond to the ecological challenges we face will hang over everything we do.

All of this is to say, while the course is focused on theology, it is (like its subject) ecological.

Format:

This seminar will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30-3:00 in BLC 107.

CTS Academic Honor Code:

Each student bears responsibility for honor and honesty in taking examinations, writing papers, and in fulfilling all other academic requirements. Academic dishonesty includes cheating on exams and plagiarism (representing another’s ideas and words as one’s own) and either can lead to dismissal from the seminary.

Students who witness dishonesty will speak with either the student (understanding that he/she will self-report the infraction to the professor) or directly with the professor in and for whose class the dishonesty occurred.

Classroom Conduct:

Because Columbia Theological Seminary is an “educational institution . . . and a community of theological inquiry and formation for ministry in the service of the Church of Jesus Christ,” it is incumbent upon both professors and students to foster a teaching environment that is conducive for learning and characterized by mutual respect. To ensure that all participants can give their undivided attention to the instruction at hand, maintaining proper classroom etiquette is crucial. This would include, for example, silencing cell phones during class time and refraining from distracting behavior such as computer activity unrelated to classroom learning and unsolicited conversation.

CTS Inclusive Language Policy:

Columbia Theological Seminary is committed to the use of inclusive language about human beings and about God. Inclusive language with reference to human beings intentionally seeks to acknowledge the diversity of humankind. Inclusive language with reference to God seeks to express the diverse ways the Bible and our theological tradition speak about God. In both cases, such language should enable everyone, regardless of differences such as gender, age, race, and denominational affiliation, to feel included, addressed, and equally valued before God. (For the full policy, see the CTS Student Handbook, 34-35).

Requirements:

Students taking the seminar for credit will do the following:

1. Read the material assigned for each seminar.

2. Attend each meeting of the seminar and participate actively in the discussion.

3. Introduce the material at two seminars by suggesting what appears to you to be particularly important in the reading and what questions or criticisms you have of the material.

4. Either:

(a) keep a theological journal in which you reflect on the readings and discussions of the seminar (the journal will be submitted to the instructor during Mid-Term Week (with 8-10 entries) and at the conclusion of the seminar on December 7th (with an additional 8-10 entries); OR

(b) write two 8-10 page essays, one due during Mid Term Week and the other due December 7th.

Texts:

The following books are available in the CTS Bookstore and are on closed reserve in Campbell Library:

Berry, Thomas. The Christian Future and the Fate of the Earth, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2009.

McDaniel, Jay B. Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989.

McFague, Sallie. A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008

Moltmann, Jürgen. God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Additional articles are available through CAMS.


Course Schedule:

Part One: Introduction to Ecotheology

9/10 Introduction to class; the ecological complaint

read: Lynn White, “The Historic Roots of our Ecologic Crisis”

available through CAMS

9/12 Ecotheology as response; climate change as context

read: Laurel Kearns, “The Context of Eco-theology”

available through CAMS

Part Two: Creation Spirituality

9/17 Introduction to creation spirituality

read: Nelson D. Kloosterman, “Environment as Religion: Matthew Fox’s Creation

Spirituality as a Paradigm for Environmental Ethics”

9/19 Berry (1)

read: Thomas Berry, The Christian Future, chapters 1-5

9/24 Berry (2)

read: Thomas Berry, The Christian Future, chapters 6-10

Part Three: Process Theology

9/26 Introduction to process theology

read: Philip Clayton, “God Beyond Orthodoxy: Process Theology for the

21st Century”

available through CAMS

10/1 McDaniel (1)

read: Jay B. McDaniel, Of Gods and Pelicans, chapter 1

10/3 McDaniel (2)

read: Jay B. McDaniel, Of Gods and Pelicans, chapter 2

10/8 McDaniel (3)

read: Jay B. McDaniel, Of Gods and Pelicans, chapters 3-4

Part Four: Ecofeminism

10/10 Introduction to ecofeminism

read: Catherine Keller, “Dark Vibrations: ecofeminism and the democracy

of creation”

available through CAMS

10/15 McFague (1)

read: Sallie McFague, A New Climate for Theology, part 1

10/17 McFague (2)

read: Sallie McFague, A New Climate for Theology, part 2

10/22-26 MIDTERM WEEK, NO CLASS

Journals or 1st essay due Wednesday the 24th

10/29 McFague (3)

read: Sallie McFague, A New Climate for Theology, part 3

10/31 McFague (4)

read: Sallie McFague, A New Climate for Theology, part 4

Part Five: Ecclesial Eco-theology

11/5 Moltmann (1)

read: Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation, parts I, II

11/7 Moltmann (2)

read: Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation, parts III, IV

11/12 Moltmann (3)

read: Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation, parts V, VI

11/14 Moltmann (4)

read: Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation, parts VII, VIII

11/19 Moltmann (5)

read: Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation, parts IX, X, XI

11/21 NO CLASS THANKSGIVING

Part Six: Working Issues

11/26 Evolution and theodicy (1)

read: Wesley Wildman, “Incongruous Goodness, Perilous Beauty,

Disconcerting Truth: Ultimate Reality and Suffering in Nature”

available through CAMS

11/28 Evolution and theodicy (2)

read: Christopher Southgate, “Re-reading Genesis, Darwin, and Job: A Christian

Response to Darwinism”

available through CAMS

12/3 Green church (1)

read: Mark I. Wallace, “The New Green Christianity: Why the Christian Church

Is Vital to Saving the Planet”

available through CAMS

12/5 Green church (2); wrapping up course

12/10-12/14 FINALS WEEK, NO CLASS

Journals or 2nd essay due Friday the 7th