The Church’s Changing Climate Integrating Religion and Ecology

Cory Andrew Labrecque, PhD

Raymond F. Schinazi Scholar in Bioethics and Religious Thought | Center for Ethics

Interim Director | Master of Arts in Bioethics | Laney Graduate School

Emory University

“The attitudes and values that shape people’s

concepts of nature come primarily from religious

worldviews and ethical practices.”

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

“The moral imperative and value systems of

religions are indispensable in mobilizing the

sensibilities of people toward preserving the

environment.”

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

“The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis”

Lynn White, Jr.

“Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs

about our nature and destiny – that is, by

religion.”

(Lynn White, Jr, 1205)

Christianity is the

“most anthropocentric religion the world has seen”

(White 1206)

1. Anthropocentrism

2. Linear Time and Progress

3. Eschatology

4. Hierarchy and Dualism

5. Sin

6. Rejection of Animism and the Desacralization of

Nature

“Since the roots of our trouble are so largely

religious, the remedy must also be essentially

religious”

(Lynn White, Jr. 1207)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to1naH2A7GU

Order of Creation

Dominion cannot ≠ despotism

Humans made from the earth, for the earth

“To till and to keep” (Gen. 2.15)

Incarnation

God gives value to the physical

http://fore.research.yale.edu/

Jones, Robert P., Daniel Cox, and Juhem Navarro-Rivera. “Believers, Sympathizers, and Skeptics: Why Americans Are Conflicted About Climate Change, Environment Policy, and Science.” Findings from the PRRI/AAR Religion, Values, and Climate Change Survey. Washington: Public Religion Research Institute, 2014.

Talking of God,

but with Whom?