Green Spirituality: What Has Ecology To Do With Theology?

Green Spirituality: What Has The Christian Life to do with Nature?

The 2009 blockbuster movie “Avatar” told a futuristic tale of two species locked in a struggle for the planet Pandora. The villains were a group of greedy, materialistic and colonizing humans hell-bent on mining precious minerals even though it would destroy the habitat of the natives. For these cut-throat mercenaries, Pandora’s lush, intricate eco-system was “nothing but ferns”. On the other hand, the protagonists were 10-feet-tall, blue humanoids called the Na'vi who lived in harmony with nature and worshipped Eywa, the life-force permeating all of life. In the context of ecological problems that plague our own planet, it appears that popular culture presents us with a similarly straightforward choice between crass capitalism and nature-friendly pantheism.

For instance, the well-known Lynn White thesis traced the historical roots of our modern ecological crisis to the emergence of medieval Christian belief in “man’s transcendence of, and rightful mastery over, nature” . Ancient pagans were afraid to cut down a tree or mine a mountain because of spirits that supposedly reside in them. But by supplanting pagan animism, it was argued that Christianity made it possible for Western man to exploit nature in a “mood of indifference”. If the Bible legitimates man’s dominion over nature, isn’t Christian theology guilty of providing justification for environmental degradation? Isn’t a pantheistic belief that “everything is divine” or “we are one with the universe” more helpful to engender respect for every rock, tree, animal or blade of grass? In this assignment, I would like to propose that Christians could draw on powerful resources from within its own spiritual tradition to care for creation without worshipping nature.

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Book Review: Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Questions about life’s meaning and suffering which were formerly handled by priests or rabbis are now increasingly confronted by psychiatrists and doctors. In his bestseller Man's Search for Meaning, Dr Victor Frankl highlighted the distinctive of logotherapy, also known as the “Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy”, as the idea that “the striving to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man”. Therefore, for logotheraphy, the focus is on the will to meaning in contrast to the will to pleasure of Freudian psychoanalysis and the will to power stressed by Adlerian psychology. While Freud and Adler tried to discover primal drives latent in the past, Frankl focuses rather on the meanings one is called to fulfill in the future. In his moving autobiographical account of experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, he observed how prisoners who lost hope in the future would be subject to mental and physical decay.

According to Frankl, man’s search for meaning is not a derived projection from more basic instinctual drives or sublimations. Otherwise it would lose its ability to challenge or summon him to live or even die for these values. Unlike Sartre’s axiom that existence precedes essence, Frankl’s existentialism asserts that the meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves but rather we discover it as ‘something confronting existence’. Those who lack a meaning worth living for and find an inner void within their hearts experience ‘existential vacuum’. This is a widespread phenomenon of the twentieth century due to the loss of traditional values and rampant industrialization, manifesting itself in boredom, addiction, the will to money, apathy or unbridled sexual libido.

As a Christian, I applaud Frankl’s critique of the determinism prevailing in much of psychoanalysis that reduced man to nothing but a victim of hereditary or environmental conditions. We share the hope that a ‘rehumanized psychiatry’ would replace the tendency to treat human minds as machines and focus on mere techniques. Indeed, Frankl’s view of man is biblical in the sense that man has both the potentials of behaving like a swine or a saint. Man’s dignity lies in him being created in the image of God and yet marred by the depravity of sin. However, Frankl has an overly optimistic view of human freedom in which even the most evil persons are ultimately self-determining. Through restricted by conditions, they are free to change their own destiny. In the Christian perspective, fallen man is in need of divine rescue and inner liberation before such a change is possible. As long as his basic orientation is self-centered, the outward change merely vacillates between hedonism and legalism. ‘Existential vacuum’ (and its symptoms) express in modern terms Augustine’s ancient prayer that our hearts are restless until they find fulfillment or satisfaction in God.

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Samuel Ling - " Who Are We? The Christian's Identity " MP3 Download

For those who are unaware, Dr Samuel Ling was at the the reformed evangelical fellowship in Singapore last saturday and gave a very important talk on the Christian's identity. Highly recommended!

Download Here

Putting On The Mind Of Christ

"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2)"

Last week, we considered: “What Would Jesus Think?” He is Lord of our hearts, minds and strength, the supreme model for our thinking, feeling and doing habits. We looked at examples of how Jesus used His mind in the Gospels and see how that is relevant to our own day.

Let us follow His example in thinking properly and integrate our faith in each area of study and research and work to the glory of God in universities, campuses, research institutions, science laboratory, computer labs, hospitals and lecture halls.

What are the areas where our Christian Faith integrate with work/world?

There are different areas of integration: (JP Moreland “Loving God With All Your Mind”)

1) What are the ethical issues involved in my vocation or study? As a businessperson, what is my beliefs of corporate moral responsibility? Or as a law student, what is justice?

2) What does my field say about what is real or not, what is true or false? As a teacher, psychologist or counsellor, should I believe that the mind is really the brain or morality is determined by genes? How should a scientist view evolution?

3) What does my field say about the nature and limits of knowledge? Should I assume that only what can be measured and tested in an experiment is genuine knowledge?

4) Are there specific virtues or qualities especially relevant to your work or study?

How Do We Develop A Christian Mind?

When was the last time you were encouraged to think Christianly as a student of law, business, information technology or education? We need to develop a Christian mindset.

A Christian mind is not simply thinking about topics like prayer, worship, bible study nor just abstract intellectualism. Os Guiness put it this way:

“Thinking Christianly is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way – in a manner which is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God's Word and God's Spirit…”and “what we do with what we know is what Christian knowing is all about.”

Consciously or not, all of us have some basic ideas about how to look at life and the world that guide our actions like glasses or contact lenses through which we see everything else. "A worldview is, first of all, an explanation and interpretation of the world and second, an application of this view to life. In simpler terms, our worldview is a view of the world and a view for the world." (Phillips and Brown) A good worldview answers four big questions of life:

· Where do we come from? (Question Of Origin)
· Who are we? (Question Of Identity)
· Why are we here? (Question Of Purpose)
· Where are we going? (Question Of Destiny)

To build bridges across different cultures, Christians need to learn how to be bilingual, translating the perspective of the gospel into a language understood by our culture. We learn to connect God’s Word with God’s world. How do I do it?

The Creation: In Genesis, God created humans and the universe out of nothing. Human lives are sacred and valuable because we bear God’s image. We are not just biological machines.Our first job description: "Be fruitful and multiply (develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws) and fill the earth and subdue it (harness the natural world and care for creation: plant crops, build bridges, design computers)". The Cultural Mandate sets out our original purpose to create cultures, build civilizations. “It’s only Eden if you have a gardener. Without one, what you have is Amazon jungle”. Work is meaningful and fulfilling.

The Fall: However humanity has rebelled against God and fallen into sin. A radical corruption happens to the entire creation, shattering our relationships with God, environment, animals, each other and alienation from our own selves. Now we determine the knowledge of good and evil with man at the center, without reference from the Creator. In disobedience, we have made physical and mental idols to rule our own lives. The result is pain, sorrow, alienation, conflict, violence, self-centeredness and death. Even work becomes frustrating and burdensome.

The Redemption: At the cross and resurrection, Christ has redeemed our souls and reconciled all of creation to Himself. The earth we are living in is not abandoned, but renewed at the consummation of history when Christ returns – new heaven, new earth, resurrected bodies. We, citizens of the Kingdom, should be living according to the way of Jesus, caring for the ecosystem in ways that honor the Creator. Although the complete removal of sin is yet to come, we can join Jesus in reversing the effects of sin and letting His kingdom come, His will be done on earth.

Conclusion:

Lesslie Newbigin laid this challenge: Laypeople in every facet of life – media, politics, business, education and others – should be enabled to challenge the prevailing assumptions of society in light of the gospel. A Christian mind should not be reserved for pastors and scholars only! Free online resources are available – take advantage of it! Use what you learn in conversations and interactions with friends.

God called you to a special task in this needy world. Your calling is where your deepest passions and the world’s greatest need meet. So discover your passion, talents and gifts and use them to bless others for the glory of God.