Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Environmental issues
Christian approaches
Keywords
● Secular = non-religious attitudes
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● Stewardship = taking care of the environment due to a religious belief
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● Dominion = a religious term for dominating or controlling something
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Richard Bauckham
argues that this example supports the view that God has given humans the
role of carers for the environment
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● For some, dominion means responsible stewardship
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Francis of Assisi taught that man must love and protect the whole of
creation because nature is God’s creation
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Implications for Christians
● Evangelical - the idea of “creation-care” (preventing any activities that harm
God’s creation)
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● Catholic - the role of humankind is to maintain God’s creation
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● Protecting future generations
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● This is because the Bible asserts man’s dominion over nature and establishes
an anthropocentric (centred on humanity) worldview that sees animals as
subservient to humanity
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● White doesn’t suggest that a secular approach is necessarily better and she
acknowledges that Christianity and Ecology are compatible
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● Evangelical Christians say that since our real life starts in heaven - and the
old Earth will be replaced by a new one - there is no need for protections and
conservation
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The Cornwall Alliance and Ronald Nash
● This group agrees that stewardship is a God-given duty to protect nature, but
disagrees with environmentalism
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● Very critical of radical environmentalism (the argument that all living things
have intrinsic value)
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Secular approaches to environmental ethics
Deep ecology
● Supported by Arnae Naess
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● This was named “ecosophy” and it argued for a more holistic (whole)
approach which values nature
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● However… pantheism
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Shallow ecology
● Mostly focuses on conservation, it values the environment but argues that it
has instrumental value and is a means to an end
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g
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● However… The problem with this is that it doesn’t take into account the value
we give to nature and the environment
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● Gaia = Earth goddess in Greek
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● Earth is self-regulating and there’s an internal balance between the biosphere,
atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere
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● Eco-holism = an environmental movement which views all abiotic and biotic
components of the ecosystem as interdependent and having inherent worth
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Animal welfare and protection
Peter Singer
● Believed that animals have intrinsic value because, like humans, they can
feel pleasure and pain
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● We do not eat or experiment on babies, therefore the same respect should be
extended to animals
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Some Christian views
● Some Christians believe that environmental protection must be for the benefit
of the environment as a whole, including humans, since if the environment
does not benefit then humans will not benefit either
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● Religious resistance to Theory of Evolution - we share 99% of our genes with
apes so by protecting them we are protecting our own kind
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This is derived from
the fact that if humans are made in God’s image, human life must be sacred
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Weaknesses/criticisms of the Christian approaches
● Lynn Townsend White said that Christianity is to blame for environmental
issues
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● Dominion attitudes are irresponsible
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● Earlier saints (e
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St Francis of Assisi) who looked after the environment are
not celebrated in the Church or recognised enough for their work
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● Contradiction in the Bible - dominion when God allowed Adam to name the
animals, stewardship over having to look after the Garden of Eden
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He advanced dominion but not domination by stating that
mankind should have a contract with nature and work in partnership with God
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● More Christians want to save the planet now, more than ever before
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This is significant in the developing world where climate change has the
biggest impact (e
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drought - charities like Christian Aid)

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