1) Both Carol and Ruether require changes of Christian behaviours toward the environment. Which has the strongest arguments? Why?
Ruether states that the Christianity proclaims that human beings, men in chief, are the embodiment of Jesus or God and hence follows the eco-feministic view of the issue. Nature is only a creation by god that was meant for usage by humans. Moreover, in the ancient times, it was never imagined that humans would ever have more power than the nature itself. Nature was deemed to be the ever powerful and domineering source with no interference from humans. So in its not addressing the issue of present human power being so great that it threatens the very existence of the planet, Christianity is actually working against the ecology.
Carroll on the other hand states that Catholicism has lost the true indent of its teachings with time. Most people think of Catholicism as faith here forgiveness can be sought for wrong doing. It is rare that Catholics follow the true teaching – that to become one with the nature and respect it – creation spirituality. The incidences are rare where Catholics actually pay attention to the nature. In light of such deference, it has become important that changes be sought within the Christian circles and more attention wrought towards the ecology.
Amongst the two authors, I think Ruether gives better and stronger arguments in terms of the need of changing the Christian attitude towards environment. The fact is that people follow what the clergymen teach them. Most clerics ignore the true teaching of Christianity and interpret the Lord’s word wrongly. Moreover, the Lord’s word was given, interpreted and written years before humans gained such vast knowledge of the world and the way of life. Human interference in the nature was close to nil when the scriptures were written and interpreted. Therefore, it is right to say that there is a need to revamp the interpretation of Christianity in the keeping of the present state of affairs in the world with regards to ecology.
2) Explore two of the links from Christian ecology.org. What did you learn from them about the efforts of Christian groups to deal with the environmental crisis?
In order to learn more about the efforts of Christian groups to deal with the environmental crisis, I have chosen two links from Christian ecology.org:
- Befriending the earth -- a sermon by Elizabeth Greene and Bernard Zaleha
This article explains how Christianity has differentiated between God and nature. For most Christians, God resides in heaven and anything that happens on earth is absolutely fine. As Christianity propagates, god gave humans earth to exploit for their needs and wants. The article further explains how slowly a change in the thought process is coming, though the effects have not been very ingratiating. At most, the revolutionising of the eco-friendly thoughts has slowed down the process of devastation on earth; a lot needs to be done still. The authors give example of Thomas Berry, who explains that unless the nature is considered as divine and divinity itself, changes in the approach towards environment will not come.
- The Biological Roots of Our Ecological Crisis – by Bernard Daley Zaleha
This presentation explains how the Stone Age sensibilities have made humans oblivious to the damage they are hurling at earth and ecology. While efforts are on to educate people about their responsibility towards the ecology and environment, it is a long process that will involve strenuous work. The majority of generation these days thinks that it is their right to exploit earth for their wants, as is also propagated in the Bible. To mould this thought process and bring about certain awareness, a change needs to be brought within the Christianity and the teaching circles, putting more emphasis on respecting nature. Several authors such as Lynn White, Ornstein and Ehrlich and others have long written about the need to bring awareness towards the ecology. These works have proved their worth and managed to ignite discussion within the thinking circles about what needs to be done towards this direction.
Works Cited
Carroll, John E., “Catholicism and Deep Ecology.” Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Ground. Ed. Barnhill, David Landis, Gottlieb, Roger S. Albany: Suny Press, 2001. 169-192. Print.
Greene, Elizabeth & Zaleha, Bernard, “Befriending the Earth.” Christianecology.org, September 15, 1996. Extracted: March 8, 2013. Web: http://www.christianecology.org/BefriendEarth.html
Reuther, Rosemary Radford, “Deep Ecology, Ecofeminism and the Bible.” Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Ground. Ed. Barnhill, David Landis, Gottlieb, Roger S. Albany: Suny Press, 2001. 239-242. Print.
Zaleha, Bernard Daley, “The Biological Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”. Christianecology.org, July 9, 2000. Extracted: March 8, 2013. Web: http://www.christianecology.org/BiologicalBasis.html
