Christian Tradition based on Scripture says that God created the World and all in it. God also created Man, and all of nature was given to him to use it for his needs and to reign over it. Nature is at the service of Man. Today with all the debates on Ecology and Animal rights, there are two main arguments. One is in favor of Man using nature as he pleases as it has been given to him by God for his service. The other defends the position that Man is responsible for caring for the Earth for the same reason that it has been given to him by God (New International Version, Genesis, 2).
There are, of course, many religions that believe in creation, but we will concentrate in Christianity. The aim of this paper is to describe the relationships between Christianity and the way creation is seen in relation to nature, cultures and people. We cannot look at all the different areas so this paper will focus only on the view of God and how this view affects cultures, people and particularly nature.
Thomas Aquinas represents the traditional theology. Aquinas based much of his philosophy and theology on the two Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. He tried to explain the relationship between God and the World through analogy, taking images and ideas from the Sacred Scripture and some from the Greek philosophers (Bracken, 2). The thesis of Aquinas in terms of the relation of creation and science is that if God is truth then there is nothing to worry about because science will not contradict any of the truths that we believe or that are in Scriptures (Moore, 2).
While Aquinas is from medieval times, this view of Creation and God is key to approach today’s culture where science is dominant. If God created the World and God is Truth, then science should not contradict faith. This is the position of the Church up to today.
Traditional Theology up to medieval times saw God as a King and with supreme authority on men. It also granted men the authority to do as it pleases to nature. It can be argued that men abused rather than used creation that was given to him by God. Today some theologians argue that we should move away from such a view especially in the world we are living today where there are so many threads to our lives because of climate change due to the misuse of nature and its resources.
Mc-Fague says that a Systematic theology should be faithful to the Scriptures and the tradition of the Church, but it should also be able to respond to contemporary human issues and problems (Bracken, 365). Some of these problems are the ecology, poverty, human trafficking, etc.
Mc-Fague says that the Christian gospel is opposed to oppressions of all sorts and that we need a Christian faith that represents what the Gospel proclaims of a new creation for all creation (Bracken, 366). In other words she rejects the monarchical model of God-world relationship that is found in the Jewish and medieval Christian thought, including the Reformation.
It seems as if Mc-Fague argues that the monarchical view of God that allows men use nature and other people as it pleases, in a dominant way, is the result of the contemporary problems, and that a traditional theology does not provide solutions for these.
What that monarchical model provided to the people and was so popular in Medieval European culture was that it gave the people a sense of stability and order, of protection and personal salvation because ultimately we are in God’s hands (Bracken, 366).
This model is criticized by Mc-Fague because she says that despite those positive feelings, God is distant from the World, from each person, and God relates to us in a dominant way (Bracken, 366). Her stronger point in my opinion is that Humans treat nature and other humans in a dominant and controlling way, without respect to other living creatures (Bracken, 366). However, the reason for this in my opinion cannot be blamed to the monarchical model but rather to other philosophical perspectives or to atheism, ultimately to sin, to evil.
Conclusion
Two simple ways to approach the relation between the Christian view of creation and the relation with nature, people and cultures are to look at two views of God. The traditional monarchical view of a God that is King and all powerful that gave dominance of nature to Man. This view under Mc-Fague is a God that is distant, and that does not represent what the Gospel proclaims about freedom and love. Instead, for Mc-Fague this view of God creates oppressions between peoples, it also gives power to Man to misuse nature. Ultimately it does not respond to contemporary issues. Her view of a Loving, Friendly Mother/Father God does provide an answer.
Cited Work
Bracken, Joseph, SJ. Images of God Within Systematic Theology. Theological Studies (2002): 63.
Moore, James. Naming God- The Possibilities of an Evolutionary God Idea. Valparaiso University
