The Greening of Protestant Thought

Robert Booth Fowler

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2000
• ISBN:
  9780807861530
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology of Religion
• Index: Social Sciences

The Greening of Protestant Thought traces the increasing influence of environmentalism on American Protestantism since the first Earth Day, which took place in 1970. Robert Booth Fowler explores the extent to which ecological concerns permeate Protestant thought and examines contemporary controversies within and between mainline and fundamentalist Protestantism over the Bible's teachings about the environment. Fowler explores the historical roots of environmentalism in Protestant thought, including debates over God's relationship to nature and the significance of the current environmental crisis for the history of Christianity. Although he argues that mainline Protestantism is becoming increasingly 'green, ' he also examines the theological basis for many fundamentalists' hostility toward the environmental movement. In addition, Fowler considers Protestantism's policy agendas for environmental change, as well as the impact on mainline Protestant thinking of modern eco-theologies, process and creation theologies, and ecofeminism.

1. PROTESTANTS FACE THE ENVIRONMENT

This chapter considers several important background elements to the greening of Protestant thought from 1970 to 1990 and thereafter. It tells part of the story of the shift by institutional Protestantism as the denominations moved toward encountering the environmental problems of the age. It reports the pattern of Protestant public opinion on environmental concerns. It discusses the two central assumptions that have greatly affected Protestant changes: the sense that the earth is in crisis and the perceived hostility from the larger environmental movement toward Christianity. Finally, it identifies some of the limits of the greening of organized Protestantism and of Protestant opinion—especially among fundamentalists. In short, the goal of this chapter is to explain some of the dimensions of the greening of organized Protestantism, and of Protestants as a people, to provide a context for the Protestant intellectual debates on which this book concentrates.

The Whirl of Action

Environmentalism has increasingly secured a place among the leadership, formal institutions, publications, and intellectual centers of Protestantism. The greening of institutional Protestantism is a fact, and its reality has quickened over the past decade. Denominational elites, clergy, and bureaucrats led the way. It took time: sometimes ecological concerns were peripheral to other agendas at denominational headquarters, often just part of one busy staffer’s assignments. Sometimes they loomed more important to Protestant elites than at other times—for example, in the 1970s and in recent years as opposed to the early 1980s. But although it has not satisfied those who want far more attention given to the green cause, change over the past twenty-five years has been real.

Thus, while there has been a sharp rise in the amount of attention given to environmental education at Protestant colleges, critics complain that the effort does not begin to match what present exigencies demand. The same applies to Protestant seminaries and theological schools, where, until the late 1980s, there were rarely any courses attending to ecological theology. And, of course, there are distinctions—often profound ones—between manifestos about the environment and serious commitments to encourage change. Still, by the late 1980s there was a significant engagement between established Protestantism and ecological concerns.¹

There is no neat chronology, nor is there any simple way to illuminate all the steps toward an engagement with the environmental cause that took place between 1970 and 1990 or since. There were, however, several important pioneers. One, for example, was Joseph Sittler, who began the task of alerting fellow Protestants to the need to preserve the environment. His main serious thinking about environmental theology took place in the 1950s and 1960s. A Lutheran and theology professor, Sittler wrote many essays, such as “A Theology for Earth” (1954) and “Ecological Commitment as Theological Responsibility” (1970), that are frequently cited as having been influential on others.²

The Faith-Man-Nature Group, which formed in the mid-1960s, represented another band of pioneers. This group operated in association with the National Council of Churches, which provided both the original impetus and subsequent support. It was designed to create a liaison between religious thinkers and scientists. Among those connected with the group were H. Paul Santmire, Philip Joranson, Richard Baer Jr. and Frederick Elder, all of whom became prominent in the world of Protestant environmentalism. The group’s dissolution in 1974 was something of an indicator of success, for its agenda had spread throughout much of mainline Protestantism.³

The association of the early Faith-Man-Nature group with the National Council of Churches, home of religious and political liberalism within Protestantism, was no accident.⁴ For much of the past twenty-five years, concern with environmentalism has been notably greater within liberal Protestantism than anywhere else. Leaders and bureaucrats in the National Council of Churches and its many mainline Protestant denominations have been at the forefront in defining and promoting a religious ecological agenda. The National Council of Churches in particular has proceeded in a number of directions. For two decades it has manifested policy interest in ecological matters. As early as the middle 1970s the council had an agenda directed to energy policy and the environment, and it has now broadened its environmental focus, as evidenced in its recent publication 101 Ways to Help Save the Earth. Along the way, numerous conferences, discussion groups, and subagencies have demonstrated a continuing interest in environmental policy as well as theologies of ecology. The council’s Eco-Justice Group has sponsored The Egg: An Eco-Justice Quarterly, a publication of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University. Among its editors have been William Gibson and Dieter Hessel, workers in the vineyards of Protestant environmentalism. A string of Protestant environmentalist books have also appeared from such mainline presses as Fortress and Abingdon.

The World Council of Churches (with which the National Council has been intimately involved) has also been quite active. Since the late 1970s, the World Council has sponsored a series of projects and conferences under the title Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC). In 1990, the JPIC conference held in Seoul, Korea, garnered significant publicity. Each has taken place with the cooperation and encouragement of several organizations, including the National Council of Churches.⁵

There is no doubt that the National Council of Churches, the World Councils of Churches, and particular Protestant denominations—especially mainline denominations—have all had longstanding roles in the environmental cause. So have some individual Protestant churches all over the country. Resolutions in support of ecological concerns show that environmental consciousness has often been on denominational agendas, though at times other evidence has been scant. By now there have been a tremendous number of these resolutions. Some denominations adopt one or more every year they meet. Such resolutions routinely justify their concern in theological terms, of course, but most of their words go to favored policy directions and preferred strategies to implement them. The topic mentioned most often has been energy policy, but among an almost limitless array of others are land use, pollution, world hunger, and general lifestyle challenges.⁶

Every mainline Protestant denomination has taken stands—the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, and all the rest. The Presbyterian Church has been especially busy lately, approving an elaborate statement titled “Restoring Creation for Eco-Justice.” Originally drawn up by the Presbyterian Task Force on Eco-Justice, this document deals with current abuses of nature, overpopulation, and general human injustices. It was only the latest effort in a practice that stretches back to 1971, when the 183rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church began urging strides toward “environmental renewal.”

Similarly, the United Methodist Church’s General Conferences have approved a plethora of resolutions on such topics as toxic wastes, sea law, and the general wisdom of environmentalism. Similarly, the more liberal Lutheran denominations, before and after their unification as the Evangelical Lutheran Church, established a considerable record of environmental stands. For example, the American Lutheran Church adopted a statement titled “The Environmental Crisis” at its General Convention in 1970. This four-page, single-spaced document declared the responsibility of Christians as stewards of God’s creation, detailed the environmental problems of its time, and made concrete suggestions about how to tackle them. Other statements followed, such as the 1980 General Convention declaration called “Theology of the Land.”

Numerous other examples could be cited, especially from among mainline Protestant denominations. The American Baptists have adopted a series of proclamations announcing their commitment to Christian environmentalism. A 1988 “Policy Statement on Ecology” and a 1990 declaration titled “Individual Lifestyle for Ecological Responsibility” are typical. They speak in familiar terms of the ecological crises in our age and the theological and practical duties that they hold Christians should follow.

The Church of Christian Science has long taken a vigorous public stance in this area, and so has the Society of Friends. By now almost all major Protestant denominations have spoken out, including the largest, the distinctly nonliberal Southern Baptist Convention. Though in recent years internal strife has captured its attention, the SBC’s Christian Life Commission witnessed in the environmental area at least as early as 1977, when it published “The Energy Crisis and the Churches.”⁷

A number of mainline Protestant presses have published books that proclaim the gospel of Christian environmentalism. This practice is illustrated by the recent publication of James A. Nash’s Loving Nature: Ecological Integrity and Christian Responsibility by Abingdon and Dieter Hessel’s After Nature’s Revolt: Eco-Justice and Theology by Fortress.⁸

Some denominations have had in operation for some time now, often twenty years, departments or subdivisions that try to go beyond statements of concern or commitment. This is true, for example, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the United Methodist Church, and the Episcopal Church. Sometimes these agencies have done tangible work, while at other times they have existed mostly on paper. Some are primarily educational; others emphasize legislative lobbying.

Many denominations have also sponsored retreats on environmental issues and developed materials on Christianity and ecology for camps and other gatherings. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches have been leaders in this area. For example, the Department of Environmental Justice and Survival within the United Methodist Church has prepared videos, such as “For Our Children,” that give quite detailed advice on how Methodists can make a political impact regarding environmental issues. Another such video, “Creation’s Caretakers,” constructs a theological argument for eco-justice in rural America. Some institutional infrastructure is in place, especially in mainline Protestant denominations, providing a range of settings and materials for those who want to wrestle with the theological issues of the environment and for those who are ready to act.⁹

Other Protestant groups besides those associated with liberal Protestantism are also awakening to the environment as a Christian issue. The change is best symbolized in the new attention given to environmentalism within the pages of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today. While the liberal Protestant magazine Christian Century has discussed the environment and Christian responsibility many times over the past twenty-five years, Christianity Today has moved much more slowly. In the 1970s there was virtually no mention of environmental issues at all in Christianity Today, and later the environment was discussed only with real ambivalence. Today things have changed: Christianity Today has joined the environmental cause, or what it judges to be the Christian environmental cause.

In the last several years, William Eerdmans, a major evangelical publishing house, has begun to publish books on Christian ecology, complete with vigorous advertising campaigns in such liberal Protestant publications as Christian Century. The contrast here with Zondervan, which publishes more conservative evangelical wares and has done much less on green Christian topics, illustrates the continuing ambivalence about environmentalism among conservative Protestants.

The movement of evangelicalism as a whole, however, and Christianity Today in particular, is real. It exemplifies the most significant current trend within organized Protestant environmentalism: the emergence of vigorous evangelical support for the ecological movement. The Protestant environmental cause today is no longer solely a child of mainline Protestantism. It increasingly draws on energy also generated from within the evangelical world.

Some expressions of this development are recent, and no one can be sure of their eventual significance. This is also true of the efforts of several people—various liberal Protestant leaders, a few scientists, and Ron Sider and others long associated with Evangelicals for Social Action—who over the past several years have tried to come together to tackle environmental issues. Whatever its fate in the long run, this endeavor became a public sign of some evangelicals’ desire to share the ecological gospel with the larger community.¹⁰

Another expression of the rise of green evangelicalism is the Au Sable Institute, headquartered in Mancelona, Michigan. Its educational programs, which stress environmental science and Christian faith, have already touched many people. The institute has an especially active relationship with the evangelical Christian College Coalition. Under the leadership of evangelical Calvin DeWitt, a professor of environmental studies, this basically evangelical institute (though its governing board and its participants are not all evangelicals) has played a major role in legitimizing an ecological Christianity within evangelical circles.

Also relevant is the North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology (NACCE). When it was established in 1987, NACCE was something of an offshoot of the evangelical Au Sable Institute. As an umbrella group for a number of Christians committed to caring for the earth, it has represented a potentially important organizational vehicle for Christian ecology. The conference has welcomed all who call themselves Christians to its ranks, but it has been largely a Protestant group, one where both evangelical environmentalists and more theologically liberal Protestants have interrelated.

The NACCE’s first conference, which took place in North Webster, Indiana, in 1987, generated a good deal of publicity in Christian periodicals. There were disagreements between evangelicals and other Protestants (often those attracted to “creation” theology, which is discussed in chapter 8). Perspectives varied, but what resulted was a series of conferences in which evangelical and other Christian environmentalists met, talked, and argued with and learned from each other. The conferences also brought about the creation of a journal, Firmament: The Journal of Christian Ecology, which reflects NACCE’s policy in its interdenominational and inclusive essays and authors.¹¹

While NACCE’s orientation stymied those who want unambiguous theological direction or strong consensus on paths of action, its very existence has been a sign of growing Protestant sensitivity toward an ecological Christianity. And it also demonstrated evangelical involvement in environmentalism.

As this book unfolds, it will consider at some length how the green movement within Protestantism compares with the civil rights movement within Protestantism in the 1960s. Undoubtedly, one area that is distinctly different is the growing strength of environmentalism...