Judeo-Christian Foundations of Earthcare

WHEN THE "SPIRITUALITY AND ECOLOGY" MOVEMENT was getting established in the 1980s, many environmentalists responded with something like, "Whoa! Isn't religion part of the problem? Haven't passages in the Bible, like 'Be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth' encouraged what humans have been doing to the environment?"

Quaker Earthcare Witness, along with other environmental groups with roots in various branches of Christianity and Judaism, has found, on the contrary, that the essential teaching of the Judeo-Christian tradition is for humans to be responsible trustees of the gift of God's creation. Supposely "anti-environmental" biblical passages, such as the one cited above, are seen as having been misconstrued (owing in part to problems with translation from Hebrew and Greek languages).

It may be true that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures lack the ecological and evolutionary perspectives that have emerged from modern science, having been written for people steeped in Classical thought patterns. At the same time, they retain profound insights about relationships and moral values that the materialistic-reductionist strain of modern science does not recognize, yet are just as relevant to a healthy human-earth relationship as scientfic knowledge. In addition, recent explorations have shown that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and traditions are rich with guidance for loving and caring for Creation.

IN THIS SECTION are seven articles about Earthcare and the Bible from the QEW book, Earthcare for Friends, a Study Guide for Individuals and Faith Communities (which can be ordered through the QEW Publications Catalog):

• "Connections," by Lisa Lofland Gould
• "Right Relationship," by Lisa Lofland Gould
• "Christian Earth Stewardship," by Steven Davison
• "Earth Process and the Human Wish for Exepmption," by Keith Helmuth
• "What Does the Judeo-Christian Tradition Teach Us, Earth-wise?", by Louis Cox
• "The Whole of Earthly Life," by Larry Rasmussen
• "A Call to Wholistic Earth Stewardship," by Ralph Green
  
  The QEW book Caring for Creation, Reflections on the Biblical Basis of Earthcare, by Lisa Lofland Gould also can be ordered through the QEW Publications Catalog.

Other recommended reading:

• Hope for the Land—Nature in the Bible, by Richard Cartwright Austin
  
• The Splendor of Creation by Ellen Bernstein
  
• Let the Earth Teach You Torah, by Ellen Bernstein
  
• Wisdom of the Earth, Visions of an Ecological Faith, by Gordon Miller

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