Foreword

The distinctive trait of popular theology is its transparent trendiness. A few years ago, the cause was socialism in the guise of liberation theology. Before that it was the interventionist state in the form of the social gospel. Who can be surprised that now many religious spokesmen have baptized secular environmentalism and proclaimed it as the newest good news?

Would that we could dismiss this trend as an aberration, to be forgotten next year and replaced with the next excuse for avoiding the rigors of orthodoxy. But, through hard experience, we have learned that the religious version of secular statism can be damaging indeed -- both to society and to the integrity of the faith.

The new green faith poses a threat to orthodox religion and its view of the relationship between God and the created order, as these insightful essays make clear. In its many manifestations eco-religion proposes a new god to take the place of the Creator in the religious tradition of Christendom. And misguided Christians have been backing away from the central articles of faith that environmentalists have attacked as harmful to the earth.

So that we are clear about orthodoxy, let us turn to St. Ignatius of Loyola:

Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. The other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created. Hence, man is to make use of them in as far as they help him in the attainment of his end ...

Contrast this view with secular environmentalist ideology. Many environmentalists have tried to invert the hierarchy of the created order, making the human person absolutely subordinate to the rest. By grafting this view onto faith, we superimpose an exaggerated view of the non-human creation above God's primary creation.

In some cases, worshipping the earth, instead of our Lord, becomes the essence of the faith. In other cases, religious values are merely confused, as environmentalist causes are emphasized at the expense of sound doctrine. Both views fit well within the context of the radical environmentalist agenda.

There is, of course, a place for nature in a theologically formed civic life, as Paul Haffner explains herein. St. Francis was known for his love of animals, but not in the same way he loved other people, created in God's image. St. Francis believed that all of God's creation is worthy of our respect by virtue of the Author. Indeed, he even believed in the hierarchy among the animals.

The scholastic view of creation similarly regards man as the noblest part of creation. He has a soul, which separates him from the rest of creation. Humans have transcendent life, where the animals have only a temporal existence. In the Genesis account, God commanded man to mix his labor with creation to make more of it than what appears to us in the state of nature. God's covenant with Adam requires him to exercise dominion over the earth, His gift to us for our use. We cannot keep man from his surroundings, from nature, from the environment. Nature does not have a metaphysical right to be left alone, to be preserved and adored for reasons other than its usefulness to God's human creation.

This is what environmentalists find so objectionable. At God's command, man uses his environment for human betterment and for the attainment of salvation. In contrast, the goal of modern environmentalism is to diminish the extent to which people can have an effect -- even if it results in something more pleasing -- on the original state of nature. God's command to till and keep the soil is transformed into state regulations, centrally enforced.

Secular liberalism, having successfully banished orthodox religion from public life, is now eager to use heterodox spirituality for its own purposes. Environmental indoctrination in the public schools is a prime example. While the crucifix is banned from the classroom, children are taught pagan beliefs about the sacredness of the environment and the 'circle of life' which we share with the animals. Teaching children to worship Mother Nature through song and activities is acceptable, though the Bible cannot even be used as an historical text.

This series of outstanding essays provides the necessary corrective. People of all orthodox faiths will find it of great service in identifying the ancient and modern confusion of the eco-religion. As with all political distortions of the faith, we do well to remember that the goal of life is salvation through faith and the avoidance of sin. To avoid sin, we must obey God's law. His first commandment to us is to have no false gods before Him, even when the new god is, once again, being advanced by elite opinion.

Fr. Robert A. Sirico
The Acton Institute
Grand Rapids, Michigan
May 1996