Dan Papworth
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

I wholeheartedly agree with this, although I’d take issue with nature as an equal. Nature is an enormous set of which we are a tiny part. We depend utterly upon the global ecosystem in order to survive. It would be better to assume the position of serving nature, for in its welfare is our welfare.

But please can we lay off the tired old trope that something called “Judaeo-Christianity” is to blame for the current ecological crisis? Christianity — which is surely what you mean — has long had a complex relationship with capitalist culture, seeking (largely unsuccessfully) to be a voice of restraint whilst also understanding the greater good largely in terms of the culture in which it finds itself — and which of us does not? No-one decided to make vast amounts of money because God told them to!

The point is that we have to find a way forward rather than point a finger back in time to people who could not have known better, despite such teaching as “What does it profit a person to gain the world but forfeit their soul….you cannot serve God and mammon….store up riches in heaven…” And the way forward includes a healthy spirituality that recognises the context in which we are created and the fundamental state of relationship (Christians use the word ‘communion’) that shows us how we are to live on planet earth. The word “dominion” needs a subtler interpretation. If you examine Jewish and Christian sources more closely you will see that the commands are given “that you may live long in the land”.