The God-Touched World

In my previous post I referred to the ancient Christian view that Jesus blessed the physical world through his baptism.  This understanding of baptism has two distinct implications for environmental discipleship.  First, the created order is doubly sacred because it is made by God and then, in Christ’s baptism, reclaimed and hallowed by God.  The God-touched natural world still reverberates with this encounter with its Maker.  This claim is affirmed in Holy Scripture.  Following hard after his assertion in Ephesians 4:5 that there is one baptism, St Paul continues by declaring that there is “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph 4:6, emphasis added).” Thus, the Lord’s baptism invites our veneration of the material world without falling into the error of idolatrous pantheism.  In other words, Christians highly honor and respect the physical world as holy, but we don't worship it.

Thus St John of Damascus (c. 676-749 a.d.), rooted in this ancient understanding, can declare, “I will not cease from honouring that matter which works my salvation. I venerate it, though not as God.”[1] Moreover, any environmentally friendly inclinations of creation-denying Gnosticism (which by definition seems unlikely), atheistic utilitarianism, or sentimentalized neo-paganism pale in comparison to the zeal for creation care this should engender in the Christian.   As Orthodox theologian Elizabeth Theokritoff maintains, “This theology, at a stroke, deprives paganism of any supposed monopoly on the idea that creation is sacred, that creation is permeated with the divine, that it is worthy of respect.”[2] 

The second implication is not merely to inculcate a disposition of reverence for the natural order.  Rather, just as Christ hallows creation and offers it back to the Creator in his baptism, so now the vocation of all the baptized is to rightly order creation and facilitate its movement back to God.[3]  God is not merely the origin of creation; he is its ultimate end. The telos (i.e., goal) of creation is that God will be “all in all (1 Cor. 15:27).”  As St Paul says: “For from him and through him and to him are all things (Rom. 11:36).”

So creation is not merely from God, it is for God: “ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him (Col 1:16, emphasis added).” If this is the case, then the right use of the natural world by maintaining and enhancing its beauty, promoting and nurturing biodiversity, and justly utilizing its abundant resources to bless and sustain the human family is integral to being conformed to the image of Christ.  Simply put: reverent care for the environment is an integral part of following Jesus.

In my next blog post I will take up the theme of how the Sacrament of Holy Communion shapes our understanding of how humans are to relate to and care for the natural world.

Ben+