Professor Oliver Putz
Religion and Ecological Crisis
March 6th, 2015
Anastassja Cooper

Rethinking Christian Theology
Summary
The question twice repeated in John F. Haught’s text “The Promise of Nature” is why we should care about the natural world. The answer that he gives us is that, should we be Christian, is it is within the doctrine; but within the perspective of Christian thought, he gives us three distinct approaches that justify caring about the natural world: The Apologetic, the Sacramental, and the Eschatological approaches.
The Apologetic. The Apologetic is the closest to the original doctrine as possible, a rather recent occurrence within the church and a hardly mentioned part of the article. This method looks for scriptural passages …show more content…
Haught spends more time on the sacramental than the apologetic; this focuses less on the canon of the text and more on the inherent cosmic worth of the universe. It calls for a seeking of God’s presence within naturel if this sounds familiar, it is because it is found in many non Judeo Christian religions, particularly within naturalistic religions. Within this theory, the universe is the main creation of god, with humanity not in the center of creation but rather as just another species within it. The conversation here turns to our understanding of redemption and its unnecessary anthropocentricity. The idea of redemption, in the light of the sacramental idea, is universal; Christ is less personal and more cosmic, God is throughout nature. The main part of this idea, however, is less theory and more action. It calls for education, for children to be learning about ecology and the fact that “nature is not primarily something to be used for human purposes or technical projects” along with their ABCs. …show more content…
The overlying question of the text, however, we must turn back to: why should we care about the environment? Are these reinterpretations sell outs that give up on what is fundamentally Christian? I say no. Over time, Christian thought has changed to fit the oft changing political and social landscape; I believe that it is the changing landscape of time that causes change in opinion of man’s dominion over nature and other such issues stemming from Judeo Christian thought. The re-shaping of Christian thought is a natural process, not merely a recent fad but a centuries old occurrence. With new translations of texts and social lights thrown upon certain Biblical passages, they have changed slowly but radically. One of the main tenants of Judeo Christianity itself is hope, the same hope that is found within the promise of Eschatological argument, the hope of education and improvement in the sacramental, and even in the somewhat wishy-washy apologetic. The changing times have merely kept up with this culture of hope by shining a different, more current light upon the same passages, as all of these do. If the re-shaping of Christian thought with the times and its crises is a sellout, it’s a less expensive one for the environment and ultimately the health of survival of generations to