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Caring for Creation: Responsible Stewardship of God's Handiwork
Is there a Christ-centered response to such environmental crises as global warming, land degradation, and species extinction? In Caring for Creation, Calvin DeWitt presents a biblical approach to being a good steward of the earth.
104 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
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June 16, 2024
AN INITIAL ESSAY, AND THREE SEMI-CRITICAL RESPONSES
Calvin B. DeWitt is a professor in the Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He wrote in the Introduction to this 1998 book, “This lecture series is named in honor of Abraham Kuyper, and it was in the Kuyperian and Reformed tradition that I was raised. What the meant in my …. Youth was that the whole world should be affected by the transforming power of the gospel… as a student at Calvin College… I read the Stone Lectures delivered by Kuyper in 1898 at Princeton University. In reading these, I was assured that all areas of life---politics, art, science, and everything else---should be transformed by the gospel… This is my heritage, and it is because of this heritage that I became a scientist. I knew science to be a God-given means for understanding God and God’s world… And I was also to keep theology alive and well, for it also is a means for understanding God and God’s World… All was integrated into seamless fabric---a Reformed world-and-life view, we called it… It is from this integrative perspective that I became troubled by something that was emerging… and that now has taken a front seat in many of our churches. We have, I think, been dismembering our Creator.”
He outlines, “What is this eco-crisis?... This crisis can be summarized in seven degradations of creation… 1, Alteration of planetary energy exchange with the sun is bringing about global warming and destruction of the earth’s protective ozone shield… 2. Land degradation is reducing available land for creatures and crops and destroying land by erosion, salinization, and desertification… 3. Each year, deforestation removes 100,000 square kilometers of primary forest and degrades an equal amount by overuse… 4. Species are becoming extinct on a scale similar to the greatest extinction episodes in the earth’s geological history… 5. Water degradation is defiling groundwater, lakes, rivers, and oceans… 6. Global toxification is resulting in distribution of troublesome materials worldwide by food and product distribution and by atmospheric and oceanic circulations… 7. Human and cultural degradation are threatening and eliminating long-standing knowledge held by native and some Christian communities on living sustainably and cooperatively with creation…” (Pg. 17-19)
He asserts, “By the term ‘custody’ Calvin interpreted dominion to mean a responsible care and keeping that does not neglect, injure, abuse, degrade, dissipate, corrupt, mar, or ruin the earth. God’s economy, ‘God’s plan or system for government of the world,’ is always the context and framework within which the human economy works.” (Pg. 32)
He states, “Dominion as domination is forbidden. Dominion as stewardship is required as a God-given responsibility for all people. Human dominion, however, is exercised across a broad spectrum, one end of which is dominion in behalf of self and the other dominion in behalf of creation. Dominion at the first extreme can be called domination; dominion at the other extreme can be called stewardship… dominion is service in behalf of self at the expense of creation; stewardship is service to creation in behalf of the Creator.” (Pg. 43)
He suggests, “Here we come to the first of our three big questions, Is Jesus Christ Lord of Creation? Our answer must be, Yes! … My challenge to evangelical Christians is this: Let us recognize the dismemberment of our Creator and come anew to re-member our Creator… [After] reuniting the creative and redemptive work of our Lord, we then can ask our second big question, Is creation a lost cause? And we may respond, Definitely not!... we can ask our third big question, Whom are we following when we follow Jesus Christ? And we may respond, We are following the Lord of Creation…” (Pg. 57-59)
Richard A. Baer then responds, “Is it really possible, however, to move so quickly from thoughts about God and Noah’s ark directly to species-preservation policy? I find this … about as problematic as basing food policy today on the biblical accounts of God’s providing manna in the wilderness or Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. Scientists tell us that 99 percent or more of all species that have existed over time are now extinct… If each species is as valuable to God as DeWitt implies, why was God apparently so unconcerned about their survival?... Are we as Christians really supposed to preserve species at all costs?” (Pg. 62-63)
He admits, “In terms of environmental policy, we will at times have to form coalitions with those who hold beliefs sharply at odds with our Christian commitments. Because God values nature for its own sake and because human beings will suffer if we mistreat nature, we must radically modify how we live and think. Balancing human interests and the interests of nonhuman nature will demand hard thinking, but it is imperative that we remain faithful to all aspects of our tradition.” (Pg. 69)
Thomas Sieger Derr observes, “Free-market environmentalists may themselves be criticized for their too easy assumption that resource owners satisfying private wants will automatically serve the common good. Owners may instead run a resource down, take their profits, and invest them elsewhere in the economy. If value were defined only by market price, wetlands would be drained for land development even if they were ecologically essential. Moreover, such a pure free-market approach does not give any voice to those who have no capital but must live in the environment produced by owners’ decisions.” (Pg. 76-77)
He continues, “I would rather frankly embrace the term anthropocentrism as an implication of our creation ‘in the image of God,’ and I am willing to defend it even against those anti-Christians who think the ‘imago Dei’ is the root of our ecological troubles. As a modern ‘Christian humanist,’ I would bend our learning and skill to the service of human survival, and this is the source of my theological environmentalism…. I fully agree that our environmental situation calls for the exercise of faithful discipleship in the stewardship of creation, which is the exercise of our proper human dominion. I also agree fully that dominion is not domination, despite the way anti-Christian environmental philosophers and historians have read Genesis 1:28.” (Pg. 81-82)
Vernon J. Ehlers suggests, “A good solution to both the short time horizons and the myopic view of resources is to cultivate the view of earth as a spaceship… [But] we must come to grips with the jarring fact that although the Apollo craft and the space shuttle can always return to Mother Earth to replenish their supplies, Mother Earth has no other spaceship to which it can return to replenish its own resources. What we have is what we got at creation, and it is our task not only to use it but also to ‘till and keep it.’” (Pg. 90)
This book will be of great interest to Christians concerned about environmental issues.
Calvin B. DeWitt is a professor in the Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He wrote in the Introduction to this 1998 book, “This lecture series is named in honor of Abraham Kuyper, and it was in the Kuyperian and Reformed tradition that I was raised. What the meant in my …. Youth was that the whole world should be affected by the transforming power of the gospel… as a student at Calvin College… I read the Stone Lectures delivered by Kuyper in 1898 at Princeton University. In reading these, I was assured that all areas of life---politics, art, science, and everything else---should be transformed by the gospel… This is my heritage, and it is because of this heritage that I became a scientist. I knew science to be a God-given means for understanding God and God’s world… And I was also to keep theology alive and well, for it also is a means for understanding God and God’s World… All was integrated into seamless fabric---a Reformed world-and-life view, we called it… It is from this integrative perspective that I became troubled by something that was emerging… and that now has taken a front seat in many of our churches. We have, I think, been dismembering our Creator.”
He outlines, “What is this eco-crisis?... This crisis can be summarized in seven degradations of creation… 1, Alteration of planetary energy exchange with the sun is bringing about global warming and destruction of the earth’s protective ozone shield… 2. Land degradation is reducing available land for creatures and crops and destroying land by erosion, salinization, and desertification… 3. Each year, deforestation removes 100,000 square kilometers of primary forest and degrades an equal amount by overuse… 4. Species are becoming extinct on a scale similar to the greatest extinction episodes in the earth’s geological history… 5. Water degradation is defiling groundwater, lakes, rivers, and oceans… 6. Global toxification is resulting in distribution of troublesome materials worldwide by food and product distribution and by atmospheric and oceanic circulations… 7. Human and cultural degradation are threatening and eliminating long-standing knowledge held by native and some Christian communities on living sustainably and cooperatively with creation…” (Pg. 17-19)
He asserts, “By the term ‘custody’ Calvin interpreted dominion to mean a responsible care and keeping that does not neglect, injure, abuse, degrade, dissipate, corrupt, mar, or ruin the earth. God’s economy, ‘God’s plan or system for government of the world,’ is always the context and framework within which the human economy works.” (Pg. 32)
He states, “Dominion as domination is forbidden. Dominion as stewardship is required as a God-given responsibility for all people. Human dominion, however, is exercised across a broad spectrum, one end of which is dominion in behalf of self and the other dominion in behalf of creation. Dominion at the first extreme can be called domination; dominion at the other extreme can be called stewardship… dominion is service in behalf of self at the expense of creation; stewardship is service to creation in behalf of the Creator.” (Pg. 43)
He suggests, “Here we come to the first of our three big questions, Is Jesus Christ Lord of Creation? Our answer must be, Yes! … My challenge to evangelical Christians is this: Let us recognize the dismemberment of our Creator and come anew to re-member our Creator… [After] reuniting the creative and redemptive work of our Lord, we then can ask our second big question, Is creation a lost cause? And we may respond, Definitely not!... we can ask our third big question, Whom are we following when we follow Jesus Christ? And we may respond, We are following the Lord of Creation…” (Pg. 57-59)
Richard A. Baer then responds, “Is it really possible, however, to move so quickly from thoughts about God and Noah’s ark directly to species-preservation policy? I find this … about as problematic as basing food policy today on the biblical accounts of God’s providing manna in the wilderness or Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand. Scientists tell us that 99 percent or more of all species that have existed over time are now extinct… If each species is as valuable to God as DeWitt implies, why was God apparently so unconcerned about their survival?... Are we as Christians really supposed to preserve species at all costs?” (Pg. 62-63)
He admits, “In terms of environmental policy, we will at times have to form coalitions with those who hold beliefs sharply at odds with our Christian commitments. Because God values nature for its own sake and because human beings will suffer if we mistreat nature, we must radically modify how we live and think. Balancing human interests and the interests of nonhuman nature will demand hard thinking, but it is imperative that we remain faithful to all aspects of our tradition.” (Pg. 69)
Thomas Sieger Derr observes, “Free-market environmentalists may themselves be criticized for their too easy assumption that resource owners satisfying private wants will automatically serve the common good. Owners may instead run a resource down, take their profits, and invest them elsewhere in the economy. If value were defined only by market price, wetlands would be drained for land development even if they were ecologically essential. Moreover, such a pure free-market approach does not give any voice to those who have no capital but must live in the environment produced by owners’ decisions.” (Pg. 76-77)
He continues, “I would rather frankly embrace the term anthropocentrism as an implication of our creation ‘in the image of God,’ and I am willing to defend it even against those anti-Christians who think the ‘imago Dei’ is the root of our ecological troubles. As a modern ‘Christian humanist,’ I would bend our learning and skill to the service of human survival, and this is the source of my theological environmentalism…. I fully agree that our environmental situation calls for the exercise of faithful discipleship in the stewardship of creation, which is the exercise of our proper human dominion. I also agree fully that dominion is not domination, despite the way anti-Christian environmental philosophers and historians have read Genesis 1:28.” (Pg. 81-82)
Vernon J. Ehlers suggests, “A good solution to both the short time horizons and the myopic view of resources is to cultivate the view of earth as a spaceship… [But] we must come to grips with the jarring fact that although the Apollo craft and the space shuttle can always return to Mother Earth to replenish their supplies, Mother Earth has no other spaceship to which it can return to replenish its own resources. What we have is what we got at creation, and it is our task not only to use it but also to ‘till and keep it.’” (Pg. 90)
This book will be of great interest to Christians concerned about environmental issues.
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