Creation Care: The Theology and the Science Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University Faculty Christian Fellowship 1. Christian Faith and the Care for Creation 2. What Science Tells Us about the State of Creation 3. What Can We Do? The

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Creation CareThe Theology and the ScienceByrd
Polar Research Center, The Ohio State
UniversityFaculty Christian Fellowship 1.
Christian Faith and the Care for Creation2. What
Science Tells Us about the State of Creation 3.
What Can We Do? The Story of One Church

• Calvin B. DeWitt and Ken Wilson
• Univ. of Wisconsin Vineyard Church, Ann Arbor

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Creation CareThe Theology and the ScienceByrd
Polar Research Center, The Ohio State
UniversityFaculty Christian Fellowship
Christian Faith and theCare for Creation

• Calvin B. DeWitt
• Gaylord Nelson Institute
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Doxology

• Creation is a symphony of material and life
  cycles empowered by Earth's star the sun, whose
  energy drives global circulations of air and
  waterflows shaped by unequal heating and varied
  topography of land above and below the sea.
  Solar energy captured by green plants fuels
  molecule-to-molecule and organism-to-organism
  transfers, helping to weave Earths integrative
  biogeographic and trophic fabric that interlaces
  all life.

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Doxology

• Gods creatures produce and consume, multiply and
  diminish, develop and decompose, each with
  peculiar roles in sustaining biospheric
  integrity. This is Creations economic
  fabricCreations Economy. As we human creatures
  are part of this fabric we also are its
  stewardsstewards of this symphonic gift,
  stewards with divine appointments to safeguard
  the integrity of creation and sustain and renew
  the life of the earth.

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Doxology

• Doxology.
• Unfolding in the canon of Scripture,
• vindicated in Christs resurrection, and
• celebrated in the Holy Eucharist,
• this economy is our comprehensive context for
  Christian community, for Christian mission in the
  world!

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.
He makes springs pour water into the ravines it
flows between the mountains. They give water to
all the beasts of the field the wild donkeys
quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest
by the waters they sing among the branches. He
waters the mountains from his upper chambers the
earth is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
Psalm 10410-13
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Three Biblical Ethical Principles

• Earthkeeping
• Fruitfulness
• Sabbath

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Three Biblical Ethical Principles

• Earthkeeping.
• As the Lord keeps and sustains us
• so we must keep and sustain
• our Lords creation.
• shamar

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Three Biblical Ethical Principles

• Fruitifulness
• We should enjoy
• but not destroy
• creations fruitfulness.

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Three Biblical Ethical Principles

• Sabbath
• We must provide
• for creations
• sabbath rests.

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An Overarching Biblical Principle

• Con-Service
• We must return
• creations service to us
• with service of our own.
• avad

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Great are the works of the Lord they
are pondered by all who delight in them.


Psalm 1112
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• Creations
• Economy
• is the context of our Christian community
• is the context of ur Christian mission in the
  world
• is the context of our human economy.

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William Blake
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Each level relies for its operations on all the
levels below it. Each reduces the scope of the
one immediately below it by imposing on it a
boundary that harnesses it to the service of the
next-higher level, and this control is
transmitted stage by stage, down to the basic
inanimate level. And as we ascend a hierarchy
of boundaries, we reach to ever higher levels of
meaning. Our understanding of the whole
hierarchic edifice keeps deepening as we move
upward from stage to stage. Michael Polanyi,
1968.
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Selling Oranges for Profit (kind-of)

• Our 5-year old son selling oranges
• for 10 cents each
• His accumulation of wealth - 5 10 15
• Our replacing oranges he got from our
  refrigerator
• for 20 cents each
• Garys economy and the familys larger economy
• Breaking the news to our young
  entrepreneur!

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Creation CareThe Theology and the ScienceByrd
Polar Research Center, The Ohio State
UniversityFaculty Christian FellowshipWhat
Science Tells Usabout the State of Creation

• Calvin B. DeWitt
• Gaylord Nelson Institute
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
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Variations of the Earths surface temperature
for the past 140 years
SPM 1a
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Surface Melt on Greenland
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Mt. Graham Red Squirrel
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The Greenhouse Effect
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ff
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A
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A
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Figure 7.3
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.

• Most of the issues that vex humanity daily
• - ethnic conflict, arms escalation,
  overpopulation, abortion, environment, endemic
  poverty
• - cannot be solved without integrating
  knowledge from the natural sciences with that of
  the social sciences and humanities.
• Only fluency across the boundaries will provide a
  clear view of the world as it really is
• ---E. O. Wilson,
  Consilience

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.

• The greatest enterprise of the mind
• has always been, and always will be,
• the attempted linkage of the sciences and
  humanities.
• The ongoing fragmentation of knowledge
• and resulting chaos in philosophy
• are not reflections of the real world
• but artifacts of scholarship
• ---E. O. Wilson.
  Consilience. 1998, 8

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Academia in Americas First Century
and Relevance to Society

• Christian Liberal Arts Colleges
• No Universities
• Seminaries the only post-grad schools
• Student Body Typically 200 Students
• All Students take the same classes
• Unity of Knowledge and Education

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Academia in the late 19th 20th Centuries
and Relevance to Society

• Industrialization Economic Development
• Henry Tappan The University of Michigan
• Lays the Groundwork for the Research
  University Faculty Size Can Now Increase
• Disciplinary Specialization
• Specialization becomes Isolation
• Faculty answer mainly to professional societies
• Fragmentation of Knowledge and Education

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Academia in the 21st Century
and Relevance to Society

• Globalization of the Human Economy
• Disruption of the Biospheric Economy
• Need for Recovery from Disciplinary
  Fragmentation
• Renewal of the Christian College
• Unity of Knowledge and Education

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Doxology

• The scriptures tell us that all creation, every
  creature, praises God. Every creature reflects
  back something of the love God pours out through
  all creation.
• The heavens and all creatures declare the glory
  of God. The chief end of each creature, the
  communities of creatures, and all creation is to
  glorify God and enjoy Gods blessings.

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Doxology

• The Scriptures further tell us that this praise,
  testimony, and witness to God leaves no one
  without excuse for not knowing Gods divinity and
  everlasting power. And the keeper/con-server of
  creation, mirroring Gods love for the world,
  confesses this love in deed. The
  keeper/con-server of creation admires and
  sustains the world in beauty.

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Doxology

• . Praise, testimony, and witness are proclaimed
  to the world loud and clear by human beings and
  all other creatures their publication pours
  forth over all the earth. God's love for the
  world is published in life and landscape. And
  the keepers, the con-servers sing Praise God
  from whom all blessings flow! Praise God all
  creatures here below!

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End of Lecture

• Calvin B. DeWitt