Ecological teaching poses radical challenges for modern, industrial cultures. In particular, the insight that humans dwell in terms of geo-physical and bio-chemical relationships means that cultures cannot make human ambition and want the measure of “success.” The task of all cultural institutions, ranging from economics and education to religion and politics, is to bring human desire and understanding into alignment with the potential of ecological realities. Put theologically, our task is to learn what it means to be creatures, and then become one.
This course will begin with an examination of what ecological science means and how it has been incorporated in various philosophical schools (like Deep Ecology and Eco-feminism). We will then move to an exploration of what ecology means for theological reflection and for the life of the church. Next we will consider a more systematic treatment of several key Christian teachings to reveal their potential to aid in the work of ecological healing and creaturely life. We will see, for instance, how the doctrine of creation, when deeply understood, reframes the way we think about the human place in the world but also God’s abiding relation with us. We will consider what it means to speak, as the early church did, of the cosmic Christ. We will also determine how the church, as Christ’s continuing presence on earth, must rethink its mission in terms of the healing and reconciliation of creation. Far from being an imposition of an ecological agenda, this course will tap theological resources that have gone unnoticed owing to our own ecological ignorance.
The aim of this course is to equip students with an ecologically informed theological consciousness so that contemporary debates about environmental matters can be understood and addressed from a distinctly Christian point of view.
Required Texts:
Willis Jenkins. Ecologies of Grace (Oxford)
Norman Wirzba. The Paradise of God (Oxford)
Stan Rowe. Home Place: Essays on Ecology (NeWest Press)
Dieter Hessel & Rosemary Ruether. Christianity & Ecology (Harvard)
Michael Northcott. The Environment and Christian Ethics (Cambridge)
Peter Scott. A Political Theology of Nature (Cambridge)
Recommended Texts:
Paul Santmire. The Travail of Nature (Fortress)
Laurel Kearns & Catherine Keller. Ecospirit (Fordham)
Course Schedule: (Tentative)
Week 1– Introducing the Class/Introducing Ecology: Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic” (https://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/landethic.html), Wirzba (93-122)
Week 2– Ecology Continued: Rowe (1-233), Donald Worster’s Nature’s Economy (as background material)
Week 3– (Louisville Institute)
Week 4– Challenging Modern Culture: Wirzba (61-92), Northcott (1-85)
Week 5– Philosophical Ecology: Scott (63-165), Northcott (86-123)
Week 6– Challenging the Church: White’s “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (https://www.zbi.ee/~kalevi/lwhite.htm), Scott (3-60), Santmire (1-218)
Week 7– Doctrines of God & Creation: Wirzba (vii-59), Jenkins (115-51), Northcott (124-98), Moltmann’s God in Creation (as background material)
Week 8– Doctrines of God and Creation Continued: Christianity & Ecology (3-27, 337-363), Ecospirit (353-72), Rowan Williams’s “On Being Creatures”,
Week 9– Christology: Scott (169-200), Jenkins (153-225), Christianity & Ecology (29-50)
Week 10– Holy Spirit: Scott (201-32), Christianity & Ecology (51-96). Ecospirit (315-336, 291-314), Moltmann’s Spirit of Life (as background material)
Week 11– Theological Anthropology: Wirzba (123-148), Christianity & Ecology (135-154, 97-124, 291-316), Ecospirit (125-155)
Week 12– Theological Ethics: Northcott (199-327), Jenkins (31-111), Christianity & Ecology (227-290), Ecospirit (495-503)
Week 13– The Church’s Mission: Scott (233-58), Wirzba (149-201), Christianity & Ecology (515-614)
Week 14– Last Things: Christianity & Ecology (183-224, Ecospirit (392-411)
Week 15– (Final Exams)