Nature and the Religious Imagination in America

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Nature and the Religious Imagination in America

• Professor Hite
• New College of Florida
• Spring 2007

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What are the advantages

• Historical understanding of how groups have
  understood their place in and relationship to
  nature
• Open up dialogue with a variety of groups and
  avoid potential pitfalls
• Learn strategies from other sucessful campaigns
  for social justice

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The Garden of Eden. Jacob de BACKER (1555/60
1585/90)
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Mt. Sinai
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John Calvin
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TULIP

• T -- total depravity. This doesn't mean people
  are as bad as they can be. It means that sin is
  in every part of one's being, including the mind
  and will, so that a man cannot save himself.
• U -- unconditional election. God chooses to save
  people unconditionally that is, they are not
  chosen on the basis of their own merit.
• L -- limited atonement. The sacrifice of Christ
  on the cross was for the purpose of saving the
  elect.
• I -- irresistible grace. When God has chosen to
  save someone, He will.
• P -- perserverence of the saints. Those people
  God chooses cannot lose their salvation they
  will continue to believe. If they fall away, it
  will be only for a time.

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Massachusetts Bay Company
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John Winthrop
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Covenant
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Covenental Theology

• Wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among
  us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a
  thousand of our enemies, when hee shall make us a
  prayse and glory, that men shall say of
  succeeding plantacions the lord make it like
  that of New England for wee must Consider that
  wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of
  all people are uppon us soe that if wee shall
  deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have
  undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his
  present help from us, wee shall shame the faces
  of many of gods worthy servants, and cause theire
  prayers to be turned into Cursses upon us till
  wee be consumed out of the good land whither wee
  are goeing

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New England Primer
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New Haven, 1644
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• Increase Mather

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Puritans and the Natural World

• For the Puritans, the natural world, though a
  visible sign of God's creation, was both
  mysterious and orderly. Although science could
  prove useful in explaining the physical nature of
  God's creations, it was limited in its scope.
• The unexplainable mysteries within God's
  creations were as real and valid to the Puritan
  faithful as the scientific facts which served to
  explain the rational order of those creations.

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Heavens Alarm to the World1680

• For the Lord hath fired his beacon in the
  heavens among the stars of God there the fearful
  sight is not yet out of sight. The warning piece
  of heaven is going off. Now, then, if the Lord
  discharge his murdering pieces from on high, and
  men be found in their sins unfit for death, their
  blood shall be upon them." "Do we see the
  sword blazing over us? Let it put us upon crying
  to God, that the judgment be diverted and not
  return upon us again so speedily.... Doth God
  threaten our very heavens? O pray unto him, that
  he would not take away stars and send comets to
  succeed them."

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• Albrecht Durer Falling Stars

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Jeremiah Morning the Destruction of Jerusalem 1630
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American Jeremiad

• (1) provide a biblical or spiritual standard for
  individual activity and public life(2) outline
  the manners in which a people has fallen from
  that standard, (3) envision an ideal public life
  - with its concurrent individual benefits - that
  follows a return to the religious standard

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• Sir Isaac Newton

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The Latter Sign," "wherein is showed that the
voice of God in signal providences, especially
when repeated and iterated, ought to be hearkened
unto.1682

• The Lord's usual method is, first to speak to
  men by his Word, and if that taketh place, well
  and good but if his Word be not regarded, then
  He speaks by signal Providences, one after
  another. The special Design of such solemn works
  of God, is to confirm his Word.

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Salvation History

• Gods plan revealed in scripture and nature
• Science and Theology were essential for
  discerning that plan
• Man is at the center of the drama only insofar as
  he can not comprehend the plan
• The end will mirror the beginning with a
  restoration of the garden

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• Hezekials Tunnel (Mikveh)

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Creation Care Statement Evangelical
Environmental Network 1994

• The earthly result of human sin has been a
  perverted stewardship, a  patchwork of garden and
  wasteland in which the waste is increasing.
  "There is no faithfulness, no love, no
  acknowledgment of God in the land...Because of
  this the land mourns, and all who live in it
  waste away" (Hosea 41,3). Thus, one consequence
  of our misuse of the earth is an unjust denial of
  God's created bounty to other human beings, both
  now and in the future.

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For the Health of the Nation An Evangelical
Call to Civic Responsibility October 2005

• As we embrace our responsibility to care for
  Gods earth, we reaffirm the important truth
• that we worship only the Creator and not the
  creation. God gave the care of his earth and
• its species to our first parents. That
  responsibility has passed into our hands. We
  affirm
• that God-given dominion is a sacred
  responsibility to steward the earth and not a
  license
• to abuse the creation of which we are a part. We
  are not the owners of creation, but its
• stewards, summoned by God to watch over and care
  for it (Gen. 215). This implies the
• principle of sustainability our uses of the
  Earth must be designed to conserve and renew
• the Earth rather than to deplete or destroy it.
• The Bible teaches us that God is not only
  redeeming his people, but is also restoring the
• whole creation (Rom. 818-23). Just as we show
  our love for the Savior by reaching out
• to the lost, we believe that we show our love for
  the Creator by caring for his creation.
• Because clean air, pure water, and adequate
  resources are crucial to public health and
• civic order, government has an obligation to
  protect its citizens from the effects of
• environmental degradation. This involves both the
  urgent need to relieve human suffering
• caused by bad environmental practice. Because
  natural systems are extremely complex,
• human actions can have unexpected side effects.
  We must therefore approach our
• stewardship of creation with humility and
  caution.

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Peaceable Kingdom Edward Hicks, c. 1833
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Isaiah 116-9

• The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the
  leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf
  and the young lion and the fatling together and
  a little child shall lead them.
• And the cow and the bear shall feed their young
  ones shall lie down together and the lion shall
  eat straw like the ox.
• And the sucking child shall play on the hole of
  the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand
  on the cockatrice' den.
• They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
  mountain for the earth shall be full of the
  knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the
  sea.

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Walden Pond
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Helen Scott Nearing
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John Muir
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Garden of the Gods
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Voyageurs
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Sigurd Olsen
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Autum Moon
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Legal Definitions

• Framers Intent
• Federal and State Statutes
• IRS Rulings
• Court Decisions

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Creedal Definitions

• I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
• the Creator of heaven and earth,
• and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our
  Lord
• Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
• born of the Virgin Mary,
• suffered under Pontius Pilate,
• was crucified, died, and was buried.
• He descended into hell.
• The third day He arose again from the dead.
• He ascended into heaven
• and sits at the right hand of God the
  Father Almighty,
• whence He shall come to judge the living
  and the dead.
• I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic
  church,
• the communion of saints,
• the forgiveness of sins,
• the resurrection of the body,
• and life everlasting.

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William Alstons Definition

• Belief in supernatural beings (gods)
• Distinction between sacred and profane
• Ritual acts focused on sacred objects
• Moral code sanctioned by the gods
• Characteristically religious feelings
• Prayer (communication with gods)
• Worldview
• Total organization of individuals life based
  upon worldview
• Social organization bound by worldview

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Paul Tillich 1886-1965
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Tillichs Definition

• The state of being grasped by an ultimate
  concern, a concern which qualifies all other
  concerns as preliminary and which itself contains
  the answer to the questions of the meaning of
  life.

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Melford Spiros Definition

• An institution consisting of cultural patterned
  interaction with culturally postulated superhuman
  beings.

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R. Ninian Smart
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Smarts 7-Part Definition

• Experience - "Religious experience," very
  non-ordinary
• Social - More than one person claiming Experience
• Narrative - Story of Experience for later
  participants
• Dogma - Beliefs, must be rational and logical
  within entire system
• Ethical - Behaviours that correspond to beliefs
• Ritual - Repeated access to Experience
• Material - Material manifestation for participants

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Clifford GeertzProfessor Emeritus at the
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1923-