soil-conservation-people-religion-and-land.pdf - South West NRM

eligious overtones. Some traditional Christian spokespersons
see contemporary environmentalism as a dangerous fad, a trendy
cliche based on mystic spiritualism. However Andrew Dutney's
(1987) view that the church can, and must do something and not
merely 'shrug its ecclesiastical shouldersu is a view held by
many in Australia today. 'If rehabilitation of Australian
Christianity is to get anywhere, theologians must break out of
the cloister and begin to work closely with the scientists and
philosophers who can help them develop a coherent and credible
ecological theology. Birch (1986) says "The call to
Christians is for a deeply developed non-anthropocentric
ethic, that is to say a life-centred ethic. I believe this is
the same as calling for a theo-centric ethic because God is
concerned about all life and not human life alone."
Of the several recent Australian writers who have grappled
with the environment/church relationship, 0'Connor (1988) has
searched for a new perspective. He says, tlBlack (1970) tries
to trace features of the western philosophy of life and what
he calls its uncompromising treatment of the natural
environment and its resources which led us to our present
state of concern over ecological crisis. He sees the four
most important aspects of our western world as:
. the conviction that man's role on earth is to exploit the
rest of nature to his own advantage;
an expectation of continuing population expansion;
a belief in progress and history; and
. a concept for posterity.
Black traces the origin of these points to the origins of our
culture, and makes the very important point that ideas brought
into being from any particular cultural source may persist
even when, with the decline of the influence of religion, the
source itself is no longer important or has been forgotten -
ideas once assimilated acquire a momentum. He feels that many
of our views incorporate many of the fundamental concepts of
the Judaeo-Christian tradition - man moved from a position of
integration within nature to one of domination over nature.
This emerged from two processes: the development of the
technical ability to modify the environment, and the desire to
do it and to intervene in natural- processes for-the benefit of
the human race. Black claims the book of ~enesis has provided
the essential clues to the way in which the relationship
between man and nature developed in our culture, and it is
still the central component of our world view today. The two