Re: [asa] Environmental Alarmists Have It Backwards

Janice will not get an answer from me for the simple reason that my post
said nothing about "murder" the earth and her question is a way off beam.
Don

Janice Matchett wrote:

> *
> For those interested, my post is here: *
> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1823164/posts?page=22#22
>
> *Environmental Alarmists Have It Backwards
> *April 25, 2007 *
> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1823164/posts** ** [refresh
> browser]
>
> *~ Janice .. *who wonders if she will ever get an answer to her
> question of yesterday, to wit: *Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:14:44 To:
> Don Nield - *(or George Murphy, et.al.) *From: Janice Matchett -
> Subject: Re: [asa] a thought for earth day (tomorrow) Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
>
> *@ *Do I correctly understand you and those you admire to be saying
> that we can "murder" the earth? Do we also "murder" animals rather
> than "kill" them?
>
> ~ Janice ... http://www.onecosmos.blogspot.com/
>
>
> At 05:32 PM 4/23/2007, Don Nield wrote:
>
>> To supplement what Ted and George have said, I mention a very useful
>> book that I have reviewed in the latest issue of PSCF. Two extracts
>> (unedited) from my review follow. I will be happy to send my full
>> review privately on request.
>> *********************************
>>
>> ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP: Critical Perspectives- Past and Present,
>> by R. J. Berry (ed.), New York, NY ,T & T Clark International, 2006,
>> 338 pages, index. Paperback; $49.50, ISBN 0567030180
>>
>> This book contains 26 essays and an introduction by Berry, who is a
>> Professor Emeritus of Genetics at University College, London. The
>> core essays are updates of papers, from a 2000 conference to explore
>> “the Christian approach to the environment” at Windsor Castle
>> organized by the John Ray Initiative, by Robin Attfield
>> (philosopher), Murray Rae (theologian), Calvin DeWitt (environmental
>> biologist) and James Lovelock (biogeochemist). These are supplemented
>> by classical expositions/criticisms by Richard Bauckham, John Black,
>> Anne Clifford, René Dubos, Douglas Hall, Peter Harrison, Ruth Page,
>> Clare Palmer, Larry Rasmussen, Paul Santmire, Lisa Sideris, Joseph
>> Sittler, and John Zizioulas, plus papers written especially for this
>> collection by Elving Anderson and Bruce Reichenbach, Susan Bratton,
>> Martin Holdgate, John Houghton, Michael Northcott, Derek Osborn and
>> Chris Southgate, plus previously unpublished lectures by Chris Patten
>> and Crispin Tickell.
>>
>> ************************************
>>
>> Santmire contrasts the creation theology in the priestly and Yahwist
>> stories, and then that in the Book of Job. He says that the Yahwist
>> story, with its small-scale agrarian setting, exemplifies what
>> sensitive care for the earth can mean. In this theological drama the
>> land is a character in its own right. The human’s relationship to the
>> animals is depicted in terms of tangible solidarity rather than
>> intervention. Santmire notes that in the Bible there is no doctrine
>> of ‘cosmic fall’. The soil remains innocent; the divine curse rests
>> on it because of the disobedience of humans and because of the fruits
>> of violence that grow from that disobedience. The promise is that, in
>> Christ, with the deep human fault healed and the curse therefore
>> removed, we humans can begin to live in Eden again. In contrast, in
>> Job we are led into the experience of a wilderness. We see noble wild
>> creatures nurtured by God, celebrated precisely because they resist
>> human domestication. No longer is conquering and controlling nature
>> part of the equation for discerning human dignity. We have a complex
>> and rich biblical theology of partnership between God, humans and all
>> other creatures.
>> *************************************
>>
>> Don Nield
>
>
>
>

-- 
Donald A. Nield
Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Science
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland 1142, NEW ZEALAND
ph  +64 9 3737599 x87908 
fax +64 9 3737468
Courier address: 70 Symonds Street, Room 235 or 305
d.nield@auckland.ac.nz
http://www.esc.auckland.ac.nz/People/Staff/dnie003/
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