Introduction
Why?
Whatever their differences now and over the centuries, Christians, Jews and Muslims are the children of Abraham and still share many traditions in their teachings, worship and lifestyles. These shared traditions lie behind the decision to write this book about the three Abrahamic faiths’ relationship with the environment, rather than all faiths. That may come later.
Sharing Eden can only begin to describe what would take many volumes if we were to go into all the details and issues, but we hope it will supply some of the answers which many from the three faiths, other faiths and indeed those of no faith, seek.
The Abrahamic faiths are complex creations of sub-divisions and sub-species evolved as a result of beliefs, politics, intuition, creativity, coincidence, revelation, inspiration, miracles and no doubt many other factors.
Simple things, hardly noticed and taken for granted, will have their reasons and meanings. For example, architectural features in places of worship, or the worship itself, will have a tradition that can be explained.
So look on this book as a ‘start’. There is so much misinformation and misunderstanding in our world today that we can honestly say that we believe our task is simply to inform and begin to explain. We have absolutely no hidden agenda; there is no attempt to gain points or converts.
When it comes to the environment, we all have a role to play, whether or not we hold a faith. We hope this book shows that, as far as the followers of the Abrahamic faiths are concerned, they have no excuse not just to be aware, but also to be actively concerned, about the state of our world’s environment.
Natan Levy, David Shreeve, Harfiyah Haleem
The three faiths’ perspectives
A Jewish Environmental Ethic, Natan Levy
Life does not begin in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis you’ll see a twist to the familiar story:
These are the products of the heaven and the earth when they were created on the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven – now all the trees of the field were not yet on the earth and all the herb of the field had not yet sprouted.
God formed the human, dirt from the ground, and breathed into him the breath of life. God planted a garden in Eden in the East, and placed the human that He had created within it.
Genesis 2:4-8
God first creates a human (Adam) and later places him into the Garden. Why not just create Adam in the Garden itself? And, if not in the Garden, just where does Adam take his first breath? Genesis tells us that the setting into which Adam is born is no manicured garden, but a desert landscape. Adam wakes to a wasteland.
The 11th century Biblical commentator, Rashi, offers this insight into Adam’s peculiar birthplace:
Even though the trees and grasses had been created on the third day of creation, until the creation of Man on day sixth, everything waited at the lip of the ground to sprout forth. And why did the flora wait? Because until the appearance of Adam there was no one to realise how badly the grass needed rain to grow, and no one to work and pray for change.
Genesis 2:5
The grass could have grown, the bushes could have burst forth, but God wanted to teach humanity its first fundamental lesson: when it comes to the environment, it is up to you to notice what is lacking, and it is up to you to be the agents of change. Prayer and work are the tools at your disposal. Do not let the world remain barren, do not accept brokenness. That is the message that God wished to impress upon Adam, and through him to all of humanity. And as Adam was created to look upon a barren world and feel its need for rain, we must listen to the needs of our own fragile world. As the Jewish sages impart:
It is not up to you to finish the task, yet you are never free to desist from the work.
Ethics of Our Fathers (Pirke Avot) 2:21
Entering the Garden of Eden, Adam is confronted with the task of sustainability. A Midrash, a biblical allegory, relates that God said to Adam:
Behold My works, how beautiful and commendable they are! All that I have created, for your sake I created it. Pay heed that you do not corrupt and destroy My universe, for if you corrupt it there is no one to repair it after you.
Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 7:20
A Christian View of the Environment, David Shreeve
Since early times most Christians have used a public statement, The Apostles’ Creed, (first formulated in Nicaea in AD 325), to confess their faith in Jesus Christ. It begins:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
To most Christians the many divisions amongst their faith are not simply confusing - they are a mystery. So many denominations, sects, traditions, callings, customs, leaders… For those outside the faith it must all seem a conundrum that a man living a simple life two thousand years ago would be remembered and worshipped in so many complicated and often extreme ways.
Even the Lord’s Prayer, the main prayer of Christian worship, taught by Jesus to his disciples, comes in various forms, but whichever version is used, its environmental message is fundamental and clear.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:9-10
Some bibles do not include what is known as the Benedicite, the Song of Creation. In some it appears in the Book of Daniel, but it has been part of the Book of Common Prayer, first published in 1549, and is used in Anglican morning prayers and in Lauds in the Roman Catholic Office. The canticle covers much of creation of which the following is just a part:
O let the Earth bless the Lord: yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Green Things upon the Earth, bless ye the Lord: praise him, and magnify him for ever.
Christians have a particular responsibility to the environment because of the acknowledgement and worship of God as creator, redeemer and sustainer. Abuse of the natural world is disobedience to God, not merely an error of judgment.
Christians believe that planet earth belongs to God and that he entrusted it to humankind, made in his image and responsible to him. We are in the position of stewards, tenants, curators, trustees and guardians, whether or not we acknowledge this responsibility. It is easy to forget that the Earth is the Lord’s and we must include humankind as just part of the living world that we share with all his creatures.
And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Genesis 1:31
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is represented as at one with the Creator, sustainer and redeemer of the natural order as well as of humankind. As the Old Testament stories tell of order coming from chaos, so Christ brings order and meaning to a world damaged by human greed and misuse, emphasising God’s care and concern for his creation. Christians, therefore, believe they have an obligation to offer worship and thanks for:
Creation, preservation and all the blessings of this life.
General