Celebrating Nature by Faith. H. Paul Santmire

      Celebrating Nature by Faith

      Studies in Reformation Theology in an Era of Global Emergency

      Copyright © 2020 H. Paul Santmire. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Cascade Books

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-9971-9

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-9972-6

      ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-9973-3

      Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

      Names: Santmire, H. Paul, author.

      Title: Celebrating nature by faith : studies in Reformation theology in an era of global emergency / H. Paul Santmire.

      Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: ISBN: 978-1-5326-9971-9 (paperback). | ISBN: 978-1-5326-9972-6 (hardcover). | ISBN: 978-1-5326-9973-3 (ebook).

      Subjects: LCSH: Ecotheology. | Nature—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Human ecology—Religious aspects. | Luther, Martin, 1483–1546.

      Classification: BT695.5 S320 2020 (print). | BT695.5 (epub).

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      To David M. Rhoads and Lutherans Restoring Creation, with gratitude

      Preface

      One Step Backward

      The human species, as just about any thoughtful soul who keeps up with the daily news will have recognized by now, is currently facing a global environmental and justice emergency of unprecedented magnitude, signaled above all by the threat of human-induced climate change. Some prefer to call this the threat of climate destruction.

In recent years, leaders of the ecumenical Church have been at the forefront of those who have been calling all citizens of the Earth to address this global emergency. His Holiness, Pope Francis, may only be the most famous of those Christian leaders who have responded to the onslaught of the global crisis, with his powerful and widely hailed 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care of Our Common Home.1

      With many other Christians around the globe, I, for one, as a matter of course enthusiastically welcome the current ecumenical response to our global crisis. But I also recognize that sometimes it is wise, at least for some, to take one step backward, in order to make it easier for others to take two steps forward.

      1.

      As a matter of fact, the Holy Father himself has already highlighted the strategy of taking one step backward in order to take two steps forward in his aforementioned encyclical and, all the more so, by his decision to take the name of St. Francis. The Pope has stepped back to reclaim the witness of that venerable thirteenth-century celebrant of nature—along with other historic Catholic figures—in order to help the whole Church move forward to address the global ecojustice challenges of our own day.

      Catholic theologians of the Vatican II era thought of this kind of process as a return to the sources, ad fontes, a return driven by a passion to then step forward into more promising theological worlds, under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth. Pope Francis is an heir of that kind of thinking.

      In this book, much more modestly, I am proposing to take one theological step backward, in behalf of the two theological steps forward that I believe that the whole ecumenical Church is being called upon to undertake today, following the example of Pope Francis. Here I propose to take the reader back—ad fontes—to some critically important existential places in the thought and practice of the traditions of the Protestant Reformation. My purpose is to make it possible for those who join me in these retrospective explorations, especially heirs of that sixteenth-century theological movement, but also, I would hope, heirs of the Catholic Reformation later in the same century (Council of Trent), to enrich their theological responses to the global emergency we all are facing today.

      To facilitate the discussion, I want to begin with some terminological observations. Many of the key constructs I will be employing in these studies I will understand in terms of ordinary speech. Thus I will typically take “nature” to mean what we commonly think of as the natural world. The only place where I will attempt to define “nature” in specific theological terms will be in my discussion of Luther’s thought, for reasons that I will explain at that point . And “ecology” I will take to refer the now widely-attested scientific approach to nature as a world of interrelated subsystems. Further, the context in which “nature” or “ecology” and related words or expressions occur will, I believe, generally disclose the nuances I have in mind for a term’s meaning in each instance and thereby, hopefully, avoid any serious confusion.

      2.

      This book itself will unfold in the following manner. I propose to take the reader first to the heart of the Reformation experience: pondering the Scriptures anew (Chapter 1). Whatever else the Reformation slogan sola scriptura might have meant in the sixteenth century, today it surely means that the theological heirs of the Protestant Reformation will continue to be passionately preoccupied with the Scriptures, to be in love with them, as it were. So I will ask, first thing: how are we humans to live with nature, according to the Scriptures?

      Drawing on work of my own over several decades, I will suggest in this chapter that the time is at hand for the ecumenical Church to move beyond the immensely popular theological construct of stewardship of nature to a fresh and more comprehensive construct of partnership with nature. Why? Because this is how I believe that the Scriptures mandate us to celebrate nature by faith in these times.

      This chapter will also serve another important purpose. It will outline what I take to be the main lines of a biblical understanding of nature, with a strong emphasis on the Old Testament. I will go into considerable detail along the way, highlighting the findings of biblical scholars across the ecumenical spectrum whenever possible. For heirs of the Protestant Reformation, as for many other Christians these days, such biblical findings will be of the utmost importance, since most, if not all, of us are committed to regard the Bible as the primary sourcebook of our faith.

      I will then take readers to a place that will come as no surprise to many Protestants, and probably not to anyone with theological interests who has ever encountered the world of Reformation thought: to consider the theology of Martin Luther himself and his own vibrant way of celebrating nature by faith (Chapter 2). This is ad fontes for me—as it will be for many other Lutherans and for numerous Protestant fellow-travelers, too. This is a topic that also has preoccupied me for many years.

      Luther is my “Church father.” He is, as it were, my St. Athanasius or my St. Francis or my St. Thomas Aquinas or my John Calvin or my John Wesley. He is first among equals, prima inter pares, in my own theological world. For me, Luther not only lived and spoke in the past. He also speaks with a living voice today, for better, for worse. And I know that many others in the ecumenical community today, including Pope Francis himself, also take Luther seriously in some manner, as the recent global celebrations of the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation showed.

      Just for this reason, I will try to identify the historic voice of Luther as carefully as I can. I will attend