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4 RESPECTING CREATION’S PRAISE FOR GOD The imaginative concept of creation’s praise for God in the Catholic tradition requires the reader to consider living organisms, bodies of water, terrains, air regimes, and cosmic phenomena as having “voices” with which they praise God and together as a chorus that praises God. Although the Bible and texts throughout the Christian tradition are replete with praises for God, reflections that af- firm and call upon natural entities to praise God are scant. The few patristic and medieval theologians who thought about living and inanimate creatures as praising God often referred or alluded to the poetic and hymnic literature in the Old Testament, especially Psalm 148 and Daniel 3:57–81. Today, the “voices” of many animate and inanimate beings cry out in anguish as they become endangered, altered by genetic manipulation, and destroyed by toxicants. The destruction of habitats under the guise of “progress” continues to accelerate the rate of species extinction, resulting in an alarming loss of biological diversity throughout the ecosystems of Earth. Some of these species are crucial to human life and well-being now and into the future, so the voice of Homo sapiens is also at risk. Following the format of prior chapters, I examine the patristic and medieval texts in which theologians contemplate creatures’ praise for God. Explained subsequently is how this concept coheres with our current understanding of the contributions that various biota and abiota make to ecosystems and the greater biosphere. In the concluding section, I explore the kind of human behavior that embracing this concept suggests. Patristic and Medieval Sources Saints Basil of Caesarea, Augustine of Hippo, Francis of Assisi, and John of the Cross thought about creatures as praising God according to their natures. Basil 103 and John also explicitly reflected on all creatures as constituting a chorus that praises God by relating to one another as God intends. Each of their views is examined sequentially with reference to the biblical texts that inspired their reflections. Saint Basil of Caesarea, the Languages of Creatures, and the Chorus of Creation Basil of Caesarea (ca. 329–79) was one of the most prominent theologians who thought about creatures as giving praise to God according to their natures and all creatures together as constituting a chorus of praise for God. Within his third homily on the Hexaemeron, Basil examined Psalm 148 in which the hymnist calls upon the sun, moon, shining stars, Earth, sea monsters, fire and hail, snow and mist, storm winds, mountains and hills, orchards and cedars, wild animals and cattle, reptiles and birds, kings, nations, and all people to praise God.1 Basil underscored the inclusiveness of this call to praise, noting that “even the deep” was not rejected by the psalmist for “even it harmoniously sings a hymn of praise to the Creator through the language assigned to it.”2 Each “language” is known by God who “approves them individually” in light of God’s “final aim” for the natural world,3 whereas their relationships with one another exhibit a “beauty of relationship”4 in which they harmonize as “the general chorus of creation”5 For Basil, God is the creator of the chorus of creatures, each of which has been endowed with a language of its own. All are intended to harmonize with one another through their interrelationships, and all have been empowered by God to do so from the beginning of the world.6 God is also the director of the chorus , calling it to fulfill its purpose by being itself and thereby giving glory to God.7 Saint Augustine’s Exuberant Call for Creation to Praise God In Confessions, after praising God profusely for the marvels of the natural world that God created, Augustine (354–430) followed the list of creatures in Ps. 148, asking God to also let them praise their Creator: Let me never say, “These things should not be!” If I considered them alone, I might desire better things; but still for them alone I ought to praise you. That you must be praised all these show forth: from the earth, dragons, and all the deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, which fulfill your word, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, serpents and feathered fowls; kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth, young men and maidens, the old with the younger; let them praise...

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