Ecospirit: Religions and Philosophies for the Earth

Hearing the Outcry of Mute Things: Toward a Jewish Creation Theology

 Hearing the Outcry of Mute Things: Toward a Jewish Creation Theology L AW R E N C E T R O S T E R Up until recently, modern Jewish theology has not emphasized creation theology. Arthur Green has written that Jews have largely discarded creation as a theological issue because they became convinced that the origin of species or the origin of the universe is strictly the purview of the scientist rather than the theologian. As a result, any attempt at delineating a theology of creation was of little value. He says: But the issue of creation will not disappear so quickly. The search for meaning and the questions of origins do not readily separate from one another. When we ask ourselves what life is all about, why we live and why we die, we cannot help turning to the question of how we got here in the first place.1 The search for meaning may draw upon the data of the universe that science discovers but the old ideas of creation still have the power to continue to inspire and shape the way that search proceeds. Green further writes: When we try to understand our place in the universe, and especially the relationship of humanity as a whole to the world of nature, we find ourselves returning to the question of creation. As we seek to extend our notion of community and fellow-feeling to include all creatures, seeking out the One within the infinite varieties of the 338 兩 e c os p i ri t many, we discover that we are still speaking the language of creation.2 In developing a Jewish response to the present environmental crisis, in the necessity of grounding a Jewish environmental ethic in theology, creation theology must again come to the fore. The reason that Jewish theology has ignored creation theology, according to Green, is that the Jewish community in the twentieth century has been occupied more with the issues of revelation, religious authority, and divine providence after the Holocaust. This situation has begun to change with the rise of a religious environmental movement, and concomitantly creation theology has begun to emerge as a major topic in Jewish environmental theology. In attempting to create a new environmental theology, some Jewish thinkers have drawn on Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition.3 Since Kabbalah teaches the essential unity of all existence, it can, as a spiritual path, engender a greater concern for the environment. Arthur Green observes that ‘‘we are the One: each human mind is a microcosm, a miniature replica of the single Mind that conceives and becomes the universe. To know that oneness and recognize it in all our fellow beings is what life is all about.’’4 Kabbalah, however, used uncritically, can be a problematic source for environmental theology insofar as it does not cherish the natural world for its own sake but rather sees it as a symbol for another, ultimate reality.5 It is partly for this reason that Green has called for a ‘‘post-Kabbalistic’’ mysticism that can incorporate modern science.6 There is, however, another path that can be followed in formulating a new Jewish creation theology. Within the Jewish community, philosopher Hans Jonas (1903–1993) has been one of the most neglected philosophers of the twentieth century. In environmental and scientific circles, however, he is highly regarded. His writings are also esteemed among bioethicists and in discussions of the relationship between religion and science.7 Europeans have especially shown great interest in his writing on environmental ethics.8 Jonas is the only Jewish philosopher who has fully integrated philosophy, science, theology, and environmental ethics. It is the purpose of this paper to utilize the work of Hans Jonas as the basis for suggesting the way in which a new Jewish creation theology can develop. A creation theology in the present time must incorporate l a wr e n ce t r os t e r 兩 339 the findings of modern cosmology and evolutionary biology as its fundamental facts. The Kabbalistic idea of tzimtzum, or the withdrawal of God at the time of creation, in the manner Jonas considers it, can be utilized for a creation theology that allows for God’s nonsupernatural involvement with the world. Jonas’s theology is also based on sound philosophical foundations, and from these foundations he also produced a model of environmental ethics. Another Kabbalistic idea, the...