From Logos to Christos: Essays on Christology in Honour of Joanne McWilliam

10 Deep Christology: Ecological Soundings

10 Deep Christology Ecological Soundings    ELIZABETH A. JOHNSON, CSJ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how they had recognized him in the breaking of the bread. —Luke 24:35 STARTING IN the last quarter of the twentieth century, the rise of attention to planet Earth, both in wonder at its intricate community of life and in mounting concern about its devastation at human hands, has opened a new frontier for theological reflection.1 The narrow anthropocentric focus that has characterized Western theology since the Reformation is beginning to broaden to include once again the natural world of which human beings are the product, in which they are embedded, and for which they are responsible. This wider scope puts theology back in tune with major themes of biblical, Patristic, and medieval theology, allowing it to play melodies about the cosmos that have not been heard for centuries.2 The impact of this turn to the heavens and the earth has so far been felt most keenly in the area of ethics. Questions of economic and social justice as they affect the environment; the need for sustainable development that preserves resources to the seventh generation; naming the sins of biocide, ecocide, and geocide; promoting biophilic virtue while restraining greed and selfishness: these and similar issues of personal and systemic behaviour are gaining a secure seat at the table of ethical reflection. Systematic theology, which reflects on the rational, affective, and practical meanings of Christian symbols, has come more lately to the 163 conversation. Nevertheless, it has started to probe the elements of belief for their intrinsic impulses which can ground and motivate the moral imperative to care for the earth. To date the lion’s share of attention has rightly been focused on the doctrine of creation. Since the whole natural world is created by God, who saw that it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31), nature is more than a mere backdrop for the human drama of sin and redemption, more than simply an instrument for supplying human needs. It is God’s beloved evolutionary handiwork, indwelt by the Spirit of life, with an intrinsic value all its own. This faith perspective flows into the mandate that human actions must honour the integrity of creation at every scale. When Pope John Paul II writes that “respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends to the rest of creation,”3 it signals a new chapter in the dialogue between creation faith and ethics. Christianity, of course, encompasses more than belief in the one God who creates the world. It pivots around the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, cherished as Emmanuel, God with us. Thus Christology, too, must contribute its own colourful square to the great planetary quilt that we humans need produce to cover the earth with a blanket of care.4 In this essay I propose to take soundings in this regard, exploring key lines of thinking that connect Christology with ecological ethics in a potentially fruitful way. A Methodological Question At the outset I am puzzled by the question of how to proceed. Since the birth of modern biblical scholarship some two centuries ago, scholars have been using the best empirical methods they can hone to explore concrete details of the life of Jesus of Nazareth along with the ways that memories of him were shaped and passed on by the early communities of disciples. By employing classical tools of historical and literary research to place Gospel texts in their contexts, this work has yielded a wealth of insight into the story of Jesus and the origins of Christianity in the specific circumstances of first-century Palestine. One of the powerful results has been the rediscovery of the Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels, read now not primarily in the light of later doctrinal development but in their own historical circumstances . The result is a portrait of Jesus as an eschatological Jewish prophet, sage, and healer in his own time and place, crucified for historically political reasons, and proclaimed to be risen in categories indigenous to Jewish expectations of the end-time. The results of this Christology “from below,” received and interpreted in the Church, have been inestimable. Pastorally, this method has allowed 164 CHRISTOLOGY AND ETHICS the Gospel to be preached in a way that respects the importance of critical thinking in the lives of contemporary Christian...