BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES ON NATURE

Barbara Rossing, LSTC brossing@lstc.edu
Theodore Hiebert, MTS thiebert@mccormick.edu
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
McCormick Theological Seminary
Fall 2003

Course GoalsThe ultimate goal of this course is to consider a new way of thinking about religion, a way which takes the natural world seriously. More specifically, the goal is to consider this new way of thinking in relation to the Bible, and to examine what role nature plays in biblical thought. At the end of the course, we hope all of us will know better how to take creation seriously in our biblical interpretation, in our linking of the Bible and ministry, and in our practice of ministry itself.To achieve these ends, this course will examine the understanding of nature in the Bible and evaluate of the implications of biblical values for contemporary thought. The perspective of the course is thus both historical and theological. On the one hand, the attitudes and values in the Bible will be examined through a close study of selected biblical texts in the light of the ancient physical, political, and religious environment in which they arose. On the other hand, the relationship between these biblical viewpoints and contemporary concepts of nature will be examined in order to asses the significance of biblical attitudes for modern environmental theology, ethics, and ministry.
We think this is such an important concern that we want to get the word out to the church more broadly, so we are considering writing a book about the issues in this course for a broader audience. And we would like you to help us think about what such a book would look like and what kind of book would be most helpful. We’ll be asking you, as leaders of the church, for your advice.

Course Schedule and Readings
September 10: Introduction—What Do the Bible and Christian Ministry Have to Do with Nature?

September 17: Did the Bible Get Us into This Fix?

White, Lynn, Jr. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis." Science 155 (1967): 1203-7. Reprinted in Ecology and Religion in History, ed. David and Eileen Spring, 15-31. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. "Woman, Body, and Nature: Sexism and the Theology of Creation." In Sexism and God-Talk, 72-92. Boston: Beacon, 1983.
Wright, G. Ernest. "Theology as Recital." In God Who Acts, 33-58. London: SCM, 1951.
Hiebert, Theodore. "The ‘Problem’ of Nature in the Bible." In The Yahwist’s Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel, 3-29. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Habel, Norman C. "Six Ecojustice Principles" and "Introducing the Earth Bible." In Readings fromthe Perspective of the Earth, ed. Norman C. Habel, 24-37. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
Recommended:

Robinson, H. Wheeler. "The Hebrew Conception of Nature." In Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament, 1-15. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946.
Rad, Gerhard von. "The Theological Problem of the Old Testament Doctrine of Creation." In The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays, trans. E. W. Trueman Dicken, 131-143. London: SCM Press, 1984. Reprinted in Creation in the Old Testament, ed. Bernhard W. Anderson, 53-64. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.
Wright, G. Ernest. The Old Testament Against Its Environment. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1950.
Hiebert, Theodore. "Rethinking Traditional Approaches to Nature in the Bible." In Theology for Earth Community: A Field Guide, ed. Dieter T. Hessel, 23-30. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1996.
______. "Re-imaging Nature: Shifts in Biblical Interpretation." Interpretation 50 (1996): 36-46.
Habel, Norman C. "Guiding Ecojustice Principles." In Readings from the Perspective of the Earth, ed. Norman C. Habel, 38-47. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
Kaufman, Gordon. "A Problem for Theology: The Concept of Nature." Harvard Theological Review 65 (1972): 337-366. Reprinted as "Theology and the Concept of Nature." In The Theological Imagination, 209-237. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1981.
Hendry George. "The Problem of Nature in Theology." In Theology of Nature, 11-30. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1981.
Santmire, H. Paul. The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology, 7-12, 175-88. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985.

September 24: Field Trip—The Environment We’re Living In

Locate and read your own denomination’s statement on the environment. Readings related to the trip will be announced.

October 1: The Environment of the Bible: Family Farming

Primary Texts:
Bible: Genesis 1-4, 12-18; Exodus 21-23; Deuteronomy 14-15, 26; Leviticus 25; Luke 4, 8, 13, 15, 16.
Josephus. The Jewish War. Book I: 218-21, 303-16, 403; Book II: 402-407, 424-27; Book III: 35-58.
Hopkins, David C. "Life on the Land: The Subsistence Struggles of Early Israel." Biblical Archaeologist 50 (1987): 178-91.
Hiebert, Theodore. "The Environment of the Primeval Age: Israelite Highland Agriculture" and "The Environment of the Ancestral Age: Israelite Highland Agriculture." In The Yahwist’s Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel, 32-62, 85-97. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Horsley, Richard A. "Village and Family" and "Galilean Village Economy and the Political- Economic Structure of Roman Palestine." In Galilee: History, Politics, People, 189-221. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995.

Recommended:
Frankfort, H. and H. A. "The Emancipation of Thought from Myth." In Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man, 363-88. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946.
Brueggemann, Walter. The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith, 2d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002.
Berry, Wendell. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, 3-14. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1986.

October 8: The Environment of the Bible: Urbanization and Empire

Bible: Genesis 12-14; 1 Samuel 8; 2 Samuel 5-7; 1 Kings 12, 16, 21; Amos; Isaiah 1-5; Ezekiel 26-27; Habakkuk 1-2; Acts 2, 4, 17-19; Romans 15, 16; Revelation 13, 18.
Chaney, Marvin. "Bitter Bounty: The Dynamics of Political Economy Critiqued by the Eighth- Century Prophets." In Reformed Faith and Economics, ed. Robert Stivers, 15-30. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1989.
Meeks, Wayne. "The Urban Environment of Pauline Christianity." In The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul, 9-50. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Bauckham, Richard. "The Economic Critique of Rome in Revelation 18." In Images of Empire, ed. Loveday Alexander, 47-86. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991.

Recommended:
Frick, Frank S. "The Path to Statehood: A Synthesis." In The Formation of the State in Ancient Israel,191-204. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985.

October 15: Creation: The Natural World and the Human Place within It

Bible: Genesis 1-3; Psalms 8, 74, 89, 104, 148; Proverbs 8; 1 Corinthians 8-10.
Barr, James. "Man and Nature: The Ecological Controversy and the Old Testament." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 55 (1972): 9-32. Reprinted in Ecology and Religion in History, ed. David and Eileen Spring, 48-75. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.
Callicott, J. Baird. "Genesis and John Muir." In Covenant for a New Creation, ed. Carol S. Robb and Carl J. Casebolt, 107-40. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991.
Hiebert, Theodore. "The Human Vocation: Origins and Transformations in Christian Traditions." In Christianity and Ecology, ed. Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary Radford Ruether, 135-154. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.
______. "Imago Dei or Imago Dirt: Who in the World Are We?" Inaugural Address, February 26, 2003.
Reumann, John. "An Early Christian Credo about Christ and Creation." In Creation and New Creation: The Past, Present, and Future of God’s Creative Activity, 24-31. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1973.
Sittler, Joseph. "Called to Unity." In Evocations of Grace: the Writings of Joseph Sittler on Ecology, Theology, and Ethics, 38-50. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2000.

Recommended:
Anderson, Bernhard W. "Creation and Ecology." American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 1 (1983): 14-30. Reprinted in Creation in the Old Testament, ed. Bernhard W. Anderson, 152-171. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.
______. "Human Dominion over Nature." In Biblical Studies in Contemporary Thought, ed. Miriam Ward, 27-45. Winchendon, Mass.: Greeno, Hadden & Company, 1975. Reprinted in From Creation to New Creation, 111-131. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994.
______, ed. Creation in the Old Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.
______. From Creation to New Creation. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994.
Hiebert, Theodore. "Rethinking Dominion Theology." Direction 25 (1966): 16-25.
Simkins, Ronald A. Creator and Creation: Nature in the World View of Ancient Israel. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1994.
Hall, Douglas John. "Biblical Sources of the Symbol" and "Stewardship as Key to a Theology of Nature." In The Steward: A Biblical Symbol Come of Age, 14-29, 101-113. New York: Friendship Press for Commission on Stewardship, National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., 1982.
______. Imaging God: Dominion as Stewardship. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1986.
Reumann, John. "Excursus: ‘The Christ Hymn’ in Colossians 1 in Recent Discussion." In Creation and New Creation: The Past, Present, and Future of God’s Creative Activity, 42-56. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1973.
Trebilco, Paul. "The Goodness and Holiness of the Earth and the Whole Creation (1 Timothy 4.1-5)." In Readings from the Perspective of the Earth, ed. Norman C. Habel, 204-220. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.

October 22: New Creation: Apocalyptic Thought and the Destruction of Nature

Primary Texts:
Bible: Isaiah 24-27, 65-66; Zechariah 12-14; Daniel 7-12; Revelation 6, 12, 16, 21-22.
Apocrypha: 2 Esdras 6:1-7:44; 9-11.
Hanson, Paul D. "Defining Old Testament Apocalyptic." In Old Testament Apocalyptic, 25-43. Nashville: Abingdon, 1987.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing, 61- 84. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
Rossing, Barbara. "River of Life in God’s New Jerusalem: An Ecological Vision for Earth’s Future." Currents in Theology and Mission 25 (1998): 487-499.
______. "Alas for Earth! Lament and Resistance in Revelation 12." In The Earth Story in the New Testament, ed. Norman C. Habel and Vicky Balabonski, 180-192. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.

Recommended:
Russell, David M. "Surveying the Terrain: Creation and Apocalyptic." In The "New Heavens and New Earth": Hope for the Creation in Jewish Apocalyptic and the New Testament, 18- 36. Philadelphia: Visionary Press, 1996.
Rossing, Barbara. The Rapture Racket. Forthcoming.

October 29: New Creation: Apocalyptic Thought and the Redemption of Nature

Bible: Isaiah 11, 24-27, 65-66; Zechariah 12-14; Daniel 7-12; Romans 8.
Cross, Frank Moore. "The Redemption of Nature." The Princeton Seminary Bulletin (1989): 94-104.
Rolston, Holmes, III. "Does Nature Need to Be Redeemed?" Horizons in Biblical Theology 14 (1992): 143-72.
Hiebert, Theodore. "Creation, the Fall, and Humanity’s Role in the Ecosystem." In Creation and the Environment: An Anabaptist Perspective on a Sustainable World, ed. Calvin Redekop, 111-121. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
Byrne, Brendan. "Creation Groaning: An Earth Bible Reading of Romans 8:18-22." In Readings from the Perspective of the Earth, ed. Norman C. Habel, 193-203. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
Rossing, Barbara. "Bible Study on Romans 8." In For the Healing of the World: Study Book for the Lutheran World Federation Tenth Assembly, 85-89. Geneva, 2002.

Recommended:
Russell, David M. "Creation and Redemption in the New Testament." In The "New Heavens and New Earth": Hope for the Creation in Jewish Apocalyptic and the New Testament, 134- 209. Philadelphia: Visionary Press, 1996.

November 5: Sacred Geography, Worship, and Liturgy

Bible: Genesis 12-13; Exodus 3, 12, 19-24, 34; Leviticus 23; Numbers 28-29; Deuteronomy 16; 1 Kings 5-8; Ezekiel 36, 47; Psalms 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122; Prov 3:13-18; Mark 4, John 15:1-11; Revelation 22.
Eliade, Mircea. "Symbolism of the ‘Centre.’" In Images and Symbols, 27-56. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969.
Hiebert, Theodore. "Theophany in the Old Testament." In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman, 6:505-511. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
______. "Ritual and Law" and "Religious Ritual and Worship." In The Yahwist’s Landscape: Nature and Religion in Early Israel, 126-129, 136-139. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Rasmussen, Larry. Earth Community Earth Ethics, 195-219. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994.
Angelou, Maya. "On the Pulse of Morning."
Rossing, Barbara. Pelicans, Great Blue Herons, and the Resurrection of the Body." Sermon at LSTC, April 17, 1996.
______. "God’s Braided Stream." Sermon at LSTC, May 20, 1998.
______. "Lectionary Notes for Easter C." In New Proclamation, ed. Marshall D. Johnson, 15-22.Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000.

Recommended:
Levenson, Jon D. "Zion as the Cosmic Mountain," "The Temple as Sacred Space," "Sacred Space and Sacred Time," and "The Meaning of the Cosmic Mountain in Israel." In Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible, 111-176. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.
Cohn, Robert L. The Shape of Sacred Space: Four Biblical Studies. Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1981.
Hiebert, Theodore. "Altars of Stone and Bronze: Two Biblical Views of Technology." Mission Studies 15 (1998): 75-84.
Vaux, Roland de. "The Ancient Feasts of Israel." In Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions, 484-506. New York: McGraw Hill, 1961.
Lane, Belden C. Landscapes of the Sacred: Geography and Narrative in American Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1988.
Daneel, M. L. "African Independent Churches Face the Challenge of Environmental Ethics." In Ecotheology: Voices from South and North, ed. David G. Hallman, 248-263. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994.
Ingram, Beryl. "Eco-Justice Liturgics." In Theology for Earth Community: A Field Guide, ed. Dieter T. Hessel, 250-264.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996.

The topics and reading assignments for the last three class sessions, November 12 and 19 and December 3 will be planned in consultation with the members of the class. We are considering a session on Land, Jubilee, and Property Rights for November 12, and we solicit your ideas for these sessions. Other ideas we have considered are Environmental Racism and Ecojustice and Climate Change and the Perspective of Job. Let us know what you would like to schedule here.Instructions for Exegetical Studies and Presentations
Aim
The primary aim of these studies is to describe the way in which a text reflects its author’s attitude toward nature. The primary focus of these studies will be the ancient world: What was the original environmental setting of the text and how does its point of view reflect this setting? What attitudes toward nature were held by the author and how are they expressed in the context of this ancient setting?
In addition to this major historical aim of your exegesis, you are encouraged to comment also on the significance of the biblical attitudes you have identified in the text for our thought and behavior today. Does the Bible present us with an obstacle or a resource for constructing a healthy perspective on the environment?
As a rule of thumb, you might consider devoting about three fourths of your study and presentation to your primary aim, the historical sense of the text, and one fourth to your secondary aim, its relationship with the contemporary world.

Procedure

The Biblical Text
1. Select a text from the assignments on the course syllabus related to the topic of your study. A chapter or less, e.g. ten to twenty verses, is plenty for a short study such as this. Do not type out the text itself as part of your essay, or read the text as part of your oral presentation. You can assume your readers have the Bible in front of them.
2. Spend some time doing your own careful analysis of the text, looking primarily for answers in the concrete details of the text to two questions: What actual physical environment is reflected in these details? What attitudes toward nature are represented in the text? Trust yourself. Do not rely on "experts" alone to tell you what the text says.
3. As you write up your findings or prepare your oral presentation, always use concrete data—specific words and phrases—from the biblical text to illustrate your comments and to support your conclusions. Always give references, chapter and verse, to the part of the text you are describing.
4. If you have taken biblical Hebrew, please use it in your analysis as much as you can. There is no substitute for the real thing. Every translation is a new and different text from the original.

Secondary Sources
In addition to your own analysis of the biblical text, you should broaden your own perspective by considering the analysis and conclusions of other scholars, from the following sources in particular:
1. Take into consideration the analysis of the scholars assigned for reading on the topic related to the text you have selected. You may enlist these scholars in support of your interpretation, or you may wish to argue against them.
2. Use if possible the readings on the Bible’s ancient environment (October 1, 8) to assist you in describing the text’s natural setting. Also consider the relevance for your conclusions of the points of view represented in the essays on nature in the Bible assigned for September 17.
3. Incorporate into your study the analysis of your text in one scholarly commentary on the biblical book from which your text is taken.
You may of course include any other secondary material you wish, in addition to these sources, to illustrate or support your analysis.
Presentation
Your written exegesis must follow proper rules for research paper form as these are described in the McCormick Student Handbook on pp. 44-51. These rules are based on the sixth edition of Kate L Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, available in the bookstore. It must be accompanied by a bibliography of the secondary sources you have consulted.
For your oral presentation, you may consider using visual aids to save time and to make your presentation more informative and interesting: an annotated or marked text, illustrations, maps, a poster or powerpoint. Be creative.
Instructions for Final Project
The Basic Design
For this writing assignment, you are encouraged to design a project that fits your own particular interests and aims. The only essential requirement is that the project concern itself primarily with biblical perspectives on nature and values toward it.
One of the two following approaches may be adopted for your work. These options are not intended to be exclusive options. In fact, you will probably wish, even need, to consider elements of both in your work. They are intended rather to provoke your thought and to provide some general guidelines for your projects.
The Contemporary Ministry Option
You may wish to design a project in which you can explore the contemporary use of the Bible in environmental theology and ethics. For this kind of project you might wish to consider some of the following ideas.
A set of two or more sermons using biblical texts, from the lectionary or of you own choice, to develop environmental themes.
An evaluation of the use of the Bible in an existing religious education curriculum on the environment, or the writing of a new curriculum or Bible study series.
An evaluation of the use of the Bible in public statements made by your denomination on environmental responsibility.
An evaluation of the use of the Bible by a contemporary environmental theologican, ethicist, or popular writer.
A set of homiletical guidelines and liturgical prayers for one season of the liturgical year (e.g. Easter C, Advent A) emphasizing ecological themes.
A biblical and ethical rationale for a particular environmental action, such as making a church plant more ecologically friendly.
A biblical and ethical rationale for supporting a particular political and social policy, such as the clean air act.
The Historical Research Option
You may wish to do additional work on biblical attitudes toward nature by doing an extended study of a biblical text in which you are particularly interested and which we did not have the opportunity to deal with in class. Or you may want to pursue a theme on nature in the Bible (e.g. sacred space, the redemption of nature, agriculture, etc.) in greater detail. In such a study, you would devote your primary energies to uncovering the historical setting and attitudes of the Bible itself, but you could also reflect on the contemporary implications of these attitudes.

Presentation
Your writing must follow proper rules for research paper form as these are described in the McCormick Student Handbook on pp. 44-51. These rules are based on the sixth edition of Kate L Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, available in the bookstore. A bibliography of secondary sources consulted should accompany your paper.