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Abstracts of CGST JOURNAL Issue No.26 Jan 1999

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CGST JOURNAL No. 26 (in Chinese)

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The Root of Our Ecological Crisis
(An abstract)
Carver T. Yu
Vice President, China Graduate School of Theology

        Anthropocentrism has been recognized as the root of our ecological crisis. What then is the ontological root of our anthropocentrism? Lynn White, Jr. and Arnold Toynbee point their fingers at Christianity as the source of the problem. The Creation story in the Bible, they maintain, provides a perception of man which gives shape to a culture oriented to the conquest of nature. Many environmentalists take in such an interpretation of history to the detriment of their cause. They are misled to look in the wrong direction. The real source of the problem is the cultural project in the West engendered by the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment portraits man as the ego-subject endowed with rationality and absolute freedom. Man as subject is free to subject the world, even to the extent of reducing it into a figment of his/her consciousness. Narcissism of the self is the hallmark of modern culture. The ideal of individual freedom and scientistic rationality coincides with the process of radical secularization which desacralizes nature as well as the development of a malignant type of capitalism which uproots the sense of covenantal commitment intrinsic to human existence. This radically secularized form of capitalism which pushes for economic development at all costs is indeed the root of our ecological crisis.

Imago Dei and Dominium Terrae
(An abstract)

Stephen Lee
Dean, China Graduate School of Theology

        Psalm 8 and Genesis 1 do not propose a theology legitimatizing human domination over the created world. Both texts, if interpreted according to their literary structure, emphasize human involvement in God's battle against the power of evil. The dual concepts of Imago Dei and Dominium Terrae must be understood as to suggest the shift of battleground from the cosmos to the arena of human life.

Towards an Ecological Theology: Nature and the Self
(An abstract)

Samuel Sung-Him Ho
Assistant Professor, China Graduate School of Theology

        The times in which we live are characterized by both a moral and a spiritual decline. Yet, it has been the ecological moral decline that grasps theologians¡¦ attention. An environmental crisis has become a new kind of crisis related to nature, and it has made a great impact on our existence. The present essay considers nature a theological fundamentum. We believe that nature can give us perspectives that deepen our understanding of the relationship between God and man.

        "Nature" is often taken by theologians as a negative concept in opposition to grace, art, eternity, history and revelation. "Nature" has also been associated with evil power and temptation all along the history of Christianity. It has become the core of Christian spirituality to restrain the unspiritual parts of the material world¡Xbody and sensuality. We seem to be satisfied with a detached relationship between "nature" and our real "self."

        There are two prevailing attitudes towards nature, namely, indifference and indulgence. Those who are indifferent tend to view the world as an object of manipulation. Such an attitude signifies an intensification of the idolization of human subjectivity: human beings become the absolute subject and owner of the world. On the other hand, those who radically protect the nature may also idolize nature as deity. Extreme "Green advocators," for instance, act as if they pay homage to nature, offering time and energy at all costs.

        Different theological systems foster different philosophies of nature. Those who believe in "panentheism" hold that God did not create ex nihilo but created out of Himself. Thereafter, nature is considered a part of God's body. Such an outlook would encourage the idolization of nature. Here we accept Augustine's point that God is diffused through the universe, ruling and containing all things, effortlessly and without labor, but we insist that nature does not contain God or has the power to assist God in creation.

        We, human beings, are created co-creators entrusted by God with the responsibility to carry on God's providential creation. In this view, there is a close relation between the character formation of man and his spiritual experience in nature. "Natural place / space" is the house of our "being." We know that most of our human existence are spatially defined, and the world is transparent to the goodness and the wisdom of God's sustaining creativity.

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CGST JOURNAL No. 26 (in Chinese)

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Economic Growth and Environmental Protection
(An abstract)

Kin-yip Louie
Ph.D. Candidate, Westminster Theological Seminary

        Economic growth often conflicts with the interest of environment protection because economic benefits always come along with pollutants. Just as well known, factories in capitalist and even socialist countries constantly emit chemicals which are harmful to life, whether human or of plants and animals.

        Protecting the environment in the production process requires a thorough evaluation of the price paid in terms of ecological damages. Emitted pollutants contribute to the production process on the one hand and furnish ecological danger on the other. A balance between the two has to be kept in view. Emission of pollutants is often excessive because the polluting firms are not obliged to pay for the cost of neutralizing the damage. The enforcement of government control over production methods and the imposition of tax or allotment of quota on the emission of pollutants are some possible measures to keep the balance, yet they all have undesirable economic or political side effects.

        Economic growth may also injure ecology by consuming natural resources in the production of goods and services, although the theory on the problem and its empirical evidences are both ambiguous.

Animal Rights
(An abstract)

Wilson Lee
Ph.D. Candidate, Kiel University, Germany

        This paper deals with the issue of animal rights as an ecological problem. The actual problem behind this issue is the anthropocentrism which is itself a central topic in both theological and philosophical debates on ecology.

        The first part of this paper is a retrospect of the historical development of anthropocentrical thinking. This thinking can be found in the Greek philosopher Protagoras, in the Latin church fathers Augustin and Aquinas, and most of all in the philosophers Descartes and Bacon.

        The second part is a reflexion on the nature of anthropocentrism. It has been argued that men will survive only if they give up their anthropocentrical understanding of nature. However, this kind of argument is itself anthropocentric, for it is "men" who want to survive. This tautological argument suggests that to a certain extent the anthropocentrical point of view is inevitable. Here we accept that ethics has to be anthropocentric but we argue that it should not be turned into an absolute anthropocentrism and that a moderate anthropocentrism should be maintained.

        The third part concerns the rights of nature. We try to clarify the verbal meaning of "rights" and differentiate it from the rights of human beings. It is shown here that nature-rights is more a kind of ethical rights than forensic rights: it is not the rights which the nature intrinsically has, but, rather, the rights granted by men.

        On the basis of this terminological clarification we discuss in the fourth part the two main arguments for animal rights: that animals possess life and that they can feel pains. These statements reveal important aspects of animal rights, but they, in themselves, are not the basic principles of animal rights.

        In the last part we report on theological debates on the subject, i.e., relevant issues and opposing viewpoints. We are not settling the issue here because that would require a thorough treatment of the doctrine of creation which will go beyond our scope here.

Ecology and the Church: A Retrospectus of a Taiwanese Experience
(An abstract)

Nancy C. M. Chen
Lecturer, Chung-Yuan Christian University

        There are endless stories of ecological and environmental crisis behind Taiwan's economic miracle ¡V deforestation, widespread industrial pollution, and a potential Taiwanese Chernobyl. This devastation has led to the emergence of an increasingly successful grass-roots environmental movement challenging the technocratic and undemocratic policies of Taiwan's ruling elite. But for the most part, the Church has remained silent.

        It was in view of the Church's silence that the author began her journey in studying the theology of nature and its implementation. Her handbook on Good Stewardship for the Environmentalists, originally designed for the adult Sunday School class, successfully drew the attention of some churches to the critical conditions of the environment. Then, the Taiwan Christian Ecological Centre was set up in early 1992, with the aim of promoting holistic Christian education on environmental issues. Many young Christian volunteers joined the author's company as co-workers. The Centre was legally registered as a civil organization in June 1998. Since then, materials had been published and teachers¡¦ training and educational activities had been carried out. Their efforts were not in vain. The churches in general have become awakened with a growing concern for ecology. Among those who responded to the call, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan was the most active.

        By now the environmental movement in Taiwan has gone beyond the stage of striving for the prevention of pollution and the preservation of natural resources. If the movement is to progress further to touch the deeper realities of life, a re-creation of the culture is necessary. Such a re-creation, according to the author, has to be mobilized and guided by ongoing theological reflection. With this challenge in mind, the author and her co-workers are determined to serve this generation by working on: 1) the study on land ethics; 2) the pursuit of eco-justice; and 3) the practice of simple life.

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CGST JOURNAL No. 26 (in Chinese)

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Last Modified:  April 16, 1999.