Climate Change and the Question of God

Climate change demands that we turn our eyes to the world, to space and place, to the concrete, to asking questions about how to live within the particularities and limitations of planet earth rather than speculating about why we are here. Should religions be more concerned to learn where we are, what the world is like, and where we fit into it, rather than focusing mainly on the "why" questions? For instance, on the matter of creation and providence, is it a question of why, when, and how the world was created that is critical or is it rather discovering the nature, potential, and limitations of our neighborhood, where we live? Is talk about creation and providence concerned with intellectual questions of why things are the way they are or is it about how we should live in harmony with all the rest of creation? Christianity has traditionally been focused on the "why" questions rather than turning our eyes to the beauty, concrete details, processes, and uniqueness of our home, planet earth. In Christian theology, creation and providence have often been more about God and God's power -- evidence that God is in charge -- than about human beings living in and caring for the neighborhood in which we have been set down. The "why" and "where" questions are of course interlinked -- we will always wonder about the mystery of why we are where we are -- but it may be necessary, given climate change, for Christian theology to pay more attention to the wonderful, fragile, complex -- as well as breathtakingly beautiful and violent -- world that we actually inhabit.

The traditional creation-providence story in Christian history has underscored God's power more than divine love, God's transcendence more than divine immanence, and God's distance from the world rather than involvement in it. This need not, should not, be the case: an interpretation of the God-world relationship based on the belief that God is incarnate in the world implies re-thinking the issues of creation and providence in light of the world as internally related to God -- the world as within God or the world as God's "body" -- rather than externally related as an artist is to his or her production. Our doctrines of creation and providence do not stand alone: they are offshoots of our deepest beliefs about the nature of God's relation to the world. If this belief is that God and the world are wholly other, creation and providence will be seen in that light; if this belief is that God and the world are intrinsically intimate, creation and providence will be understood from within that perspective. An incarnational context for understanding the God-world relationship has implications for our response to climate change. It means that God and we are in the same place and that we share responsibility for the world.

Sallie McFague teaches theology at the Vancouver School of Theology and is Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Her recent books include Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril and A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming.

McFague, Sallie. 2010. Climate Change and the Question of God. Tikkun 25(2):53 http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/mar2010mcfague