Look to Indigenous peoples to revive true biblical ecology

The land takes care of us. Will we take care of her?

Many people are out in their gardens this time of year, hands deep in the soil, working together with the Earth to bring forth vegetation. The idea of humans as cocreators with God has gained traction in recent years as we work to better understand the interrelatedness of the created world—spiritually and scientifically. Less common is an understanding of the Earth itself as cocreator with God, an idea presented directly from the creation accounts in the Book of Genesis.

This is certainly not how many people think about Christianity’s relationship with the Earth. The most dominant perspective may be that of Lynn White’s influential 1967 article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.” For White, Christianity introduced the idea that humanity is not part of creation but above it, both justifying and legitimating any kind of exploitation of the Earth.

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