ENVIRONMENT

Strictly speaking, human beings do not live in an environment – they live in a world. Animals and plants, which behave more mechanically than human beings, mostly respond to stimuli in their environment. The human world, however, contains not only physical processes and causes but meaning, value, freedom, knowledge and choice of right and wrong, emotion, spirit, and the providence and presence of God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church classifies some of its teaching on the environment under the term “world,” but most of it appears under the even more fully Christian category “creation.” The Christian concept of creation supports some contemporary concerns about the environment but repudiates others.
Since God is the author of creation, Christians believe this world is good. Some modern theologians, concerned about environmental degradation, have popularized the notion of an “original blessing” that preceded original sin. Insofar as this idea reflects the fact of God’s act of creation, it is true. But it does not go very far in telling us how to act. Christians also believe that both human beings and the creation are now radically fallen. Thus, not only is evil present within each person individually and in human society generally, but, as St. Paul says, creation itself is waiting for the future glory and “will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Rom 8:21). For Christians, then, nature is an imperfect elder sister to be cherished and cooperated with, not a master to be obeyed.

Christian and Non-Christian Views • This is the sharpest dividing line that separates Christian from non-Christian views of the environment. Contemporary non-Christian environmentalism usually regards nature as a benign and balanced interplay of forces and species. In fact, as everyone living without the benefits of modern technologies has experienced, nature can also be quite brutal and unbalanced. “Natural” processes have made whole species, such as the dinosaurs, extinct. Animals from locusts to elephants can devastate entire regions. According to some modern theories, volcanic eruptions caused global famines at different times in human history, and these affected population, migration, and even politics. If the world is thought of as only a play of material forces, it is neither good nor stable.

Christians begin from a different starting point. In Genesis, we learn that the creation itself is a revelation of the glory of God. Creation is “the beginning and the foundation of all God’s works” (CCC 198) and is “inseparable from the revelations and forging of the covenant of the one God with his People” (CCC 288). The order of creation and God’s providence over the world, despite the Fall, tell us some important truths about how to live: We may not regard the world itself as God, or as an evil limit on us, or as a realm to be fled, or as a mechanism created by God but left to go on functioning blindly by itself. God appears both in and beyond nature. We have responsibilities to foster the good of this world; we were set by God as stewards over his creation (cf. Gn 1:28; Lk 12:41-48).

For some extreme forms of contemporary environmentalism, the very idea that human beings have been set “over” creation is an expression of hubris that has led historically to the destruction of nature. In this view, man is just another species and has an obligation to maintain the world in the condition in which he finds it. This does not fully accord with the vision revealed in the Bible. While there is an interdependence of creatures (cf. CCC 340) and the beauty of the world reminds us of the “infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission of man’s intellect and will” (CCC 341), Genesis reflects a hierarchy, with man at the summit as a steward.

In addition, human beings are valued above other parts of creation. Jesus himself reminds his Apostles not to worry because God even watches over sparrows (cf. Mt 6:26; Lk 12:24). Having been created in the image and likeness of God, man may know and choose to foster the created order. No other creature has those powers. Man also has responsibilities that correspond to his position. He must use the goods of the earth for the common good of all, but he has the right, and even the duty, to use minerals, plants, and animals productively for his food, clothing, and other needs (cf. CCC 2457).

Respect for Creation • Man’s respect for creation should include not just its present configuration but its creative dynamism. As we now know, the creation continually adds new forms of life, even as others disappear. The higher animals have slowly evolved from lower forms that millions of years ago gave no indications of where creation was heading. Creation, like the Creator and man himself, is creative.
Human beings will wish to preserve all the diversity and purity of the environment they possibly can, but they cannot entirely restrain the natural creativity of nature, including their own nature. We should not lock ourselves and our descendants into one type of technology, economics, or lifestyle. In fact, technologies seem to be growing less physically damaging to nature as their quality and power improve. Understanding nature and using such powers for the common good will call for a creative application of human will and intellect.

That wisdom includes concern for the future. One of the distinctive teachings of the Catholic Church is that the generations are bound to one another. Human technology has brought great benefits to the present age and will doubtless bring even more to future ones. But the present generation has no right to enrich itself at the expense of those who will come after. Unjust appropriation of and damage to natural resources that leave nothing for the future is a form of theft from God’s bequest to our descendants and contradicts the seventh commandment (cf. CCC 2456). No one may, for example, overfish or pollute the oceans, with the excuse that future generations will have the ingenuity to discover alternative forms of food. Discerning our obligation toward future generations is not simple, but it cannot be ignored.

The human race has been passing through an era of rapid change in which some forms of technology and industry have and will continue to harm the physical, emotional, and spiritual environment. Other forms have emerged that promise to be compatible with a fuller respect for all life. Our awareness of the promise and dangers, including moral dangers, of human technical mastery of the environment has grown quickly. In earlier ages, the human race struggled to wrest what it needed from the earth’s resources. Today, we can provide enough food, clothing, and shelter for everyone, but must learn to do so with a fuller awareness of the effects on air, water, land, plants, and animals – the totality of creation.

See: Animals; Creation; Evolution; Population; Science and the Church; Stealing; Stewardship; Universal Destination of Goods.
Suggested Readings: CCC 282-295, 299, 325-327, 337-344, 373, 2415-2418, 2456. John Paul II, The Hundredth Year, Centesimus Annus, 37-38. R. Guardini, Letters from Lake Como on Technology and the Human Race. R. Charles, The Social Vision of Vatican II, pp. 343-350.

Robert Royal




Russell Shaw. Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine. Copyright © 1997, Our Sunday Visitor.

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Last Updated: Sunday, April 01, 2001 01:25:11 PM