THE SACRAMENT MICHAEL J.

HIMES &
KENNETH R. HIMES
OFCREATION
TOWARD AN ENVIRONMENTAL THEOLOGY

Source: Michael J. Himes and Kenneth R. Himes, “The Sacrament of Creation:

Toward an Environmental Theology,” Commonweal 117 (January 26, 1990): 42–49.

omething is in the air. Or is it in the water? A of Greek and Roman mythology who protected streams, moun-
sense of ecological crisis looms over our planet. tains, and forests. It is possible to see in this demythologizing
Interest in the environment is spreading. In a loss of reverence for nature. Christianity's contribution to the
Washington, Congress has been at odds with the problem--its celebration of the Incarnation--has promoted the
White House over how to make the next clean centrality of humanity in the plan of creation and redemption
air legislation tougher. And, lo and behold, officials in Los and accorded secondary status to the rest of creation.
Angeles have gotten so serious about air quality they have pro- With a bit of poetic license and some ingenuity a few indi-
posed a plan for cutting down pollution that could make car- viduals (Thomas Berry, Matthew Fox) have sought to re-present
pooling mandatory. the tradition and demonstrate a more sensible Christian attitude
When the leaders of the seven industrialized nations met in toward the created order. Some of this work has borne fruit,
Paris in the summer of 1989, their final communiqu6 gave evi- awakening among believers an interest in the environment and
dence of just how"mainstream" environmentalism has become. providing a degree of religious seriousness for addressing an
That the president of the United States supports such ecological issue that is more important and complex than the faddishness
high-mindedness should come as no surprise. Recall the last and trivialization which mass media politics inevitably encour-
presidential campaign when Messrs. Bush and Dukakis skir- ages.
mished over who deserved to be called the environmental can- Despite these efforts, it is lamentable but true that the question
didate. still can fairly be asked, "What does Christianity have to say
For many, of course the environment has never not been an
issue. Fetid garbage dumps, closed beaches, air you can see as
well as breathe, the extinction of whole species--the causes
for concern have long been with us. More recently interest has
arisen in developing a religious response to the ecological crisis.
Some have found the resources for such a theology and spirituality
in Eastern thought and practice. Others, like Joseph Sittler and
Ian Barbour, seek out elements of the Christian tradition for the
development of a "creation-centered" perspective.
At the same time a number of critics (Arnold Toynbee, Lynn
White) have argued that the Christian tradition is suspect on
the matter of the environment. They argue that Judaism and
Christianity have fed an anthropocentrism which, intentionally
or not, demeans the rest of creation as it exalts those who are
a "little less than the angels" (Psalm 8:5). Certainly Hebraic
monotheism declared that all others but Yahweh were "no-gods."
Included among those thus denied divine status were the deities

REV.MICHAELJ. HIMESis associate professor of theology at the

University of Notre Dame.
associate professor of moral
REV. KENNETH R. HIMES, O.EM., is
theology at Washington Theological Union in Silver Spring,
Maryland.

42: Commonweal
 to the contemporary ecological movement?" That it has some-
thing to say is important to assert, but what it has to say is not
primarily advice on public policy or clear moral judgments for
settling disputes about economic growth versus ecological pro-
tection. In this regard, the Christian tradition is, in the words L ike every myth of origin, the two Genesis stories
of Richard McCormick, "more a value raiser than a problem of the beginning of all things (Genesis I:1-2:4a
solver." and 2:4b-25) have been used to explain and justify
The values that Christianity points to in the cluster of issues the ways human beings relate to one another and
raised by the environmental crisis is humankind's essential relat- to the nonhuman world. As narratives of how things
edness to nature, an understanding of the created order that is came to be and depictions of how things were and presumably
precisely what is at stake here. Too often the discussion over ought to be, these creation stories have been elaborated into
the ecosystem turns on arguments from self-interest, even if cosmologies and theories of the soul and twisted into ideological
enlightened self-interest, a stance that we believe is fundamentally support for male-dominance and industrial exploitation.
flawed. The first of the two stories has been the basis of both the
Treating the environmental issue as primarily a calculation overlordship and stewardship images for the role of humanity
of long-term versus short-term interests maintains an attitude in the natural world. "Let us make the human being in our image
of instrumental rationality that is essentially part of the problem. and likeness .... God blessed them, saying to them, 'Be fertile
The Jewish and Christian understanding of creation, at least in and increase; fill the whole earth and subdue it; have dominion
one of its strands, is profoundly insightful and potentially trans- over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and all the living
formative of modem ways of addressing the crisis of creation. things that move on the earth'" (Gen. 1:26 and 28). Part of the
The needed transformation lies at the level of our deep con- human being's likeness to God is the exercise of dominion over
victions, our world view. The relational dimension of the Jewish- the rest of creation. The twin images of being given dominion
Christian heritage must replace the atomized individualism of and being commanded to subdue the earth and all the creatures
our current outlook. The mentality of consumerism, the myth which fill it are closely connected with sovereignty. God's
of progress, and our technological mind-set are all problematic sovereignty is asserted often in the Hebrew Scriptures. Here
in regard to the environment; they arealso symptomatic. Each the image and likeness of God, the human being, is entrusted
is the distortion of a human good, a distortion rising from the with sovereignty. From the perspective of the first creation myth
nonrelational anthropology of our age. If our environmental sen- in Genesis, without such dominion and power over the rest of
sitivity is to change, the transformation must take place at the creation, the human being would not be "like God."
root of the problem. But that transformation is more convoluted But there is a contrasting theme in this story. "And so God
than might first appear. created the human being in God's image; in the divine image
The human abuse of nonhuman nature has spurred a harsh did God create the human being, male and female did he create
reaction by defenders of the environment, who exhibit a brand them" (Gen. 1:27). How is it that being created in the image of
of ecological activism, and environmental romanticism, that bor- God results in the differentiation of male and female? Clearly
ders on the antihuman. Nature is idealized. The achievements the myth does not wish to attribute gender to God, much less
of human civilization are disparaged. The environmental roman- dual bisexuality. The point is not that God is male or female or
tic, however, mirrors the fundamental outlook of the technocrats. male and female, but that God is relational. The only God that
Both see humanity at odds with nature. In one case this leads the Hebrew tradition knows is the God who is about the business
to calls for more effective ways of manipulating, subduing, and of creating; that is, the Hebrew Scriptures contain nothing about
dominating nature. In the other, there is opposition to technology, God in se, God considered apart from the creating God. Even
economic growth, and development efforts. In both cases human- in one of its creation myths, the Hebrew tradition envisions God
ity is set in opposition to the rest of creation. Either alternative as the God of the covenant, God in relationship. To be the image
is unacceptable from a relational world view. To separate nature of this God, the human being must be relational. Humanity is
from human culture is environmental romanticism. To consider sexed in order that human beings may be driven into relationship
human culture apart from the nonhuman is to invite the impov- one with another.
erishment of the first and the devastation of the second. This is a central theme of the second of Genesis's creation
The Jewish and Christian traditions put before us a world myths (2:4b-25). The dominion motive is depicted in the first
view in which humanity is not against nature but a part of it. human being naming all the animals that God has made and
Neither element is rightly viewed in isolation. The exploration led before him "to see what he would call them" (Gen. 2:19).
of this relational anthropology is the basic contribution theolo- All other creatures will be what the human being says they
gians can make to the environmental movement. We can examine are--certainly an extraordinary statement of the power over cre-
the traditions to see which developments have been distortions, ation given by God to humanity. But the context of this conferral
which trajectories misguided, which insights forgotten. The con- is the human hunger for companionship. In the first of the creation
structive task is to illustrate how the resources of the Jewish myths, the first divine judgment on humanity is that it is "very
and Christian heritage can be used in promoting ecological wis- good" (Gen. 1:31). That judgment is made on humanity differ-
dom. entiated into male and female, relational being. The first judgment

26 January1990:43
 of the other's purposes. Martin Buber, so deeply rooted in the
biblical tradition, explored the meaning of companionship under
the rubric "I-Thou." The contrasting possibility is "I-It." The
reduction of "thou" to "it" results from making the other into
an extension of oneself. The other becomes mine--my husband,
my wife, my parent, my friend, my student, my boss. "It" can
be manipulated in order to fulfill the task which I set, for "it"
belongs to me. "It" has no intrinsic value, only the instrumental
value that I assign it. The other as "thou" cannot be possessed,
can never become my "thou." When recognized and respected
as "thou," the other is seen to be of inherent value, to be an end
and not a means to an end.
As a human being can be reduced to an "it," so a nonhuman
being can become "thou," in Buber's terms. "It" can be a pos-
session but not a companion. "Thou" is always a companion.
But in what sense, other than the mythology of the second creation
story in Genesis, can one speak of the nonhuman world as com-
panion to human beings? At a time of global ecological crisis,
we certainly do not need a revival of the nineteenth-century
Romantic poets' personification of Nature. Indeed, such per-
of God regarding human beings in the second myth makes this sonification is the very reverse of what Buber meant by treating
even more explicit. Having fashioned the human being from the nonhuman world as "thou," for instead of allowing the other
the clods of the earth and breathed the divine breath into him, to be what the other is, personification insists that the other must
God announces that "it is not good for the human being to be be what I am if I am to enter into any relationship with it. Such
alone" (Gen. 2:18). Again there is the insistence that human personification is another, more subtle way of reducing the non-
beings are meant to be in relationship to one another. Thus, in human other to "it."
this second creation story, companionship is the explicit ground
given for the creation of the two sexes. But it is important to
note not only human beings are intended for relationship to one
another. This is also the reason for the creation of "the various
wild beasts and birds of the air" (Gen. 2:19). The natural world
is not merely intended for subjugation by human beings but for he Catholic tradition offers two important symbols
companionship. that deserve to be explored as ways of re-appro-
Dominion over the earth and all that it contains, the command priating the biblical theme of companionship in
"to fill the whole earth and subdue it"--certainly this conveys creation: poverty and sacramentality.
power. Such a claim to power by human beings over all nonhuman In Book 9 of his Confessions, Augustine
creation contains the possibility, all too often realized, of dom- recounts an incident that took place shortly before the death
ination and exploitation of the earth. Clearly the claim to power of his mother, Monica, as they stayed at Ostia on their way
must be balanced by the call to responsibility, the traditional home to North Africa after his baptism in Milan. Seated at a
appeal to stewardship. The relationship between humanity and window overlooking the garden of their rented house, they spec-
the rest of creation has often been cast in the Jewish and Christian ulated on the life of the saints in glory. As Augustine describes
traditions as that of a caretaker, one charged by God with the their experience, they entered into a rapturous ecstasy in which
maintenance of the earth. The nonhuman world has been given they had a foretaste of that life. Passing through all the spheres
to human beings for our good, to be used responsibly for our of the sun, moon, planets, and stars of their Ptolemaic universe,
self-development, to answer to our purposes and thus to fulfill they came to the outermost limit of their own minds and tran-
God's purpose in creating it. To be sure, this stewardship image scended even that. All the heavenly spheres ceased their music,
prohibited wanton wastefulness, the mere exploitation of nature Augustine writes. Everything that exists by passing away, that
by humankind. The world is presented as a garden given into is, all creatures, since the mark of creatureliness is temporality,
our care to be tended and nurtured. But undeniably the role of fell silent after singing the song which they constantly sing:
stewardship carries the implication that nonhuman creation is "We did not make ourselves, but were made by God who is
to be used. forever" (Bk. 9:10, 25).
The theme of companionship, the relationship which exists Eight centuries later, Francis of Assisi grasped the two central
not only between human persons but between humans and non- elements of this Augustinian song of all creation. As with so
humans, has been largely submerged in the stewardship theme. many charismatic men and women, the historic Francis has been
We need to recover it. Companionship implies mutuality. It lost in popular mythology. But two themes of the Franciscan
excludes the reduction of either side of the relationship to a tool legend seem rooted in Francis himself: poverty and the unity

44: Commonweal
of all creatures. The singer of the Canticle of the Sun, who rec- was neither an act of human self-denigration nor an effusion
ognized the sun and moon, earth and air, fire and water, his own of poetic personification to address the sun and the moon, the
body, all animals and plants, and death itself as brothers and fire and the earth, and all animate and inanimate creatures as
sisters, also entered into a mystical marriage with Lady Poverty. his brothers and sisters; it was the simple truth.
This Franciscan emphasis, which finds its legendary expression The only reason for anything to exist is the free agape of
in Francis's preaching to the birds and the wolf of Gubbio, is God. The universe exists because God loves it and wills to give
grounded in one insight: all creatures are united in the depths God's self to it. Utterly dependent, creation is divinely gifted.
of their being by the fact of being creatures. Thus, to see creation as a whole or any creature in particular
The discovery of one's finiteness is the recognition of one's as what it is, namely, totally dependent on the gracious will of
poverty. When one grasps the "iffiness" of one's existence, the God, is to see revealed the grace which is its foundation in being.
shocking fact that the source and foundation of one's being is Since everything that is exists because of the free act of God--the
not in oneself, then one knows oneself as truly poor. To be poor overflowing agape that is the source of all being--then everything
in this fundamental sense is a definition, not a description. True is a sacrament of the goodness and creative power of God.
poverty, the poverty of the spirit, is the realization that there is
no intrinsic reason for one's being at all. In this fundamental he themes of creation and poverty intersect in the
poverty of creatureliness, there is equality. The human person Catholic vision of sacramentality. A sacrament
has no more claim to intrinsic being than a plant or animal, a is not a stand-in for something else, a visible sign
star or a stone. This is not in any way to deny the unique role for some other invisible reality. The essence of
which the human person plays in the divine economy. Indeed, a sacrament is the capacity to reveal grace, the
in light of the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation, that role is agapic self-gift of God, by being what it is. By being thoroughly
one of extraordinary dignity. But the role given to humanity is itself, a sacrament bodies forth the absolute self-donative love
as sovereignly the gift of God as is the role of every other creature. of God that undergirds both it and the entirety of creation. The
The human person is the point in creation to which the fullness Catholic community has recognized seven particular events as
of the self-gift of God can be given. But the human person has being revelatory of grace. But every creature, human and non-
been created as such. human, animate and inanimate, can be a sacrament. The more
The doctrine of creatio ex nihilo is not a claim about how richly developed our sacramental vision, the more sacraments
the universe came into being, but why. It is the Christian response crowd in upon us. Francis of Assisi's interweaving of poverty
to the question that Martin Heidegger held was the beginning with the brotherhood and sisterhood of all creatures is profoundly
of all metaphysics: why is there being rather than nothing? If Catholic because it is profoundly sacramental.
the question seeks a reason within being itself, it is doomed to This sacramental vision is by no means limited to the Roman
remain unanswered. The doctrine ofcreatio ex nihilo insists on Catholic church. When Jonathan Edwards described the marks
the fundamental poverty of the universe: the universe has no of true conversion in his great Treatise on Religious Affections,
intrinsic ground for existence. When all else has been said, when he gave as the first mark of such affections that they "do arise
the heavenly spheres fall silent, Augustine knew, the great truth from those influences and operations on the heart which are
that must be proclaimed is that we--all of us individually and spiritual, supernatural, and divine." In explanation of this first
t o g e t h e r i d i d not make ourselves. And so Francis saw that it mark of the converted, Edwards wrote that "in those gracious
affections and exercises which are wrought in the minds of the
saints, through the saving influences of the Spirit of God, there
is a new inward perception or sensation of their minds, entirely
different in its nature and kind, from anything that ever their
minds were the subjects of before they were sanctified." The
saints, to use Edwards's term, see reality differently from the
unconverted. They do not see things that others do not see; rather,
they see what everyone else sees but in a different way. They
see everything in its relation to God: they see it as creature.
Edwards's "new inward perception or sensation" is the ability
to hear the song of all creation that Augustine and Monica heard,
to see the community of all creatures as creatures that Francis
saw. At the risk of"catholicizing" the great eighteenth--century
Calvinist, one way of describing this "new inward perception"
of the Edwardsean saint is the capacity for sacramental vision.
The cultivation of sacramental vision is the richest way of
recovering the companionship motif of the Genesis stories that
the Christian tradition has to offer in the current global ecological
crisis. The discovery that every creature, including oneself, is
a sacrament of the love of God that causes all things to be provides

26 January 1990:45
the deepest foundation for reverencing creation. The recognition. and the environment.Theologically, stewardship has beenopen
of the other as a creature and, therefore; that which exists because to a deist interpretation whereby God is seen as having begun
it is loved by God cannot occur where the other is regarded as creation and then handed over care of it to humanity. When the
"it." By its nature a sacrament requires that it be appreciated 9image of stewardship dominates our imagination, God can be
for what it is and not as a tool to an end; in Buber's terms, a removed from the scene as human beings are given oversight
sacrament is always "thou." Since every creature can and should of the earth and move to center stage in the drama of creation.
be a sacrament, so every creature can and should be "thou," a Too easily the duty of caring for God's world becomes the task
companion. But this sacramental vision demands unflinching of shaping our world. Just as stewards are not anxious for the
recognition of the poverty of one's own being--for many too master's presence lurking over their shoulder, so humanity is
terrible to be true--and joyful acceptance of the absolute agape content to keep God in a distant heaven.
that supports one's own being--for many too good to be true:
This requires the expansion of the imagination. ompanionship evokes a different attitude toward
Paul Ricoeur. has written that "we too often and too quickly creation. This difference in attitude will be reflect-
think of a will that submits and not enough of an imagination ed in an environmental ethic grounded on a rela-
that opens itself." Seeing the world sacramentally cannot simply tional anthropology. Such an ethic does not spring
be commanded. However necessary it may be for the survival full-blown from the companionship theme. The
of the planet in our time, sacramental vision cannot be made a movement from an over-arching frame of mind to an ethical
moral imperative. It might better be understood as a Christian method is more complex. What the companionship motif provides
aesthetic that needs cultivation. The whole of Catholic praxis is an orientation that should guide us in devising an environmental
is training in sacramental vision.Liturgy and social action, mar- ethic.
riage and parenthood, prayer and politics, music and dance and The first point of orientation that the companionship motif
the visual arts, all educate us to appreciate the other as sacramental, provides is the desirability of a transformed context within which
worthy companions of our poverty and our engracedness. They to develop an environmental ethic. Governed by images of stew-
teach us to see things as they are. In Gerard Manley Hopkins's ardship and ruled by precepts based on self-interest, our moral
words, "These things, these things were here, and but the behold- imaginations are unable to envision an environmental ethic that
er/Wanting." At present, "beholders" are desperately wanted. is adequate, to the Jewish and Christian heritage. In contrast,
images of companionship encourage the moral imagination to
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::5:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::~:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::~:i:~:~ consider that more than the good of the individual self is at stake.
:.......
:::::::iiii
::::.......
::::::...................
::: iiiiiiii:::??::::::::::::::::::::::::
:??:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
................. iii:::::::%i~iiiiiii::i!::!::i:::::r :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
I : .i:ii :::..........
::::::::::i:i:i:i:i:i
:::::::: Once the intrinsic good of creation is seen, then approaches to
the environmental crisis that treat creation only as an instrumental
good for humanity become inadequate.
I f the ecological crisis is to be addressed effectively, the Basic to any ethic is a determination of the moral standing
ethic of individualism must be replaced with an ethic of the "other" one encounters. The reduction of creation to "it"
of companionship. Both creation myths in 9 agree has promoted a loss of respect for nature and an attitude of instru-
9 in their depiction of the human capacity for relationship mental rationality. Doing justice to the environment becomes
as that which makes humanity "like God." The exaltation difficult when the context of decision making is so one-sided.
of the individual at the expense of the community, which in its Rediscovering the "thou" dimension of all creation provides a
crudest form becomes the "trickle-down" theory of social respon- corrective to the tendency to relate to nature only as "it" by
sibility, stands in contradiction to this foundational insight of moving beyond the technological vision of instrumental ration-
the Jewish and Christian traditions. Not surprisingly, this indi- ality to a reawakened sacramental vision of companionship. So
vidualist ethic has debased the image of stewardship from par- fundamental a reorientation alters the context for assessing our
ticipation in the creative activity of God into cost-benefit analysis. responsibility toward the environment.
While it is important to attempt to reassert the stewardship motif The context of mutuality created by an awareness of both
in its pristine form, it is also necessary to strike at the heart of the poverty and the sacramentality of all the created order should
the problem, to confront impoverished and impoverishing indi- yield an ethic less prone to denigrate the intrinsic worth of non-
vidualism with the relational anthropology of the Jewish and human creation. The poverty of the entire created order forces
Christian traditions. The crisis of the environment is directly us to acknowledge our ties with the rest of creation in its depen-
linked to the problem of humanization. For unless nonhuman dence upon the creator. At the same time the sacramentality of
beings are treated as "thou," human beings will be treated as all creation prevents any debasement of our common creaturely
"it." This is why the appeal to self-interest cannot yield sufficient state. Our poverty as creatures and our dignity as sacramental
support in responding to theglobal environmental crisis. Such mediations of divine grace must be held in tension as twin aspects
an appeal merely reinforces the basic problem. Far more adequate of our organic connection with all creation.
and far more faithful to the Christian tradition is the reappro- The second point of orientation for an environmental ethic
priation of the companionship motif of the biblical creation stories. is an expanded notion of the common good that includes non-
The religious discussion of human responsibility toward cre- human creation. The common good, in John XXIII's classic
ation must move beyond stewardship for the sake of both theology phrase in Mater et magistra, embraces "the sum total.of those

46: Commonweal
 for John's espousal of a common good that transcended national
boundaries. In the same encyclical John noted that the "whole
reason for the existence of civil authorities is the realization of
the common good." The difficulty was that existing political
institutions "no longer correspond to the objective requirements
of the universal common good." Subsequent popes have con-
tinued John's move from a national to an intemational to a transna-
tional plane when analyzing social questions.
Issues that touch upon the universal common good--and the
environment is one of these--go beyond the competence of indi-
vidual nation-states. It is necessary to develop vehicles that protect
the well-being of the global environment. An international agree-
ment like the Law of the Sea Treaty serves as an illustration of
the kind of structure that the papacy advocates for the sake of
the universal common good. In contrast, the tendency to define
narrowly the self-interest of a nation--as the Reagan adminis-
tration did in opposing the Law of the Sea Treaty or as Japan
has done in resisting fishing and whaling treaties--remains a
major obstacle to building effective vehicles for the universal
common good.
conditions of social living whereby people are enabled to achieve The language of the common good challenges political arrange-
their own integral perfection more fully and easily." As a way ments not only at the level of transnational issues. Ours is a
of elaborating what those "conditions of social living" entail, nation that has prized individual liberty and has a strong attraction
John went on to list an extensive roster of human rights. Both to free market economics. But we cannot avoid asking what
Paul VI and John Paul II have continued to use the language social mechanisms on a national level must be devised so that
of human rights when discussing the common good. Theologian the varied activities of citizens are directed to the common good,
David Hollenbach suggests that the use of human rights in recent understood as including the good of creation. Romantic calls
Catholic social teaching is a way of specifying the essential needs, for simpler lifestyles or ideological reliance on purely voluntary
basic freedoms, and relationships with others that comprise the measures are simply insufficient. Debate on the specific nature
common good and serve human dignity. In this essay we have of these necessary mechanisms requires political leadership
suggested a perspective that sees the created order as an "other" notably lacking at all levels of government.
with whom we have a relationship and that this relationship is
part of the common good. Protecting that relationship with non- o proposed environmental ethic can avoid con-
human creation is properly one of the aims of human rights. fronting the pressing question of the relationship
Various addresses of Pius XII are also important resources between ecology and economic development.
for social ethics. So, for example, while not denying the right Are ecological concerns to be traded off for the
to private property, Pius made it clear that property rights are creation of jobs in poor areas? Or vice-versa?
not primary but secondary. Private property is always subordinate Is industrialization to be discouraged in nations with undeveloped
to the more fundamental right of all people to the goods of the economies for the sake of preserving certain animal and plant
earth. This reiteration of the priority to be given to the universal species? The common good cannot be a mere abstraction which
destiny of goods contains the germ of an important insight. Pius prescinds from specific social and historical conditions. Building
saw the relationship of humanity to the earth and the rest of its a shared understanding on the matter of the common good and
inhabitants as basic to the common good. There is no need to the place accorded to the environment among other goods is a
protect the environment by ascribing rights to nature or individual crucial enterprise for true development.
animal species. It is humanity's fundamental human right to In Redemptor hominis John Paul II opposes a false develop-
share in the goods of the earth that is at stake in the ecological ment that is "dilapidating at an accelerated pace material and
issue. Setting this human right in the context of companionship energy resources, and compromising the geophysical environ-
is necessary, however, to prevent the human right to the universal ment .... "This critique of forms of development that ignore the
destiny of the goods of creation from being interpreted according earth's ecosystem echoes an earlier position articulated by many
to a narrow mind-set of instrumental rationality. third-world hierarchies. At the 1971 Synod the bishops stated
The third point of orientation for an environmental ethic con- that "such is the demand for resources and energy by the richer
ceres the means whereby an expanded notion of the common nations, whether capitalist or socialist, and such are the effects
good can be safeguarded and promoted. Here too the tradition of dumping by them in the atmosphere and the sea that irreparable
of Catholic social thought has something to offer. In Pacem in damage would be done to the essential elements of life on earth,
terris John XXIII drew attention to the existence of the "universal such as air and water, if their high rates of consumption and
common good." The unity of the human family was the basis pollution, which are constantly on the increase, were extended

26 January 1990:47
 to the whole of mankind."
Donal Dorr has suggested that the episcopal view helps explain
the use of the strong language about exploitation that is found
in many third-world pronouncements about the international
economic system. For too long the presumption was that the
task was to "raise" poorer nations to the level of production
and consumption found in richer countries. The 1971 Synod
pointed out, however, that such a view, whatever other failings
it has, ignores the abuse of the environment that has accompanied
development based on the first-world model. This development
has come at the price of exploitation, directly the exploitation
of the earth.
An indirect form of exploitation is the overuse of the universal
goods of the earth for the benefit of a few, penalizing people
in nations where economic development was slow in occurring.
The earth cannot sustain everyone at the level of consumption
found in the first-world. The first nations to undergo modern
industrialization have used more than their fair share of the earth's
resources. Nations seeking economic development now must
compensate for the abuses of those who benefited from earlier
exploitation of the earth. According to third-world leaders, the
limits now proposed on development constitute an exploitation
of poor nations. No consensus yet exists on how to reconcile
ecological concerns and developmental needs, but some headway
in resolving them is a sine qua non if the environmental movement
is to make progress.

n attitudinal shift is foundational for dealing

with the environmental crisis, and theology
has a leading role to play in this endeavor.
The main contribution of the church in the
ecological crisis should be to foster a correct
attitude toward all of God's creation. The motif of compan-
ionship is an important initial stage for establishing the imper-
ative of a new way of relating to the created order. Without
that starting point, the problems of developing a politics and
economics cognizant of the ecological common good will be
multiplied.
There is the danger that the language of companionship could
be understood as simply fostering romantic forms of opposition
to technology. But a simplistic "back to nature" movement
fomenting broad opposition to technology is a distortion of a
proper theology of creation. Technology is an outgrowth of our
own human nature as creative beings. Unless we do violence
to ourselves, technology will continue. What is needed is the
wisdom to direct the process of technological change, not to
stop it. The primacy of ethics and politics over technology must
be asserted. First, we must assess the human goods that tech-
nology must serve. Second, the political process is the arena
in which many of the moral choices will be worked through
and implemented. Effective political action must follow careful
ethical reflection. To fail in either of these realms is to permit

48: Commonweal
technology to slip beyond human direction. In order to guide for a criterion of sustainable efficiency strikes an important note
change there must be a sense of the goods that are to be sought for future decision making.
and an appreciation of the ranking of goods that may conflict. In addition, the criterion of social justice cannot be lost in
Only then can we know what goods technology must serve, the struggle for ecological responsibility. A simple disavowal
what policy choices are to be made, at what price, and what of economic growth may perpetuate injustice to humans in the
institutional arrangements are required for implementation. From name of nonhumans. Ecology has to do with the relationship
the outset, however, the scale of goods will be skewed unless of organisms to the total environment, including other organisms
humanity's relations with nature include an awareness of the of the same or different species. Ecological balance has unques-
"thou-ness" of creation. tionably been lost in the way that human beings have treated
Although, we believe, the retrieval of the companionship theme nonhuman nature. Righting the imbalance, however, cannot entail
and a deepened commitment to the common good tradition are injustice to fellow human beings for the sake of other species.
required criteria for the development of an environmental ethic, Poorer nations will not be willing to forego economic devel-
other criteria are also essential. The Jewish and Christian under- opment at the behest of wealthier nations, who have belatedly
standing of creation should not be wedded to any economic ide- seen the results of their own assaults on nature in the quest for
ology. Neither capitalism nor socialism in their historical real- more and more expansion. To avoid a new imbalance, an envi-
izations differs in the way they view creation and humanity's ronmental ethic must be informed by a careful analysis of the
relation to it. Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx had a strong demands of economic justice.
bias toward instrumental rationality. At the same time, neither Justice in economic development, economic growth premised
system should be dismissed as inevitably inhospitable to envi- on sustainable efficiency, and a heightened role for the envi-
ronmental concerns. Whether or not a sacramental vision of ronment in our understanding of the common good are three
creation can take root in either approach remains to be seen. In vital elements in any environmental ethic. But seeing the world
both systems what must be addressed is the proper balance rightly precedes our ability to act wisely and justly. The first
between the environment and economic development. Here the task before us, that which theology can assist, is to revision all
magisterium's theme of true development is a reminder that eco- beings as united in their createdness, given to one another as
nomic growth must be based on a model that is ecologically companions, sacraments of "the love that moves the sun and
sustainable. In this regard the World Council of Churches' call other stars." []

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