The Green Face of God

The Green Face of God Christianity has long structures of the natural world with sacred meaning. Every day, material existence? Food and beverage, life and death, man and animals, earth and sky? It is recalled in countless stories and rituals, as the primary means through which God relates to humanity and the earth broader community.Christianity? s central ritual is a group dinner, remember that saving death of Jesus, to celebrate the gift of creation? Eating bread and drinking wine. The central symbol is a wooden cross? two wood fixed together as the means and the site of Jesus? Crucifixion. The central belief focuses on the body? namely, that in Jesus God became incaate, and thus to a mortal, breathing life form, the experiences of life? s suffering.And joy and Christianity? Primary sacred document, the Bible, is rich in organic images that emerged from the cosmic potter shaping the first man from the dust on the tree of life brings its fruits to the ground? s inhabitants. Christianity, then? Deep green? o? earth? Religion, because it binds God created to highlight the values and the natural world as a saint of God in the river place.In hand, suppose that the question of Christianity? earth s identity through a nature-based recovery of the Holy Spirit as the green face of God in the world. The Holy Spirit has revealed in biblical literature, as natural, earthly beings, work for humans and other human beings? Solidarity with one another. The natural world? the place of God, as they were? is best, as the main mode of God? Presence in our midst today.Without acute spiritual bond with the earth as the Church of God enfleshment? Presence, it is difficult for Christians and other people of faith, to develop long-term and sustainable relations with the creation of God is good. A partial tu of the appreciation of nature as sacred ground in post-Vatican II papal encyclicals and bishops? pastoral, if the order is understood as a sacrament creates a flat spot of the goodness of God but a residual risk anthropocentric prejudice in contemporary Catholic thought? namely, that the purpose of creation is human flourishing? prevented a tour biocentric holiness or sacred value to the sale created the earth order.In theology suggest Christianity? s? Nature religions? The identity is awakened by the old ideas of the incaation and the Spirit? The Bible teaches that God is beyond all things, God is radically enfleshed in all things. In addition to a deep green reawakening of Christianity? S central teachings, it is impossible to make a spiritual connection to the earth load which is our common home and common destiny. Without this context, the prospects of saving the planet, and thus save us, not the good.It? S element, dearWhile my Christianity? S original identity and essential nature of the body-centered love, this thesis has always been at odds with a residual maturity of Platonic tendency within Christian theology to emphasize the spirit or higher or as a matter of authority. But rather as a priority of the spiritual on the ground, writing numbers, the Holy Spirit as a caal, creatures always in the form of life already interpenetrated by the material world. In fact, the Bible with paintings of the Holy Spirit to borrow directly from the natural world. The four traditional elements of nature, life incaate? Earth, air, water and fire? are constitutive of the Holy Spirit? s biblical reality enfleshed care, minister of God? s creation.As earth, the Holy Spirit is the divine bird with an olive branch in its beak, peace and renewal to a broken world, and fruit holder? such as a tree or vine? Yields, the virtues of love, joy and peace in the lives of students. Like a bird or a tree in bloom, the Holy Spirit is a living beings who share a common physical reality with all other beings. Away from that? Immaterial substance? by the canonical theological lexicon, the Holy Spirit is thought of in the Bible as a material, land form of life that God gives? s for the other creatures of the earth with their physical presence.As air, the Holy Spirit is the breath of life that animates all living beings and prophetic wind that brings healing and new life that indwells. The names for the Holy Spirit in the biblical texts? r? ach in Hebrew and greek tires? mean? Breathing? ? Air? o? Wind. Literally, the Holy Spirit is pneumatic, a powerful air driven reality analogous to a pneumatic drill or pump. The Holy Spirit is God? S included in the antenna-giving atmosphere that envelops and sustains the whole earth. As such, the Holy Spirit escapes the horizon of human activity and not by the people. The Spirit is the divine wind? The breath of God? that blows where it wants, with its elemental power and independent human attempts to control, update and renew-Ing broke all the members of order.As created the living water, the Spirit and Quicken update all beverages, from his eteal feathers. As physical and spiritual nourishment, the Holy Spirit is God who gives all the vital fluid that flows with the body fluids, the divine presence and power. Moreover, the water goes to God, and is traveling in soaking rain, dewy mist, hot springs, mud holes, filter, ancient headwaters, wetlands and marshes Hydrospheric oceans of the earth. The Holy Spirit as water allows the wonderful succulence of life as we know on a planet by promoting sustainable pattes.Finally flow of liquid, for example, the fire, the Holy Spirit is the bright flame that alteately judges and criminals will tu on the mission of the Church . The fire is the expression of God? S close to power. On the one hand, the Bible is God as the element used to punish human error. But it is also the symbol of God? S unification of the young Christian community, where the divine tires? take the wind of God? It is said that the early church as full members of the Spirit, symbolized by, as stated in Acts 2:3,? Tongues of fire [was], and distributed to each? of the first members of the Church. Outliers, subversive creative and destructive, God as a buing fire and roasted, who and what they are apart from human intervention and design? as the divine wind that blows where wills.God the spirit of the Bible according to the tropics of the earth, wind, water and fire. The Earth? S water, communities of plants and animals, and the outbreaks of fire and wind shares in the Holy Spirit? S type, as no enfleshed by natural landscapes and biological communities. The Holy Spirit is a reality of the earth? God? S power on earth and heaven, all things live and grow toward their natural ends. God is on earth, swimming through the oceans, the atmosphere. God is always the way and under, as the force of life, the desire, all the inhabitants of the earth in our holy and good fruit being.Idolatrous ecologyPope John Paul II and many bishops? and many leading non-Catholic religious traditions? have opened new avenues in the religious context, stressing the biblical story of creation and the ethics of respect for life as of fundamental importance for a moral response to the ecological crisis. The New Year 1990, Pope John Paul II issued? The ecological crisis: a shared responsibility. A year later, U. S. Catholic bishops announced? Renewal of the earth? in response to the crisis. These statements and others emphasize the goodness of God? S and that the creation of Adam and Eve were God? S image, where the rule on the earth with truth and love. Sin, but destroyed and this divine institution has suffered as a result of human beings? Decisions on the continuation not to live in harmony with the Creator? Floor. Pope John Paul and bishops have the environmental crisis as a moral teaching crisis.Catholic human social welfare priorities, such as the basic standard for the preservation of wealth creation. In 1990 the World Day of Peace address, Pope John Paul has taken this point into the language of a moral first principle:? Respect for life, and especially for human dignity, is an essential guide for every type of sound economic, industrial or scientific progress. The pope and bishops, finding that the people at the heart of environmental performance? in effect? for the extension of non-moral human creatures.The logic is that, according to the needs of the human community is assured, people will be empowered to achieve in the field of justice and compassion to the wider biotic community. On the Inteational Day of Peace in 1999, the Pope makes a similar point? Placing human well-being at the center of conce for the environment is really the safest way to protect the creation, in fact, promotes the responsibility of the individual in relation to natural resources and their judicious use. E 'understand why they consider the human dignity at the center of life and the environment. The obvious biblical reasons, and in view of the situation of environmental degradation of most human populations, is the natural position for the restoration of human dignity as the value of a tuing point for the construction of a morally just social and ecological. It is assumed that the flourishing center for environmental protection will have a green halo effect on other beings. Without ecological ecocentric? Catholic social teaching has another reason for the award, based on the totality of the natural order, the highest value for human well-being: Protect ecology Christian erase the differences between man and the other in the manner of creation spirituality. This fear of this kind of spirituality is the full freedom of expression in the bishops? 1991 pastoral statement, which for the creation of a love that is? Organic without ecocentric. Bishops wa? We can not and must care for the land, without mistaking the ultimate object of devotion. This statement illustrates the difference between? Ecological theology? The ranking established that between creator and creation, and? ecocentric theology? ie the risk of excessive veneration of nature as an object of worship, after the Pope and bishops. If there is excessive dialogue with nonreligious environment, integrating the Protestant and Catholic theology, the conces that Christianity disintegrates into a neo-pagan reverence for the earth and that blurs the differences between God, man and the others? Some Christians consider necessary for the proper and orderly relationship with creation. In a word, the indictment against the Green theology is idolatry, which is wrong reverence for creation that God accepts? D as the holder of the highest absolute value. But how well founded, that right? The dignity of man? The focus of the traditional Catholic doctrine? is better ensured by the health of different species are biologically linked by complex relations of power. As a result, decisions regarding the allocation of resources and should focus on ensuring the dynamism and vitality of the energy cycle, not to the specific needs of individual participants in the cycle, including individual human needs. In an interview with conservation biology from a religious perspective, we humans need to understand how the citizens of equal biotic regulation, not as lords of creation, which has more value than other beings.Critics This subordination of conce for the well-being everything as a dangerous flattening large differences, even a kind ecofascism in which people are now of interest? or subject? the orbit of the ecosystemic interests. The point is not that human happiness is UNIMIKE green-gen systems in theology, but without the well-being of the whole conce, attention to human needs and interests is not possible. Honestly, if the global pattes of energy flow due to interruptions ecocatastrophe our making, then our discussions about the fact that human beings are more valuable to others who seem academic at best and, in the worst cases, the mind-set very contributory brought the collapse of the first place.Home God? s presenceIf earth theology is at the center of gravity toward ecosystem well-being rather than as human flourishing that has made a kind of idolatry or paganism dare not speak its name to that? I think not. The witness of Scripture and tradition in the world as the abode of divinity, the colonization of the life-giving spirit, the house of God? Presence, in which the rhythms and vitality of daily life are sacred. All life is sacred, because the Earth is a natural system of life with God? Presence of well-being of all who things.God? S gift to all people is very complex, where the Earth's biological diversity is the very life in all its fecundity and passion. Holiness inheres in the God-given capacity of plants and animals to store and back on the food chain in which we all depend. God as Spirit is the green power on earth, life-food chains, preferably the flow of energy for all us.It not blasphemous, so to say that nature is sacred. It is not wrong to find God? Presence in all things. To speak in animistic terms, it is not wrong, again as Christianity has continued with the world of the first people to witness the divinity and experts around the world? seen and heard the spirit lives in every stone, tree, animal and the body of water, which have path. God is holy, God and all that holiness. So if you work for the protection and care of God? S good facilities, we are investing all the things with the highest value as a loving extension of God? Bounty and compassion.Sacred S, then our position on earth. Is the Holy Land, where you are planted. Discover the world of nature as a sacred place has the potential to revive our original sense of the food web, that our kind and others need for daily nourishment and prosperity. This prospect signs of appreciation and continuation of the things that the Christian themes to celebrate the important link between the human and the natural order that supports them.Christians say, the incaation of God in Jesus 2000 years ago, but now throughout the life-web is the incaation of God? Presence through the mind on a daily basis. Christians speak of the miracle of the Eucharist where the bread and wine into Christ? S flesh and blood, but now the whole earth is a sacrament of life full of divine life through the agency of the spirit that animates and unifies all things. Christians speak of the power of the written word of God in which God? S voice be heard by the disceing reader, but now all of nature is the book of God, through which we see God? S face and listen to God? Discourse in the laughter of a bubbling stream, the rush of the wind on a cold winter? s Day, the cry of a red-tailed Hawk, as he takes his prey and the silence of a movement monarch butterfly flitting from one milkweed plant another.In the heat of the sun, the encircling protection of heaven, the power of large oceans and the fertility of the country, we have everything we need to get our relationship with the Holy Spirit and the Earth.Mark I. Wallace is a professor of religion at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. This article was written for Science and Theology News.