A Theology of Creation

Philippians 2:1-13 (NRSV) ​If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, 10 so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Picture We live in a world seemingly governed by competition and scarcity. Competition among individuals rather than cooperation among groups is our norm, perhaps we would even use the word “natural.” Part of this inheritance comes to us from Darwin, who formed a picture of ecology based on the key concepts of fitness and survival of the fittest. While his contribution in the field is unquestionably valuable, it is nevertheless an interpretive framework, which has seeped its way into other educational disciplines. For example, Adam Smith’s vision of economy is remarkably similar, presupposing that individuals operate to maximize self-interest. Darwin could have shifted focus in his observations and presuppositions though. Indigenous peoples, whose survival depends on detailed observation and analysis of the world around them, have understood the drive to “survive” as one to “thrive,” each individual deeply embedded in a world governed by and dependent on kinship and generosity. ​Marilynne Robinson has noted that Darwinian thought as a worldview is “too small and rigid to accommodate anything remotely like the world,” since it makes no room for the soul or the virtue of charity. Our inability to escape this mode of thinking has led to imperial conquest, indigenous genocide, pollution, and the disastrous, slow violence of environmental degradation. ​ Euro-Western Christians have historically lost sight of a theology of creation when talking about Jesus, despite Scripture and the early Church creeds affirming the Son as “of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things came into existence.” The Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo, creation out of nothing, is essentially a statement that the material world is a freely donated, loving gift of the Triune God. We are never separated from the whole because each living and nonliving thing, whether stationary or in motion, exists and has its being precisely because God’s spirit animates it; God loves every person and tree into existence. All things are logoi which participate, according to their appropriate manner, in the divine Logos. When Jesus, that Logos, the creative Word becomes flesh, the line between divine and human is transgressed and the chasm between Creator and creature is bridged. To abide in Christ, to be of one mind with Christ in the words of Paul, is ultimately to take on his way of being in the world, which is one of radical intimacy, reconciliation, and liberation for the entire whole. To abide in Christ, to be of one mind with Christ in the words of Paul, is ultimately to take on his way of being in the world, which is one of radical intimacy, reconciliation, and liberation for the entire whole. Picture Norman Wirzba has noted, as have many other theologians, the high calling of Christians to become agents of the Spirit’s work of healing and celebration. This partnership with the Spirit is the cosmic movement of us creatures, along with the rest of creation, moving in and with the divine Logos. Paul’s words are as daring as ever to our modern ears, requiring us to abandon our current cultural lens to see every creature and part of creation in a new unified way. Will we not look to our own interests but those of the climate refugee? How might we empty ourselves so the more than human world can thrive? These are the questions of salvation and deliverance that we must work out in fear and trembling; however, we do so with the hope and assurance that we are not alone in the endeavor, but enabled by the Creator God who herself goes before us. Picture Will we not look to our own interests but those of the climate refugee? How might we empty ourselves so the more than human world can thrive? Resources Articles: Wirzba, N. (2016), Christian Theoria Physike: On Learning to See Creation. Modern Theology, 32: 211-230.