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William P. Brown

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“Science alone cannot provide the impetus for changing human conduct. It does not provide a compelling warrant for acknowledging the intrinsic value of life or its sanctity.... If, however, we take our cue from Genesis, damaging creation is tantamount to defacing God's sanctuary, an act of utter sacrilege.”

“Read ecologically, the psalm [Ps 104] claims God's biophilia as a model for humanity's role and presence in the world. Delighting in creation has nothing to do with exploiting the world for the common greed. Rather, it has all to do with receiving the world's abundance for the common good, a sufficiency to be shared, not hoarded.”

“No subordination pertains in the garden. The adam's service to the garden is rooted in his kinship with the ground. Marriage, according to the Yahwist, is founded on the kindship intimacy of partnership and companionship (2:24). Life in the garden is one of fruitful work, abundance, and intimate companionship. In the garden there is neither fear nor shame, even before God. These are 'lacks' that are meant to endure. But, alas, they do not.”

“As God in Genesis 1 is no imperious warrior, so human beings are not conquerors of creation. The language of dominion lacks all sense of exploitation (1:26, 28). The hoarding of resources is implicitly forbidden in the account: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees are granted to animals and humans alike (1:30). Absent is any hint of the savage competition for resources. God's gift of sustenance is one of abundance, not scarcity, to be shared, not hoarded.”

“So instead we continue our backward journey through time into the high Middle Ages of the thirteenth century. At one time thought of as an intellectual backwater of history, when the darkness of mysticism, magic and astrology spent centuries stifling the emergence of true scientific enquiry, it is now increasingly seen as the nursey of Renaissance thought, a bridge from the creative thinking of the ancients to science in its modern form.”

“A tiny 'bubble' of the new created world order nucleates at the first Easter. But it does not sweep all nature before it in passivity. Instead there is an implicit invitation to participate in the coming into being of renewed creation. The gospel message contains the same beckoning finger that was extended to Job on his ash heap, extending an invitation to explore the possibilities of a new nature.”

“The 'ministry of reconciliation' is a stunningly brief encapsulation of the biblical story of the purpose to which God calls people. I do not know a better three-word definition of Christianity, and it does very well as an entry point for Old Testament temple-based Judaism as well. It acknowledges that there is work to do: relationships on all scales are damaged. Nation against nation, communities against communities, families, marriages, even the vital self-worth that describes people's relationship with themselves is often damaged.”