Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is an Essential Christian Practice

By Steven Bouma-Prediger

Although our planet faces numerous ecological crises, including climate change, many Christians continue to view their faith as primarily a "spiritual" matter that has little relationship to the world in which we live. But Steven Bouma-Prediger contends that protecting and restoring our planet is part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian.

Making his case from Scripture, theology, and ethics and including insights from the global church, Bouma-Prediger explains why Christians must acknowledge their identity as earthkeepers and therefore embrace their calling to serve and protect their home planet and fellow creatures. To help readers put an "earthkeeping faith" into practice, he also suggests numerous practical steps that concerned believers can take to care for the planet.

Bouma-Prediger unfolds a biblical vision of earthkeeping and challenges Christians to view care for the earth as an integral part of Christian discipleship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781493441464

Steven Bouma-Prediger

Steve Bouma-Prediger is the Leonard and Marjorie Maas Professor of Reformed Theology at Hope College. He speaks regularly on environmental issues.

Book preview

"Over many years, Steven Bouma-Prediger has been a leading voice charting the way for earthkeeping as an essential Christian practice. Now in his latest wide-ranging book, Creation Care Discipleship, we are treated to a distillation of the wisdom he has acquired along the way. Read it and let it inspire you to love the world that God loves and has chosen to make his abiding home."

—Norman Wirzba, Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke Divinity School

"This is a book that the whole church in the US will want to welcome: a well-tutored but accessible theological synthesis of biblical testimony to God’s good earth and a suggestive guide to Christian earthkeeping. Deeply informed by recent ecumenical discussions and creatively engaged with current justice issues, this well-written study is predicated on a lucidly rendered ethic of Christian virtue. Pastors will want to read through this theological testament as a resource for their preaching and teaching. Christian lay activists will want to study this book to be more biblically informed and more practically inspired. College and seminary faculty who are looking for a single volume to introduce their students to current trends in ecotheology and its practices will be well advised to choose Creation Care Discipleship."

—H. Paul Santmire, author of Brother Earth, The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology, and EcoActivist Testament

"Steven Bouma-Prediger has the heart of a good teacher, and here he blends decades of reflection, teaching, and scholarship into a comprehensive study. By reexamining the biblical witness and gathering a whole congregation of authoritative Christian voices, Creation Care Discipleship patiently addresses distorted perspectives and ideas, presenting instead a decisive case that creation care is necessary, not optional, to faithful Christian practice."

—Debra Rienstra, Calvin University; author of Refugia Faith

"I was twenty-one years old when I read my first Steven Bouma-Prediger book. I remember the moment as if it were yesterday. For the first time in my life, I was seeing someone connect the dots between loving Jesus and caring for creation. I had no idea they could go together. From that moment on—from doing a PhD on the topic to writing three books to founding an urban farm on our property—my life has been a sequence of events reverberating from reading this brilliant thinker. This book will have the same effect on a whole new generation. I can’t commend it enough. Indeed, caring for the earth isn’t merely part of discipleship. Caring for the earth is discipleship."

—A. J. Swoboda, Bushnell University; author of After Doubt

This is a book for our times! I have long turned to Steven Bouma-Prediger for wisdom on how to think and live faithfully in light of our intensifying climate and ecological challenges. This book draws from his vast theological and ethical expertise and from his lifelong experience in the holy work of earthkeeping. It is a rich and practical guide for how we can better live out God’s call to care for all creation.

—Ben Lowe, executive director, A Rocha USA

Steven Bouma-Prediger’s skills as a teacher are on full display in this wonderful book that manages in a short space to introduce readers to the biblical, theological, ethical, and practical foundations for earthkeeping. Few if any books manage to do all of this, and none so well. Interaction with important thinkers from across the Christian tradition enriches the discussion, as do stories and reflections from Bouma-Prediger’s own decades of experience. Highly recommended!

—Jonathan Moo, Whitworth University

© 2023 by Steven Bouma-Prediger

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

www.bakeracademic.com

Ebook edition created 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4934-4146-4

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Portions of chap. 3 were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, Holiness and Homemaking, in A Sort of Homecoming, ed. M. Boniferro, A. Jagt, and A. Stephens-Rennie, copyright © 2019. Eugene, OR: Pickwick. Used by permission of Wipf and Stock.

Portions of chap. 3 are adapted from Steven Bouma-Prediger, Doesn’t Creation Care Confuse Nature with God?, in A Faith Encompassing All Creation, ed. Tripp York and Andy Alexis-Baker, copyright © 2014. Used by permission of Cascade Books; and from Beyond Stewardship, ed. Dave Warners and Matt Huen, copyright © 2019. Used by permission of Calvin University Press.

The biblical meditation following chap. 3 is a revised excerpt from Steven Bouma-Prediger, For the Beauty of the Earth, copyright © 2001, 2010. Used by permission of Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Quotation from Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) in chap. 4 are used by permission of the Vatican. The encyclical was originally delivered May 24, 2015. https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.

Portions of chap. 5 were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, Educating for Homelessness or Homemaking? The Christian College in a Postmodern Culture, Christian Scholar’s Review 32, no. 3 (Spring 2003): 281–95, and reprinted with the same title in Taking Captive Every Thought: Forty Years of the Christian Scholar’s Review, ed. Don King, 133–46, copyright © 2011. Used by permission.

Portions of chap. 5 were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, What Is God’s Good Future? Right Relationships with All Things, Christian Higher Education 17, no. 5 (2018): 299–313. https://www.tandfonline.com/. Used by permission.

Portions of chap. 6 were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement, copyright © 2008. Used by permission of William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Portions of the book were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, Earth-Keeping and the Bible, Reflections Journal 94, no. 1 (Spring 2007): 29–32. Used by permission.

Portions of the book were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, Creation Care and Salvation, Vision, A Journal for Church and Theology 9, no. 1 (2008): 15–23. Used by permission.

Portions of the book were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, Word and World 32, no. 1 (Winter 2011). Used by permission.

Portions of the book were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, Eschatology Shapes Ethics, Canadian Theological Review 2, no. 2 (2013). Used by permission.

Portions of the book were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, Eschatology Shapes Ethics, in Rooted and Grounded: Essays on Land and Christian Discipleship, ed. Ryan D. Harker and Janeen Bertsche Johnson, 144–54, copyright © 2016. Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Portions of the book were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, The Character of Earthkeeping, in Ecotheology: A Christian Conversation, ed. Kiara A. Jorgenson and Alan G. Padgett, 199–52, copyright © 2020. Used by permission of William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Portions of the book were originally published as Steven Bouma-Prediger, End Times and the Environment, Bio Logos, January 7, 2021. https://biologos.org/articles/end-times-environment. Used by permission.

Portions of the book were originally published as devotionals in Words of Hope (woh.org), reprinted by permission.

Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.

This book is dedicated to all those who have learned to be earthkeepers at Camp Fowler in the heart of the Adirondacks of upstate New York, and especially to my old friend Kent Busman, who has served as the director of Camp Fowler for over three decades. May the Fowler legacy of earthkeeping live long in the lives of all those touched by that special place.

Contents

Cover

Endorsements    i

Title Page    iii

Copyright Page    iv

Dedication    v

Acknowledgments    ix

1. Overture: Why Read This Book    1

Biblical Meditation: Water, Water Everywhere    11

2. Beginning and Ending with Rivers and Trees: The Biblical Vision of Earthkeeping    19

Biblical Meditation: God Remembers and the Earth Re-membered    41

3. Humble Humans in a Holy World: Learning from Theology and Ethics    45

Biblical Meditation: Lightning and Wind, Hawk and Vulture, Behemoth and Leviathan    79

4. Ecumenical Insights: Wisdom from the Global Church    87

Biblical Meditation: I Am the Good Shepherd    125

5. Christian Faith in Action: Living What We Believe    131

Biblical Meditation: Peace Be with You    171

6. Yearning for Shalom: Becoming Aching Visionaries    175

Bibliography    189

Scripture Index    201

Subject Index    205

Back Cover    214

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge with gratitude those who helped me with this book. Their comments and questions improved both its substance and its style. First, my fellow members of the Religion Department at Hope College. Many thanks to Wayne Brouwer, Angela Carpenter, David DeJong, Steve Hoogerwerf, Lynn Japinga, Matt Kuiper, Phil Munoa, Jared Ortiz, Rakesh Peter-Dass, and Jeff Tyler. It is a privilege to work with such committed scholars, creative teachers, and fine colleagues.

And a hearty thank you to all at Hope College whose vision and diligence have made it such a wonderful place to work—President Matthew Scogin, former provost Rich Ray and current provost Gerald Griffin, department chairperson Jeff Tyler, and office managers Pam Valkema and Rajean Wolters.

I have had the opportunity to try out various parts of this book at venues all over North America. Thank you to the following for their invitations: Markku Kostamo and Leah Kostamo at A Rocha Canada and Creation Care Calgary; Ted Koontz at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary; Fred Van Dyke and Jon Terry at the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies; Louis Ko Huang at Azusa Pacific University; Darin Davis at Baylor University; Jonathan Huggins at Berry College; Matt Heun, Dave Koetje, Debra Rienstra, and Dave Warners at Calvin University; Jeffrey Cole and Keith Martel at Geneva College; Tom Hartzell at Goshen College; Collin Messer at Grove City College; David Foster at Messiah University; Sid Ypma and Paul Heintzman at the University of Ottawa; Loren Wilkinson at Regent College in Vancouver, BC; Derek McNeil at the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology; Mark Liederbach at Southeastern Baptist Theology Seminary; Emma Hagan, Jennifer Moeschberger, Jeff Cramer, and Mike Guebert at Taylor University; Julien Smith at Valparaiso University; and Jonathan Moo and Grant Casady at Whitworth University. Many people, too numerous to mention here, have offered their comments at gatherings at which I was speaking about some part of this book. Thank you, one and all, for your kind invitations and many insights.

A number of good scholar-friends read the manuscript and offered their insights and comments. Special thanks to David Stubbs, Brian Walsh, Loren Wilkinson, and Norman Wirzba. This book is better because of your insightful comments and perceptive questions.

A big thank you to the students whom I have had the privilege to teach—at Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, on other college and university campuses in North America, and in Belize and New Zealand through the Creation Care Study Program. Your questions and comments on the ideas I develop in this book have reminded me of how important and timely this topic is.

The good folks at Baker Academic have once again been a joy to work with. Melisa Blok, Anna English, Bob Hosack, and Dustyn Keepers have helped make the publication of this book possible. I am sure there are others whose labors on my behalf I do not know. To all of you at Baker Academic, thank you very much.

As with all my previous books, I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife, Celaine; to my daughters, Anna, Chara, and Sophia; and to our lively and ever-loving Boston terrier, Lily.

1

Overture

Why Read This Book

The rabbi sat down, indicating that he was about to comment on the biblical text he had just read. He was at the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, having been away for some time. Prior to this, his reputation had spread far and wide so that many praised his teachings in various places in Galilee. Upon returning home, he was given the honor of reading the text from Scripture at this weekly gathering. Silence fell upon the overflowing crowd as the eyes of everyone were fixed on him (Luke 4:16–17). What will he say about this hope-filled text?

The text he reads is from Isaiah 61:1–2. This is a charged text for his audience, for it speaks of God’s Spirit coming upon an anointed human messenger who will announce good news to the oppressed, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, and declare the year of the LORD’s favor, a thinly veiled reference to the Year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18–19). Described in Leviticus 25, the Year of Jubilee was the time when, every fifty years, slaves were to be freed, debts forgiven, and the people given back their ancestral land. The entire economy was to be reset so that all might have a fresh start. Given the oppressive rule of Rome, everyone in that audience was yearning for this great good future to come true. The Year of Jubilee was the burning hope of all in Israel, except those in power.

After a long pause, with all eyes riveted on the rabbi, this wandering teacher named Jesus of Nazareth proclaims, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:21). In other words, Jesus says, I am the one of whom this text speaks. I am the one anointed by God to proclaim and enact the Year of Jubilee. I am the person empowered by God’s Spirit to make real this all-encompassing vision of earthly redemption.

Luke describes the crowd’s reaction to Jesus’s amazing claim. After making sure that everyone knows that this famous rabbi is from their hometown, thereby patting themselves on the back, those listening expect some favors from Jesus—namely, that he will do in his hometown what they have heard he did in Capernaum. Jesus wins no friends by replying that no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown (Luke 4:24). Jesus then refers to a story from the Hebrew Bible (1 Kings 17) that everyone would know: the story of God sending Elijah in a time of famine not to widows in Israel but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. In other words, God showed mercy to (in their eyes) an unclean gentile woman.

Before his dumbfounded listeners could reply, Jesus quickly adds fuel to the fire by reminding his Jewish audience that this act of grace by Yahweh, their God, is not a one-off event. Jesus not-so-gently jogs their memory by reminding them of yet another story from their sacred scripture (2 Kings 5): Elisha cleansing Naaman the Syrian, also an unclean gentile, rather than the Jewish lepers in Israel. Jesus challenges the racism and ethnocentrism of his listeners. God is the God of all, Jesus staunchly affirms, and God extends his grace to those who are seen as beyond the pale.

At this incendiary remark all hell breaks loose. Those who minutes before were singing the praises of Jesus, the hometown kid made good, are now filled with rage. They forcibly drive Jesus out of town and take him to a hill so they can hurl him off a cliff to his death. Luke tells us that somehow Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way (4:30).

There is much to say about this astounding story. Jesus has spent time in the wilderness, like Moses and the people of Israel long ago. While fasting, he is tempted by the devil for forty days, but he rebukes the adversary and emerges triumphant from this time of temptation. Filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus returns to Galilee and to his hometown of Nazareth to begin his life work. Luke’s placement of this story of Jesus going to the synagogue and commenting on this text from Isaiah 61 (notice that Jesus omits reference to the second half of verse 2, which speaks of vengeance) indicates its importance—that it is what we today would call an inaugural address. Jesus is laying out who he is and what he will be about in the world—the prophet of God who will usher in the Year of Jubilee.

It is important to see that Jesus’s vision of his work includes not only humans but all the earth. The Year of Jubilee is not only about justice for the oppressed but also about caring for animals both domestic and wild. It is not only about liberty for the incarcerated but also about cultivating sustainable farms. It is not only about rest for human laborers but also about rest for the land. In sum, Jesus’s inaugural address is about advancing God’s grand vision of shalom for all the earth. If this is Jesus’s vision, what does that mean for those who follow Jesus?

Why This Book at This Time?

Why this book at this time? The answer is quite simple. Christians should be concerned about caring for the earth because it is integral to what it means to follow Jesus. Care for the earth and its flourishing is part and parcel of what it means to be a Christian. If you don’t believe this, then keep reading. If you already believe this but don’t really know what this looks like, then keep reading. In either case, this book is for you.

In addition, some very perceptive Christians identify earthkeeping as a major challenge facing the global church, especially the church in North America. For example, in his book Future Faith, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, former staff member of the World Council of Churches who also served for seventeen years as the lead administrator of the Reformed Church in America, names perceiving the world as sacred as one of the primary challenges facing the church in the twenty-first century. After a brief discussion of how Europeans in the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries came to view the world as separated from its Creator and thus how a sacred creation came to be seen as secularized nature, Granberg-Michaelson minces no words: Ideas and perceptions have consequences. Emptying creation of its intrinsic value, sacred value, derived from the life of the Creator, now threatens the actual sustainability of the planet’s life-supporting systems.1 With God out of sight and out of mind and the earth viewed as valuable only because of its usefulness to humans, ecological degradation is, unsurprisingly, a huge problem.

Therefore, Granberg-Michaelson insists, we must return to our ancient theological roots. We need to learn from the Eastern Orthodox tradition, for example, by reading Paulos Mar Gregorios.2 We need to explore the wisdom of the Roman Catholic tradition by taking to heart Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’. We need to learn from the Protestant tradition by ruminating on the wise words of Lutheran pastor-theologian Paul Santmire.3 We must learn from the World Council of Churches and the World Evangelical Alliance, from the church north and south, from followers of Jesus young and old. In sum, Granberg-Michaelson concludes, "Christianity must once again learn to perceive a sacred world."4

In his book This Sacred Life, philosopher Norman Wirzba echoes Granberg-Michaelson. Wirzba’s thesis is that the world is not an accidental or amoral realm that can be manipulated and exploited at will, but is instead divinely created, and therefore to be nurtured, cherished, and celebrated.5 To acknowledge that we live in a sacred world where all life is sacred means that we must develop the capacities and habits that position people to come into the presence of others in ways that affirm their mysterious gratuity and grace and that allow us to perceive in them an inexhaustible depth and sanctity that solicits attention, commands respect, and invites celebration.6 A major challenge we Christians face is to see ourselves, as Wirzba puts it, as creaturely beings in God’s creation creatively contributing to the flourishing of all things.7

In their book The Future of Our Faith, longtime activist Ron Sider and Generation Z activist Ben Lowe also argue that a central challenge for the church is whether we will embrace our calling to be earthkeepers. In a chapter titled Will We Recover Our Responsibility for God’s Creation? Lowe recites a long list of interconnected social and environmental problems and then declares that this status quo must be transformed. He observes, however, that for many Christians there is a blind spot since creation care is still not an integral part of our discipleship and witness.8 The church, Lowe notes, has a reputation for being suspicious of environmental groups and programs, just as environmental groups all too often view the church as uninterested in or even opposed to their work.

Lowe proceeds to outline the responsibility Christians have to care for the earth, starting with the Bible and ending with persuasive rebuttals to common reasons Christians give for not caring for the earth. He acknowledges, with sadness, that for far too long the American church has abdicated our responsibility or has merely paid lip service to creation care even as many others have stepped up to care for creation. Lowe honestly asks, What will it take for creation care to truly become an integral part of our discipleship and witness across the whole faith? When will our churches stop paying lip service to the concept of caring for creation, and start living it out with conviction and commitment?9 In sum, caring for the earth is a major challenge facing the church that must be addressed.

A third reason to read this book is that we live in increasingly perilous times. One factor that contributes to that peril is climate change, which has been recently renamed the climate crisis or climate emergency.10 Called to take care of our home planet, followers of Jesus ought to be urgently concerned about the climate and how it is negatively affecting life on earth. If you don’t believe there is a climate crisis or climate emergency, then take a look at what just a small sampling of headlines from a single month in 2021 have to say:

As Heat Dome Envelops West, Death Valley Hits 130 and May Get Hotter (New York Times, July 11, 2021)

Over thirty-one million people living in the American West are facing dangerous, record-breaking temperatures.

Climate Scientists Shocked by Scale of Floods in Germany (The Guardian, July 16, 2021)

Deluge raises fears that human-caused disruption is making extreme weather even worse than predicted. Along with the article are striking photographs of the devastation of flooding waters in Germany and Belgium.

Dixie Fire Now the Second Largest Fire in California History (Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2021)

This article was accompanied by piercing photos of devastating fires all over California.

If you don’t believe what you read in the news media, then read the 2021 report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. It confirms what many climate scientists expected: the summer of 2021 was the hottest ever in recorded human history (since the 1880s).11 Or take a good look at the 2021 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.12 In the most comprehensive summary to date of the science of climate change, this team of scientists from around the world reached the sobering conclusion that a hotter future is now inevitable, though we can still prevent the worst consequences. We dare not, like the ostrich, stick our heads in the sand and act like all is well.

Still not persuaded? Then look around your own neighborhood and hometown. Observe the flowers and trees. Pay attention to the seasons and their temperatures. Talk to farmers and gardeners. Ask the city or township or county staff who look after your lakes and rivers about the quality of the water and the health of the fish. Talk to your neighbors about the recent weather patterns. Here in my hometown of Holland, Michigan, we host an annual weeklong festival called Tulip Time. Ranked with Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Rose Festival in Pasadena, California, as one of the most popular festivals in the United States, each year Tulip Time draws 350,000 people to view six million tulips planted throughout the city, including the two dozen or so that are planted along Twelfth Street in front of my house. In 2001, however, Tulip Time was moved back a week. It now starts seven days sooner because the flowers are blooming earlier each year. As one of my neighbors pithily put it, Tulips don’t lie. It is now hotter earlier each spring. The effects of the climate crisis are upon us here and now.

Why read this book at this time? The time is right for a book that gives sustained attention to why and how Christians should take better care of our home planet.

And why this book when there are other similar books in print? Another good question. Not so long ago, sadly, there were not many books written by Christians about why Christians ought to be earthkeepers. Now, I am happy to say, there are more books of that kind.13 So why this particular book? The short answer is that few books combine careful attention to the Bible, insights from Christian theology and ethics, and wisdom from the global church with a focus on putting earthkeeping faith into practice. Most books do some of these things, but few do all, as I attempt to do in this book.

Coming to Terms

Before we dive in, I’d like to offer a few words about language, since you may be wondering about some of the terms I am using—for example, earthkeeping. Whoever defines the terms, wins the argument. I heard this aphorism many years ago when teaching a college course on logic. It struck me then as both insightful and important—insightful since the outcome of arguments often does depend on how key terms are defined, and important because thoughtful and well-reasoned arguments should serve as the basis for individual decision-making and communal well-being. All too often the words used in arguments are thinly veiled power plays designed to benefit whoever