Caring for Creation

Brian Davis

Description

Caring for Creation - one of the most important York Courses ever - is ideal for Lent or any time of year
In this 5 session course, Brian Davis vividly reminds us that the human race is facing its greatest challenge: global warming, leading to climate change.

This, along with the damage we have done, and are still doing to the environment, God’s wonderful creation, means that we all have to make radical changes to our whole way of life.

Many of us who care about this issue are sometimes understandably quite pessimistic about the future. That's where faith in God should make a difference. Hope for the future is not the same as being optimistic. Being optimistic suggests always looking on the bright side. A hope based on faith in God should enable us to open our eyes and see what is actually happening to our planet today, and still believe there is much that we can do, individually and together, with God to guide and strengthen us.

This York Course is available in the following formats:
Course Book (Paperback 9781909107311)
Course Book (eBook 9781909107496)
Audio Book of Interview to support Caring for Creation York Course (CD 9781909107403)
Audio Book of Interview (Digital Download 9781909107489)
Transcript of interview to support Caring for Creation Course (Paperback 9781909107328)
Transcript of interview (eBook 9781909107502)
Book Pack (9781909107410 Featuring Paperback Course Book, Audio Book on CD and Paperback Transcript of Interview)
Large print (9781909107427)

The five sessions focus on:

SESSION 1: The Environment
SESSION 2: Global Warming and Climate Change
SESSION 3: The Age of Humans – The Anthropocene Era
SESSION 4: Coming out of Denial and Facing Crisis
SESSION 5: Faith, Hope and Love

The course audio features Ruth Valerio, Environmentalist, theologian, social activist, Tearfund Director and author of Saying Yes to Life (SPCK, 2020); Dave Bookless who specializes in biblical theology and biodiversity conservation and is Director of Theology for A Rocha International; Kuki Rokhum, who is on the Leadership Team of Renew our World and involved in the Lausanne Creation Care network; and David Clogh, who launched CreatureKind and DefaultVeg projects, and is concerned with the place of animals in Christian theology and ethics.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Philosophie et théologie
• Devotional
• Devotion
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: SPCK
• Date de parution: 20 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909107502
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

TRANSCRIPT
of the course audio for
CARING FOR CREATION
An ecumenical course in 5 sessions for discussion groups and individuals
written by Brian Davis
INDEX OF TRACK NUMBERS:
[1] Introduction
[2-7] Session (1) The Environment
[8-13] Session (2) Global Warming and Climate Change
[14-19] Session (3) The Age of Humans
[20-25] Session (4) Coming out of Denial and Facing Crisis
[26-31] Session (5) Faith , Hope and Love
Each track number on the course audio corresponds to the start of each new question posed to the participants by Simon Stanley, the presenter. The track numbers are shown in square brackets in the text of the transcript itself.
When to play the Course Audio:
There is no ‘right’ way! Some groups will play the 14/15 -minute piece at the beginning of the session. Other groups do things differently – perhaps playing it
at the end, or playing 7/8 minutes at the beginning and the rest halfway through
the meeting. Groups may like to choose a question to discuss straight after they have listened to a relevant track on the audio – there are no hard and fast rules.
The track markers (on the audio and shown in the Transcript) will help you find any question put to the participants very easily, including the Closing Reflections, which you may wish to play (again) at the end of the session. Do whatever is best for you and your group .
CD Track [1]
York Courses presents CARING FOR CREATION
A course in 5 sessions, written by Canon Brian Davis
Hello, I’m Simon Stanley and I’ m delighted to be your guide through this course.
Let me briefly introduce the contributors:
RUTH VALERIO is Global Advocacy and Influencing Director at Tearfund. An environmentalist, theologian and social activist, she is the author of a number of books including L is for Lifestyle and Saying Yes to Life .
DAVE BOOKLESS is Director of Theology at A Rocha International and co-leads the global Lausanne / World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network. His book Planetwise – Dare to Care for God’s World is widely used as a basic biblical guide to creation care.
KUKI Rokhum serves, among many other things, on the leadership team at the Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief in New Delhi. She is a trainer on creation care and climate change and is devoted to influencing Christians to put their faith into action .
And DAVID CLOUGH is Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chester. His central concern is the place of animals in Christian theology and ethics. David will give his closing reflection at the end of each session.
So , the introductions over, let’s begin.


[2] Session 1 – The Environment
The most common translation of Genesis 1.28 - God blessing his creation - is that man is to ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth’. But the phrase ‘dominion over’ can also be translated as to be ‘responsible for’. I began by asking our contributors whether they think we are responsible for the world of nature - or are we in charge of it? Kuki Rokhum speaks first, followed by David Bookless and Ruth Valerio.
KR : In India we don’t translate ‘dominion’ as something that we have charge over, but charge of. So I think those are two different things that we talk about. So I think, it’s not about having ‘dominion’ or having ‘control over’ something, but being made responsible for something that we are a part of. And therefore, this ‘dominion’, or being in charge of something doesn’t come with the kind of dominion where we boss over something, but where we take care of something in a position of humility.
DB : I prefer the term ‘delegated responsibility’. So I believe that God is in charge of creation, and remains in charge of creation, but those who are made in his image - human beings - have some of God’s delegated responsibility to work for the welfare of the whole of creation. The danger of saying ‘in charge of’ is that it leads us to think we can do what we like with it, and that’s never the case. It’s always a delegated responsibility - it’s God’s world.
RV : Well, I think it comes down to our understanding of what it means to be made in the image of God which, of course, is the point of Genesis 1.26-28. And being made in the image of God is the one thing that separates us out from other creatures. And being made in God’s image is about being God’s representative, his ambassador, his presence, if you like, in this world. So our role as people created in the image of God is to be servant-rulers of the rest of what he has made.
[3] Many Christians still see Climate Change as a secondary issue. I asked our contributors why they think it has never really caught on before now? Dave first, followed by Kuki and Ruth.
DB : I think there are at least two main reasons why Christians haven’t taken the environment and climate change more seriously up till now - at least here in the UK. The first reason is simply that it’s only now that we are seeing the effects of climate change - that have been predicted for many years by scientists - but we’re actually beginning to experience them, here in the UK, and we’re beginning to see them on our television screens from all over the world. So it’s now a present reality, rather than something forecast for the future. I think the second reason is a more theological one: that we’ve tended to focus so exclusively on our human salvation that we’ve neglected the Bible’s rich teaching on the whole of creation. And I think that’s beginning to now be redressed.
KR : The whole teaching in the Church for so long is that Jesus came to save us - just human beings - and I think that narrative that has been repeated again and again and again, in many of our churches, in many of our teachings, in the theology that we preach - it is just the human being that Jesus and God are interested in. And that is why, I think, we don’t care about the environment and it has played a secondary role that’s not an issue for most Christians.
RV : Well the good news is that many fewer people, many fewer Christians than previously, see climate change as a secondary issue, and recently that has really changed, and we’re now recognising the importance of it. I think the reasons why we’ve been so slow are a host of different ones, bound up in sociology and in theology. So if I think about theology, I think partly it’s to do with theologies that have taught that the physical world just isn’t important. In more recent years, there’s been a worry that being interested in matters of the environment are linked in with Eastern religions and the New Age and so on. So there are a host of theological reasons why we’ve failed really to grasp the significance of this issue.