Abstract
The series ‘Biblical Challenges in the Contemporary World’ is designed for undergraduate students and was prompted by a concern that uses of the Bible in ethical debates are often either a ‘literalist concentration on a few selected texts’ or an accommodation to secular trends (p. ii). It aims to ‘acquaint readers with biblical material…including that which causes difficulty or embarrassment’ and to equip critical dialogue (p. iii). This valuable addition to the series is by a leading New Testament scholar. It is one of the outputs of the Exeter University project ‘Uses of the Bible in Environmental Ethics’.
Chapter 1 begins by narrating the rise of awareness of ecological problems. It observes that many identify worldview as causal, and that two attitudes deemed harmful have been linked to Christian reception of biblical texts. One is a belief that creation’s purpose is human use. The other is anticipation of an imminent end of the world. Chapter 2 looks at recent biblical interpretation which responds to environmental issues and identifies two categories. The first is ‘Recovery’ which aims to retrieve neglected helpful resources, and reinterpret texts whose past reception is considered faulty (p. 11). The second is ‘Resistance’ which arises from a hermeneutic of suspicion. For example the Earth Bible project using six ecojustice principles judges some biblical texts can be harmful, and contrasts them with other more positive biblical texts.
Horrell finds another approach among those who oppose environmentalism (Calvin Beisner is cited). Oddly they are placed in the category of Resistance because they resist something (environmentalism) but one could as easily say that Recovery resists something (the categories were originally defined by orientation to biblical texts). Beisner here serves as a foil to Recovery’s claim that ‘Scripture alone’ is sufficient (p. 120). The portrayal of motive also serves this argument: while Recovery has a dual commitment to environmental values and biblical authority (p. 18), the anti-environmentalists have a ‘primary commitment to the authority of the Bible’ from which their stance ‘emerges’ (p. 19). They are also described as ‘determined to give the Bible full authority’ (p. 119). It is worth emphasising they have other commitments, for example Beisner advocates free-market cornucopian ideas.
The second part of the book consists of seven chapters (3–9) which survey the biblical texts disputed by previous writers. They are grouped by theme: dominion (chapter 3), fall and flood (4), humanity decentred (5), Jesus and the earth (6), Paul and cosmic redemption (7), future peace (8), and cosmic catastrophe (9). Giving three out of seven chapters to eschatology might be regarded as excessive, but Horrell argues that eschatology is ‘central to the Christian story’ and must be fundamental to Christian ethics (p. 89). The survey is weighted to the New Testament, and there are gaps in its engagement with ecological readings of the Old Testament: for example it neglects legal material. With regard to use as a textbook the further reading lists provided after each chapter point to helpful supplementary material.
These chapters are the best set of concise critical surveys of debates in ecological biblical interpretation available within one book. Each chapter, for selected biblical texts, considers a range of meanings plausible to mainstream Biblical Studies, and weighs previous writers’ efforts at Recovery or Resistance. There are many cautionary warnings, for example Horrell is sceptical of portrayals of Genesis 1–2 as teaching a caring stewardship ethic. There is also, especially in chapters 4 and 5, commendation of helpful readings, for example the use of Job 38–41 to decentre humankind is deemed plausible. In general Horrell finds fewer problems in readings of the Old Testament than the New Testament. He is worried that interpreters ‘construct an eco-Jesus’ (p. 71) from references to nature which merely reflect the agrarian context, and at most only convey ‘a general sense of God’s care for all of creation’ (p. 67). Horrell doubts the equation of ‘groaning’ in Romans 8 with ecological degradation (p. 79). The reconciliation in Colossians 1 focuses on personal beings, the powers, angelic and human, not the earth (p. 84). Many of the interpretations favoured by green Evangelicals are criticised.
The Recovery approach suggests the biblical picture of creation’s future is not annihilation but transformation. Horrell sees dissolution of the earth in 2 Peter 3, Mark 13 and other ‘texts of cosmic terror’ (p. 111). He allows that Romans 8 and other texts portray renewal for the ‘Bible contains different eschatological perspectives, rather than one consistent vision’ (p. 113). He wonders whether hope for transformation is ‘more ecologically positive’ since it is ‘utterly beyond the present world’ and will be ‘God’s achievement not a human accomplishment’ (p. 79). Also since God will renew creation ‘whatever mess humans have made of the old one’ the hope could be a disincentive to action (p. 102). Horrell observes however that the Bible’s ‘eschatological vision is meant to shape and inspire present action’ (p. 139). He admits that a prospect of ‘imminent demolition’ would, by analogy with a house, discourage maintenance (p. 112). I think imminence is more significant than discontinuity. Expectation of the end within a few decades would exacerbate exploitative attitudes, but longer periods make the character of the terminus less significant. If a few hundred years is ‘forever’ for practical purposes (as economic discounting suggests) then astronomy’s cosmic dissolution (which should not be conflated with biblical eschatology) has no weight in justifying negligence.
From the survey Horrell finds a ‘negative’ result insofar as Recovery and Resistance are both deemed inadequate. Recovery is criticised for ignoring the diversity of ideas in the Bible. Even its favourite verses are ‘ambivalent’ and liable to other plausible interpretations (p. 117), showing that one ‘cannot simply read…ethics direct from the pages of the Bible’ (p. 87). One problem in this portrayal of Recovery is the variety of sources cited. Though some belong to the discipline of Biblical Studies (Richard Bauckham and Ernest Lucas), others do not. For example, the writer most often cited is Steven Bouma Prediger, and quotations from Thomas Finger, James Jones (Bishop of Liverpool), Sean McDonagh, Bill McKibben and Tim Cooper are also critiqued. A claim that their discussions are ‘often presented as arguments about the “real” meaning of the text in its original historical context’ (p. 34) is not based on much evidence: too much is assumed from their hermeneutic silence.
By contrast the Resistance category is commended for hearing diverse voices in Scripture, and for honesty about constructive agenda. However, it is deemed unpersuasive for most Christian audiences because it prioritises secular ecojustice principles, and when lacking ‘communicable plausibility’ (p. 72) it is only attractive to people already committed to ecojustice. (Norman Habel in Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics has addressed these problems.)
Part 3 of the book proposes a new ecological hermeneutic which has three ‘dimensions’: original meaning, Christian tradition, and contemporary science (p. 125). This is essential because ‘debates about different interpretations cannot be resolved simply by trying to determine the original meaning’ (p. 34). Given that Christian interpretation normally uses a doctrinal lens (p. 123), Horrell suggests a method to construct new lenses by ‘consciously bringing certain texts and themes into central focus, marginalizing or resisting others’ (p. 128). Chapter 11 employs that method to identify a set of interpretive principles: the goodness of all creation, humanity as part of the community of creation (but with a unique capacity and responsibility), the connectedness of life in failure and flourishing, God’s covenant with all creatures, the nonhuman calling to praise God, and the hope of liberation and reconciliation for all things (pp. 129-36). Horrell also suggests that broader motifs, for example other-regard, may be productive (p. 86). Overall, while earlier approaches have not always been as starkly divergent as they are painted here, Horrell’s book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Bible and environmental ethics.