As for Me and My House:

Dominion Rightly Applied

Jan Whitehouse
PHI 3033
Final Reflective Paper
 O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the
earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide which teems with
creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. (Psalm 104:24,25
ESV).

My approach to the final reflective paper is a general overview, examining an oft-

repeated refrain woven throughout our readings: that western influences, culture and

lifestyle, as begotten of Judeo-Christian precepts, has been the undoing of the

environment and our relationship to it. Having considered the sins of the faithful, I found

this line of thinking to be unproductive and divisive. Granted, people who claim to be

Christians can behave hideously. Genuine Christians may show up embarrassingly late to

a righteous cause, but once called and mobilized, they are unstoppable. What has

distracted them is the same force that has lulled and dulled all of us into a Matrix-style

amniotic slumber.

But the Christians seem to be a lightning rod for a special level of ire. From the

first paragraph in our textbook, Foltz establishes a recurring motif in his anthology: “…

debates have sprung from the assertion that Western values, and Christianity in particular,

are to blame for the present global crisis “(Foltz. p. xiii). And as if to indicate such a

concept is oxymoronic, he then asks, “Is an ecological Christianity possible?” (Foltz. p.

xiii) In fairness, Foltz’ purpose in compiling his wide-ranging collection is to bring a lot

of voices to the table. His book should not be characterized as having an expressly anti-

Christian agenda.

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 That said, a gauntlet of sorts is surely thrown in the early inclusion of Lynn

White, Jr.’s broadside to [dubious] Christian hubris, “The Historical Roots of Our

Ecological Crisis.” While having some sympathy for his disappointment in Christians, I

took issue with his simple-mindedness and found his thesis of Christianity being the

primary underwriter of environmental ills narrow and scripturally unfounded. I am

convinced that the Bible teaches precisely an environment-honoring story included in its

ongoing tale of recognition, thanksgiving, submission and creative redemption.

In Module Three, there seemed to be a glimmer of a counter-argument. Kinsley

said the aggressive pursuit of dominance of nature was antithetical to biblical teaching:

I think the argument that the Bible and Christian thought were the primary
influences upon their thinking is not completely convincing. In some ways it is
plausible to make the case that these modern thinkers represent a sharp departure
from biblical and Christian thought. (Kinsley. p. 125-126)

Rather than squander the opportunity of this paper in becoming absorbed in

apologetics or proposing a Christian pro-environmentalist Confession of Faith peppered

with scriptural proofs, I’ll leave that task to theologians. If the reader is interested in a

lucid discussion of the intersection of the Bible and the environment, one source that

comes to mind is the John Ray Initiative and another is the Harvard University Religion

and Ecology Forum page:

(http://environment.harvard.edu/religion/religion/christianity/projects/john_ray.html).

Also, Professor Gordon Wenham’s “The Bible and the Environment” is an excellent

lecture. It is found online at http://www.jri.org.uk/brief/bible_wenham.htm.) After a

scholarly and hermeneutically mature exposition, Wenham concludes his speech simply

by saying,

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 …we do not need a sophisticated theology to tell us what to do. ‘Love your
neighbour as yourself’ surely demands that we are as concerned as much with the
effects of our actions on our neighbours in Africa as on our neighbours in
Cheltenham. That is why we ought to take the environmental crisis seriously.
(Wenham)

Back to The Matrix: My reflection on the Environmental disconnect leads me to a

greater, overarching and camouflaged source of the problem. I was reminded during our

Module Three readings. Though that section was demanding, I went on and read an

unassigned essay: David Loy’s “The Religion of the Market.” It brought me back to

another related essay, “The Market As God” by Harvey Cox. It was this self-same

argument that rendered the indigenous/Occidental/Oriental comparisons as subset

squabbles. I had clarity.

We ascribe much environmental injury to Judeo-Christian influence, but it is a

Christianity heavily contaminated by Enlightenment philosophy and its adherents. It was

those men: Descartes, Bacon and Adam Smith who were the forefather prophets who

gave birth to our new actual one-world religion, “The Market.” In the matrix (womb) of

The Market, or “Empire”, we can sling arrows at Christians, technocrats, capitalists,

vegans and lumberjacks to see which ideological tribe possesses the moral high ground.

As it is in politics, with players assuming their roles as saber-rattlers, promise land

deliverers, courtiers, hecklers, sycophants, or subterfuge, so is The Market pleased to

encourage fruitless conflict in order to deflect attention away from actual problem-

solving, Meanwhile, The Market goes about its business sovereign and unmolested. The

Market is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, Democrat nor Republican. Labour nor

Tory, East nor West: It is omnipresent and trans-national.

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 Professor James K.A. Smith is in the process of writing a book concentrating on

Empire and how our existing view of it as being trademarked by America - its stock-in-

trade (apologies to S.D. Sharma) so to speak, is now an outmoded way of thinking. He

writes,

…our age of Empire is post-imperialist; therefore, the nexus of Empire is not

linked to or directed by a sovereign state, as the language of “American Empire”
would suggest. Rather, Empire is post-national, and therefore any diagnosis and
critique of imperial realities must abandon now antiquated imperialist paradigms,
including all of the critical apparatus that was marshaled in opposition to such
modern accounts of sovereignty. Granted, the United States continues to play a
central role in Empire, but not as the territorial seat of imperialist power. There
remains a link between America and Empire, but not as a qualifier: not American
empire, but rather America serving Empire, even perhaps America as privileged
colony of Empire, now understood as a transnational network of “flows” of
capital through a global market that transcends territorial control. Post-imperial
Empire means that the market has taken on a life of its own as a rather
Frankenstein-ish creation of modernity that eludes the control of modern nation-
states. Empire has outgrown the constraints of national sovereignty. Its anthem is
no longer “Rule, Britannia!” or some other national hymn; its anthem is more on
the order of, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke!” (Smith)

In short, the state’s role has been reduced to “franchisee” and now is itself a servant to the

larger, one-stop-shopping empire-builder, the Market. In our textbook, Loy explains,

If…we understand religion as what most fundamentally grounds us by

teaching us what the world is, and what our role in the world is, two facts become
obvious: traditional religions are fulfilling this function less and less; …. Today,
the most powerful alternative explanation of the world is science, and the most
attractive value-system has become consumerism. Their academic offspring is
economics, the most influential of the "social sciences"…our present economic
system should also be understood as our religion, because it has come to
fulfill a religious function for us [emphasis added]. The discipline of economics
is less a science than the theology of that religion, and its god, the Market, has
become a vicious circle of ever-increasing production and consumption by
pretending to offer a secular salvation. The collapse of the communist "heresy"
makes it more apparent that the Market is becoming the first truly world religion,
binding all corners of the globe more and more tightly into a world-view and set
of values whose religious role we overlook only because we insist on seeing them
as "secular". (Foltz. p. 66-67)

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 This machinery is what runs roughshod over the environment. As addle-headed as

Easterbrook is, he speaks rightly when he says we should take aim at materialism. The

Market is pleased to lay blame on the Church, pointing to poisoned doctrine or rumors of

false doctrine or its crippled cultural offspring (our textbook makes an overstated claim

casting Calvin as a champion of capitalism – see note) for being the chief perpetrator of

environmental damage.

Empire is likewise just as pleased to smile patronizingly at the asceticism of

Eastern or indigenous traditions as to make non-consumption a behavior as quaint as the

Amish because the Market has so victoriously implanted consumer craving in the general

population’s DNA. The East can then riotously partake of the Western-born fruits of the

Market with the added benefit as still being perceived as possessing the moral high

ground. At least until we all reach critical mass, realizing that all have fallen short, that

none are good.

Do you seek to live simply? The Market recommends you buy or rent Witness,

starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. Its depiction of austerity is your substitute for

living austerely. Do you want affirmation that you are an independent thinker? Buy or

rent The Matrix box set. Passive reception of entertainment is our preferred mode of

understanding -- we can “consume” portrayals of experiences and in their digestion,

approximate and replicate a detached empathy, rather than having to endure a visceral

experience of sharing another’s experience. That is removed once again when it comes to

the environment.

The old story of God’s covenant with both the earth and humankind, and
its assignment to human beings of the role of good stewards and faithful servants,

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 was – before it was misinterpreted and twisted in the service of the Cartesian
worldview – a powerful, noble, and just explanation of who we are in relation to
God’s earth. (Gore. p. 218)

The efforts of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins notwithstanding,

Christians are not going away anytime soon. They must be engaged and enlightened

against the rampaging of an unbridled Market. First thing is to find out with whom we are

sleeping.

…there is no conceivable limit to its inexorable ability to convert creation into

commodities. But again, this is hardly a new idea, though it has a new twist. In
Catholic theology, through what is called "transubstantiation," ordinary bread and
wine become vehicles of the holy. In the mass of The Market a reverse process
occurs. Things that have been held sacred transmute into interchangeable items
for sale. Land is a good example. For millennia it has held various meanings,
many of them numinous. It has been Mother Earth, ancestral resting place, holy
mountain, enchanted forest, tribal homeland, aesthetic inspiration, sacred turf, and
much more. But when The Market's Sanctus bell rings and the elements are
elevated, all these complex meanings of land melt into one: real estate. At the
right price no land is not for sale, and this includes everything from burial
grounds to the cove of the local fertility sprite. This radical desacralization
dramatically alters the human relationship to land; the same happens with water,
air, space, and soon (it is predicted) the heavenly bodies. (Cox)

As Luther did in nailing his Ninety-Five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg,

Christians must now perform a cleaving from the Market and its Enlightenment

antecedents, lest they likewise become apostate. Righteousness and purity would seem to

demand a renunciation of the Market, but as is the case with Christian believers, neither

is the Market going away anytime soon. Here is where a militant “dominionist” posture is

truly a righteous thing. It can be as simple as obeying the command to rest. To take one

agreed-upon day every week and abstain from consuming, from purchasing, anything

will serve to reduce The Market to lowercase letters. The Christian believer can take

courage in knowing that the enemy is under God’s foot, and for the person of conscience,

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to rightly identify the enemy is the first step to declaring victory.

NOTES

With regard to Calvin and capitalism, see Paul Tillich’s lecture explaining that Calvin
encouraged prudent investment as opposed to living ostentatiously.

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http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2310&C=2341

For further reading:

On Christian environmental projects:

http://environment.harvard.edu/religion/religion/christianity/projects/john_ray.html

http://christiansandclimate.org/

On how a philosophical worldview becomes an unconscious part of the grid of our

thinking, even insofar as to attach itself to faith, article “The Devil Reads Derrida” by
James K.A. Smith. He cleverly uses Meryl Streep’s monologue from The Devil Wears
Prada to make the point (be sure to scroll down – it’s a cluttered online magazine page):
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/850/102306/102306.htm

WORKS CITED

Cox, Harvey. "The Market As God: Living in the New Dispensation." Atlantic Monthly
March 1999: 18-23.

Foltz, Richard C. Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment: A Global

Anthology. Toronto: Thomson Wadsworth, 2003.

Gore, Al. Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. 1st. New
York: Rodale, 1992.

Smith, James, K.A. "THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM, OR ANOTHER GOSPEL?" The

Religion and Culture Web Forum. December2007. Martin Marty Center, University of
Chicago. 19 Jun 2008 <http://marty-
center.uchicago.edu/webforum/122007/smith_gospel_of_freedom.pdf>.

Wenham, Gordon. "http://www.jri.org.uk/brief/bible_wenham.pdf." The Bible and the

Environment. Unknown. The John Ray Initiative. 19 Jun 2008
<http://www.jri.org.uk/brief/bible_wenham.pdf>.