Theology of Creation

Wiccans challenge Christians to have a deep understanding of God's creation and to care for the earth. Until very recently, Christians have had little to say on the subject. There are probably many reasons why this is so. One being that in the absence of a deep view of God's immanence in the world, the creation has simply been taken for granted. Another is that in Western nations many Christians have been preoccupied with other debates at the expense of the creation. Western churches have often aligned themselves with the capitalist industrialism that has so exploited the earth's resources. Some Christians have presumed that such exploitation is part of our mandate to subdue the earth, and that in the long run it won't matter anyway because when we die we go to heaven.

Such notions are antithetical to Biblical revelation. First, the creation narratives make it clear that God placed the primordial humans on earth as gardeners to look after the creation. The first humans were appointed as stewards, ultimately responsible to God for looking after his creation. Their 'dominion' over the earth was not, according to the text, to be a rapacious greedy justification for the rape and destruction of the earth.

Second, the creation is not a wound up clock left by God to its own devices. As we have seen before, God is immanent in the creation. God's Spirit is intimately involved in maintaining and sustaining all life. The earth belongs to the Lord (Exodus 9: 29). The New Testament depicts Jesus Christ as the Creator (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:3). The Christian's mindset is therefore to be transformed by recognizing that the entire creation was made by, through and for Christ (Colossians 1: 16-17). If we devalue the creation, we devalue the very handiwork of God in Christ. Such an outlook is inconsistent with Christ's teachings.

Much more can be acknowledged and acted upon from the Bible. After the great flood, God's renewed covenant was made with Noah's family, the animals and all the creation (Gen. 9). This reiterates the importance of the creation in the divine economy. The creation is not some cosmic rubbish dump for humanity to destroy. Humans are again appointed to be custodians and stewards of the creation.

With the foundation of Israel, the divine law given to Moses set forth specific principles on which the earth was to be tended. The land was to be used for planting and harvesting for six years, with a seventh year Sabbath rest for the land. The sixth year was to be used for setting aside harvested crops to sustain human needs during the seventh year of agricultural rest. This also included a stipulation of provender for the poor and the refugee. Thus within the Bible one finds principles on which a Christian approach to ecology can be developed.

It is surely a poignant point that the Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer's plea for this in his book  Pollution and the Death of Man  (1970), was disregarded until it became fashionable to be a greenie in the 1990s. Schaeffer also demonstrated how the humanist-based approach to industrialism was the primary contributor to the ecological crisis and clarified what the role of the Church ought to be. Unfortunately, as with so many contemporary cultural debates, the Church has ceased to have any cutting edge leadership or prophetic role, and instead waits in timidity until secular society has grappled with an issue before joining the bandwagon. Christians need to recapture the "craziness" and "madness" of the old prophets who took a stand for ultimate and intimate things, and be forthright in words and deeds with respect to God's beautiful creation.

On another tack, it should be emphasized that J. R. R. Tolkien, who was a devout Catholic Christian, presented a breath-taking view of the splendour of creation and the pressing need to care for it through his marvellous mythology about middle earth. The Silmarillion offers a dazzlingly beautiful portrait of creation. In  The Lord of the Rings  we see Gandalf the wizard as a steward of the creation. Gandalf is a potent mythic figure who incarnates the universal hero myth. An obvious parallel to Christ is seen when Gandalf dies, descends into the abyss with the Balrog, and rises again from the dead victorious. He also echoes the apocalyptic Christ when he is clothed in white riding the great white horse Shadowfax. The hobbits are gardeners who tend to the lovely Shire. The mysterious Tom Bombadil likewise was the first one to walk the earth and is master over trees and animals in the most genteel manner.

Tolkien's creation of the Ents as tree shepherds is a further example of his ecological concerns. Treebeard is appalled at the destruction of the Forest by Saruman and the orcs, and finally goads the Ents to act in the war so that the Forest may be saved. Another vision of the creation's splendour and preservation is portrayed by the elves dwelling in Lothlorien. By contrast the dreaded Land of Mordor is barren, coated in dust and ashes. We must recall that Tolkien's mythology was already being scribbled down whilst surviving the horrors of trench warfare in the First World War.  The Lord of the Rings  was released in the 1950s, and  The Silmarillion  released posthumously in the 1970s.

A final point is that Christians have lost sight of the fact that the Bible speaks of a coming new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21). The Bible shows that the Cross and Resurrection of Christ is not just concerned with the redemption of individuals, but sweeps up all of the cosmos (Romans 8:22ff). The prophetic vision of a renovated world includes the animals (Isaiah 11: 6-8; 65: 25), for God will not discard his creation. Indeed, God as the judge of humanity will require of us an account of what we have done to his creation. Surely the Biblical revelation offers a grand picture of the creation, and this could become a great dialogue point between Christians and Wiccans.

Wiccans often gather together for ritual ceremonies in a forest where they can attune themselves to the forces of nature. Some Wiccans affirm that the earth has places of power where ancient pagan temples once stood, like Stonehenge. Other places of natural wonder may be imbued with power such as Uluru. Some Wiccans embrace geomancy where ley lines of power can be detected throughout the natural world. By attuning oneself with the ley lines or centres of power, harmony within and harmony without may be achieved.

I believe the Wiccan vision of Sacred Sites and the use of geomancy glimpses something of the power of the Spirit of God resonating in the creation. We need to expand our vision through both reaffirming God's immanence and in a theology of the creation to speak to this issue. The whole creation is sacred because of the ever present Spirit of God at work within it. This same sense is found in the Lord's prayer where Jesus prays, 'hallowed be thy name on earth as it is in heaven'. This prayer is affirming the sacred presence of even God's name in the earth. The incarnation of Christ likewise reiterates the sacred presence of God embodied in the person of Jesus. By his bodily presence in the world Christ sanctified the world, and this continues on with the giving of the abiding Spirit to believers.

The Bible also gives us instances of spiritual encounters related to geographical places. We see this with God walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:8), Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3), and again on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19), Isaiah in the Temple (Isaiah 6), and when Jesus was transfigured (Matthew 17). However the fundamental point of the Bible is that God may be encountered anywhere in the world and can be worshipped. With respect to geomantic magic, Christians and Wiccans will beg to differ over its usage. However common ground can be seen in the mutual interest in the sacredness of the earth.

The role of Wiccan practitioners as healers surely must goad us to return to a Biblical ministry of healing and to live by principles of well being found in Scripture. All healing is grounded in the nature and character of God, for he is the Lord God who heals (Exodus 15: 26). We see in the ministry of Jesus that healing was one of his pre-eminent activities in meeting human needs and bringing about reconciliation between God and humanity. Jesus announces his ministry in proclaiming the Gospel to encompass healing (Luke 4: 16-21). The apostles likewise had a ministry of healing, and the New Testament encourages Christians to anoint people with oil and pray for the sick (James 5: 14-15).

With respect to folk remedies, energy healing and complementary therapies, the challenge for Christians is to find the work of the Spirit of God here too and to avoid the tendency to simply debunk or demonize whatever is unfamiliar. Elsewhere I have written about the way such a positive theological understanding of energy healing could be developed.