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Position: As a professor emeritus, he now teaches in Johns Hopkins'
Master of Liberal Arts program and at Baltimore's Ecumenical Institute of
Theology established by St. Mary's Seminary & University.
Date: Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 7 PM Title: "Ecology and Biblical Theology in Conversation: Fertile Connections Between Science and Religion." Abstract:One of the major themes running through the Bible is the question of how humans should relate to the land. In the Hebrew Bible, that theme is expressed in the emerging understanding of covenant and the importance of just land use. In the New Testament, it emerges in Jesus' message about God's Kingdom and its focus on justice. Biblical understandings of land, covenant, and justice emerged in part from the ongoing struggle of the Israelites to learn how to farm in the Judean hills, a struggle that revealed their covenantal connectedness to the land and the importance of justice for the land, the creatures of the land, and the poor of the land. They learned that there could be no flourishing apart from mutual flourishing. Modern ecology teaches a similar lesson. Every ecosystem is a natural community in which organisms flourish by a delicate balance involving individual well-being and a fruitful relationship with the community. Here too, there can be no flourishing apart from mutual flourishing. Reflection on these related insights teaches us much about our religious tradition and how we can live fruitfully in our increasingly crowded world. His web page in the Earth Sciences Dept is here |
