{"id":21,"date":"2010-06-05T11:48:13","date_gmt":"2010-06-05T11:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/06\/world-environment-day-and-christianity-retire-st-boniface.html"},"modified":"2010-06-05T11:48:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-05T11:48:13","slug":"world-environment-day-and-christianity-retire-st-boniface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/06\/world-environment-day-and-christianity-retire-st-boniface.html","title":{"rendered":"World Environment Day and Christianity: Retire St. Boniface!"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

June 5 is World Environment Day<\/a>.  <\/span>Similar to Earth Day, WED celebrates the global movement for
\nenvironmental activism by commemorating the 1972 United Nations Conference on
\nthe Human Environment, the first such international conference. <\/span><\/p>\n

June 5 also marks the Feast Day of St. Boniface<\/a>
\n(672-754).  <\/span>St. Boniface is
\nremembered as the Apostle of the Germans and is the patron saint of Germany,
\nand who is credited with establishing Christianity among ancient Germanic tribal
\npeoples. <\/span><\/p>\n

The most famous incident in St. Boniface’s life happened
\naround 723.  <\/span>Boniface arrived in
\nthe village of Geismar and began to preach the Christian Gospel at the base of
\nThor’s Oak, the sacred tree of the Germans. To prove the superiority of the Christian
\nGod over Thor, Boniface took an axe to the tree beseeching Thor to strike him
\ndead if he cut the holy oak. 
\n<\/span>According to the legend, Thor failed to respond and Boniface fell the
\ntree, aided by a “great wind” that, as if by miracle, blew the ancient oak
\nover.  <\/span>The terrified pagans
\ndeserted Thor and embraced the Christian God.  <\/span> <\/span>Boniface promptly
\ntook the sacred splinters and made a cross, and eventually used the rest of the
\nwood to build a church where the tree once stood.<\/p>\n

That World Environment Day and a feast day for an
\naxe-wielding, tree-chopping Christian saint fall on the same date strikes me a
\none of history’s sad–if not tragic–ironies. <\/span><\/p>\n

In his seminal 1967 paper, “The Historical Roots of Our
\nEcological Crisis,”<\/a> UCLA professor Lynn White blamed Christianity for the
\nglobal environmental crisis:<\/p>\n

Especially in
\nits Western form, Christianity is the
\nmost anthropocentric religion the world has seen.<\/span> As early as the 2nd
\ncentury both Tertullian and Saint Irenaeus of Lyons were insisting that when
\nGod shaped Adam he was foreshadowing the image of the incarnate Christ, the
\nSecond Adam. Man shares, in great measure, God’s transcendence of nature. Christianity<\/span>, in absolute contrast to
\nancient paganism and Asia’s religions (except, perhaps, Zorastrianism), not
\nonly established a dualism of man and
\nnature<\/span> but also insisted that it is God’s will that man exploit nature
\nfor his proper ends.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

White’s forceful argument has shaped much of the conversation between
\nChristianity and environmentalism over the last four decades–an uneasy
\nrelationship if ever there has been one. 
\n<\/span>Many environmentalists follow White, seeing Christianity as a problem in
\nthe face of global warming and environment crises.  <\/span>Indeed, studies show that theologically conservative people
\nreject global warming, animal rights, environmental activism, and species
\nprotection.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite St. Boniface and his lasting influence of western culture,
\nChristianity may not be completely lost to the global environmental
\nmovement.  <\/span>Indeed, even Lynn White
\npointed out that some strands of Christian tradition–most notably represented by
\nSt. Francis of Assisi, the nature-embracing saint–spoke to an “alternative
\nChristian view of nature and man’s relation to it.”  <\/span>He proposed that St. Francis be the “patron saint of
\necologists.”  <\/span>In one of the most
\nprovocative passages in his paper, White said:<\/span><\/p>\n

Both our present science and our present
\ntechnology are so tinctured with orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature
\nthat no solution for our ecologic crisis can be expected from them alone. Since
\nthe roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be
\nessentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and re<\/span><\/i>–<\/span><\/i>feel our nature and destiny. The profoundly
\nreligious, but heretical, sense of the primitive Franciscans for the spiritual
\nautonomy of all parts of nature may point a direction. I propose Francis as a
\npatron saint for ecologists.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

St. Francis is of course, a
\nbetter-remembered and more beloved figure than St. Boniface.  <\/span>But, on this World Environment Day, I
\ncan’t help but think that Christians give lip service to Francis while still
\nacting like Boniface.  <\/span>For the sake
\nof all creation, I think we need to embrace Lynn White’s 1967 suggestion–to
\nstop cutting down sacred oaks in favor of following the way of St. Francis,
\n“the greatest radical in Christian history since Christ,” who according to
\nWhite, “tried to
\ndepose man from his monarchy over creation and set up a democracy of all God’s
\ncreatures.<\/span>“<\/span><\/p>\n

To White’s
\nproposal, I say:  Amen. Time to retire St. Boniface and instead do as St. Francis would do–<\/span>give the brown
\npelicans in the Gulf a vote.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 5 is World Environment Day.  Similar to Earth Day, WED celebrates the global movement for environmental activism by commemorating the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, the first such international conference.  June 5 also marks the Feast Day of St. Boniface (672-754).  St. Boniface is remembered as the Apostle of the Germans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-environmentalism","category-history-and-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nWorld Environment Day and Christianity: Retire St. Boniface! - Christianity for the Rest of Us<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/2010\/06\/world-environment-day-and-christianity-retire-st-boniface.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World Environment Day and Christianity: Retire St. Boniface! 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She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christianityfortherestofus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}