A hymn not for the Anthropocene?
By: Ben Norris
Tags: Climate Change, Climate, Christianity, Christian Living

This evening at church we sang the fairly old traditional hymn “All creatures of our God and King”. It’s one I’ve sung all my life and usually could get through on autopilot if I didn’t choose to focus.

But today it felt jarring and stuck in my mind. How can we sing a song exhorting the rest of creation to praise the Creator God in an epoch where humans are doing such damage to the world we are a part of? Today when human-caused climate change is driving ecosystem collapse, falling biodiversity, global heating, and rapid daily extinctions… I can no longer sing this hymn in good conscience.

Here are some of the verses:

This is a hymn in which we play the conductor of the choir of creation — comprised of plants, animals, rocks, stars, and all that is — instructing it, rightfully so, to give praise to a Creator who is infinitely deserving of it. Could a conductor ask someone to sing while muffling their mouth with her hand? In singing this hymn and not taking seriously the biblical mandate for stewardship in our way of living we are doing exactly that.

The role of humans in creation is specified in the first few pages of the Bible — to have “dominion” over the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26–28), and to “work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). The term “dominion” is defined by descriptions of how to rightly use it (instructions for kingly rule in Deut. 17:18–20, reflections on kingship in Ps. 72:1–6 and 2 Samuel 23:3–4). We sadly do not use our dominion over the rest of creation to reign like King David over Israel, who brought about a golden age and blessed all under his rule.

Furthermore, the Hebrew words for “work it and take care of it” are the same words used in Numbers to describe the service of priests in God’s temple. The priests would “work and take care of” the Temple to serve God and facilitate their fellow Israelites’ worship. Our working of the earth, on the other hand, is usually selfish and overwhelmingly serves to muffle the praise that our fellow creatures sing to the Creator (Ps. 19). These parallels with King David and the priesthood are not a coincidence but an insight into how we are meant to act as the human part of Creation.

Instead of dominion where, “ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sunrise on a cloudless morning, like rain that brings grass from the earth.” humans in the course of technological development have wielded power as domination, and have exploited other parts of creation selfishly. The decline of ecosystems and damage to biodiversity and the global heating occurring world-wide is directly and indirectly resulting from human action and is symptomatic of a prideful, anthropocentric, and evidently from Scripture a sinful outlook where creation is taken as for humans, rather than for God:

“From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” Rom 11.36

I was in a lecture once where the speaker pointed out that in some archaic Christian artwork we see the Garden of Eden painted not as some overgrown wilds, but rather as a beautifully manicured lawn with hedges and trees — clearly Adam and Eve were expected to be doing the gardening!

This, then, is closer to what the biblical picture of human relationship with the other members of creation is. We are here not to exploit, but to augment. Human flourishing at the expense of other parts of creation does not bring as much glory and praise to God as it would if humans were to fulfil our creation mandate to “work and take care of” creation, ensuring that it flourishes alongside and with us.

So back to this hymn. I like the sentiment — it is right to seek God’s praise. But how ought we do it? We cannot sing and not act too. A Christian cannot be unrepentant in light of the environmental damage we are all complicit in as individuals and as a society, and so we must consciously work to change those things in our lives and in our society that contribute to muffling the praises sung by creation by having an unsustainable burden on the planet.

Some ideas (pick one?)

Change your diet. Wear a jumper. Save with ethical banks that don’t invest in fossil fuels. Compel your workplace/university to divest. Purchase fewer new things. Spend more on ethically sourced food. Join in tree-planting or, better, rewilding. Avoid flying, or offset the carbon of your flights. Join Extinction Rebellion. Write to your MP.

Feel free to message me if any questions/if you want further reading.