Loving Nature: Christian Environmental Ethics
— Simmoms, Sorrels, 2016

"Loving Nature: Christian Environmental Ethics," Pages 313-331 in Frederick V. Simmons with Brian C. Sorrels, eds., Love and Christian Ethics: Tradition, Theory, and Society (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2016).
Online at: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/181774

The two great commandments are to love God and neighbor; but ought we to love a loveless nature? Agape seems nowhere there to be found. Most of the sensibilities we nourish in civilized beings--being fair or kind, respect for rights--are not there in the wild. Is any sense of "love gone wild" plausible? The better category might be intrinsic values found in creation, to which we are drawn in respect and care. Loving the land is a central theme in Hebrew faith, a land for which God cares. In the landscape surrounding him Jesus found ample evidence of the presence of God. In Genesis, God enjoys biodiversity. Words translated as "wilderness" occur nearly 300 times in the Bible. Jesus is regularly found returning to the wilderness. Anciently Palestine was a promised land. Today the call is to see Earth as a planet with promise, destined for abundant life.