Climate and Covenant

by David Atkinson, Bishop of Thetford

A shorter version of this article was published as "How to make God's promise good",
in The Church Times, 13 July 2007 and is republished with permission.

Global warming is changing more than the climate

The climate is changing, and there is now a very high confidence by an overwhelming majority of scientists that human activity is a significant part of that change. The global atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased markedly since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values. Much of this is due to fossil fuel use, changes in land use, and agriculture.

The effects of global warming are increasingly well known. Changing weather patterns such as hurricanes and floods; the melting of the glaciers; the softening of the permafrost; the melting of the polar ice-caps and the ice on Greenland; more intense and frequent heatwaves; the growth of the deserts and consequent likelihood of famine in some areas; the rise in sea levels; the death of the coral reefs. Countries like the Maldives and Bangladesh may disappear under water. There will be a huge movement of migrants from these countries to more habitable parts of the world.

Climate change is real, is growing, and has potentially very dangerous consequences for the well being of the planet and for human life - and the people most affected will be in the poorest and most disadvantaged parts of the world. There is therefore a strong moral imperative to do all we can to avert the danger, reduce the likelihood of global warming continuing at the present rate, and prepare for its likely consequences. There is a moral obligation also on the present generation not to do things which will significantly damage the planet's capacity to provide a home for our children and grandchildren. There is a further moral obligation to live within our means. At present rates of energy use and consumption in Britain, we need about three planet earths to sustain our current way of life.

But global warming is changing more than the climate.

Changing climate is changing our human relationship to the planet

Previous generations used to speak of Nature as 'given' to us, and we responded to it, enjoyed it, sometimes shamefully exploited it, and damaged parts of it, but it remained distinct from us. But now we are changing the way our earth system works. We are now, for better or worse, active in shaping the world's climate; we are changing Nature. We are becoming what Tim Flannery calls "weather-makers". And everything which depends on the weather is changing too. In other words, climate change is opening up in fresh and inescapable ways questions about our human relationship to the natural world, our human place in the natural order, the purposes for which we live and act, and the goals for human activity. What are we for?

Climate change also forces us to reflect on our human creativity, not least in relation to technological expertise. There are some who see technology as the source of our problems. It is the requirement of energy resources on such a scale resulting from the industrialisation of the world which has caused the situation in which we find ourselves. Can technology also find the answer? Is the challenge of climate change one that can be answered in terms of human ingenuity and human technical skill? To do so would require global cooperation of a sort not yet seen. Is the human race capable of such cooperation? Or is there a dimension to the human condition which is ultimately self-centred and self-absorbed, and which could frustrate even the best intentions of the best of us to use our ingenuity positively and for the sake of others?

Even if we could agree on such cooperation, are we ready to? Part of the problem is that we are being asked to make decisions which are costly for us now in the hope that they will improve the world in 50 years time. Many of us would prefer that the question will just go away. It is, as Al Gore put it, an "inconvenient truth".

This is a moral and spiritual question

Climate change also opens up fresh perspectives on our human fragility and vulnerability. If there is a measure of uncertainty and fear in our generation about the likely effects of sea-level rise, increasing coastal erosion, and the disappearance of some low lying lands, what vulnerabilities are we creating for future generations? How do we now allow future generations to put their needs and their rights before us?

There is the further factor, namely that the parts of the world most severely affected by global warming will be the places which are most vulnerable, most poor and most disadvantaged. As David Miliband said in a speech to the Vatican in May 2007, this is a moral question.

"Climate change is not just an environmental or economic issue, it is a moral and ethical one. It is not just an issue for politicians or businesses, it is an issue for the world's faith communities."

Climate change is thus opening up for us in ways which we would not have sought, questions about human life and destiny, about our relationship to the planet and to each other, about altruism and selfishness, about the place of technology, about our values, hopes and goals, and about our moral obligations for the present and for the future. There are moral and spiritual and therefore theological dimensions.

The meaning of 'covenant'

One theological category which holds together many of these factors, and which provides a Christian perspective on these moral and spiritual dimensions is "covenant".

A covenant is a relationship based on a promise. The story of the Hebrew Bible is of covenants made between God and people - Abraham the patriarch, Moses the law-giver and prophet, David the king. In each God promises himself to be the peoples' God; in each there are commitments made by the people to live in responsive obedience to God. The heart of the relationships is faithful, steadfast love. In the New Testament, the promises made to Abraham, through Moses, about David all come to their focus in Jesus of Nazareth, who creates a new community through what he calls "the new covenant in my blood". In both Testaments the people of God have the privilege and responsibility of responding to God's love and living out the life of God's character. The prophets of the Old Testament remind them of God's character: justice (Amos), faithful love (Hosea), universal compassion (Jonah), all of these held together and symbolised by God's servant (Isaiah). Micah summarises it in this way:

"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." (6.8)

The covenant of peace

Behind these covenants with people is a deeper and more wide-ranging covenant which is described by Isaiah in terms of a "covenant of peace". This is a covenant God makes with the whole of the created order. Isaiah (54. 9-10) refers back to the story of Noah and the Flood (Gen. 9). There God speaks of 'the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations.' It is saying that all creatures receive their life from the hand of God, and that there is an interdependence between humanity and the rest of the created order. We humans need proper engagement with the natural order for our mutual wellbeing. The human covenants which we make with one another, which are intended to reflect God's covenant with his people, are all in the context of a covenant of God's commitment to the earth. The rainbow is described as a sign of "the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." (Gen 9.16). As climate change brings more floods, we need to recall that rainbow.

Covenant is the inner meaning of creation

Covenant, then, is the inner meaning of creation. At creation's heart is, so to speak, the personal commitment of God to the wellbeing of God's earth. Creation is not just "Nature" - which was wrongly thought of as 'the world out there which we are free to use and exploit at our pleasure'. There have sadly been times when Christian people have (wrongly) taken as a charter for exploitation the words of the psalmist, "You have given them dominion over the works of your hands", (Ps.8 6), without remembering the context of humble reverence and wonder earlier in that psalm, that human dignity finds its value in being God's gift, and without remembering that humanity is "crowned" with the kingly function, is commissioned by God to caring for "the works of God's hands". The true king, another psalm reminds us, is committed to the cause of the poor and saves the needy from oppression. (Ps 72). As climate change mostly affects the poor and needy of the world, the obligation to care grows on the nations which have enough.

The Sabbath is about covenant joy

One of the biblical themes which holds together "creation" and "covenant" is the provision of "the Sabbath" - when, we are told, God "rested" from the work of creation and "was refreshed" (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 31:17), and when God's people were to refrain from work (Exodus 20:10), and to recall God's deliverance of them from slavery (Deuteronomy 5:15). Rest and reflection leads to worship, to refreshment, and to enjoyment. A good sabbath leads to 'delight in the Lord' (Isaiah 58.14) rather than serving our own interests; we can link this to the enjoyment the Lord God presumably had walking round the Garden in the cool of the evening (Genesis 3:8). We recall that Jesus used the Sabbath for the welfare of his fellow human beings. Sabbath, then is about the enjoyment of the created order. It is also about reflection on the needs of others.

It was on the Sabbath day that Jesus linked the prophecy of Isaiah to himself "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour". This last reference is to the jubilee laws of Leviticus 25, a "Sabbath of complete rest for the land" (Leviticus 25:4) which stood as a reminder that, as the psalmist put it, "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it" (Psalm 24:1).

Climate change is a forceful reminder that the work of technology is not enough; humanity and the whole earth need a rhythm of worship, rest and refreshment, and need the spiritual dimensions to life and to choices signalled by the Sabbath.

Justice is the covenant obligation

At the heart of the covenant of God with his people is a call to "Do justice". The psalmist links together God's creation with his character: "Happy are those…whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; who keeps faith for ever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. (Ps 146)". Sustainable development goes hand in hand with the obligations forced on us by climate change. The alleviation of poverty, an equitable distribution of the rich resources of God's earth, environmental conservation, and fair and just adaptation to climate change are inseparably woven together. The task climate changes forces on us is not simply about reducing carbon emissions, crucially important though that is. It is also about seeking a global consensus on a fair way of adapting as a planet to climate change. Commitment to the God who is 'on the side of the poor' makes it imperative for Christian people to consider the needs of the poorest countries of the world as well as the poor on the margins in their own communities.

Hope: the covenant goal

The vision of the whole creation renewed in Christ is the basis for Christian hope and the fulfilment of the covenant of peace. Isaiah speaks about a coming "new heaven and new earth" in which there is joy, justice and ecological harmony (Isa. 65. 17 -25). St Paul's Christian hope is rooted in creation being one day "set free" from its bondage to decay. "The whole creation is in labour, longing for God's new world to be born." The moral obligation on the Christian Church, and indeed on all humanity, is therefore to work urgently for that time in ways consistent with that hope. "Look after creation" was God's mandate in the beginning. That is reaffirmed and underlined in the resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the first step in God's new creation. "Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."

The Rt Revd Dr David Atkinson is Bishop of Thetford in the Diocese of Norwich