Uses of the Bible in Environmental Ethics

近几十年来，人们越来越意识到人类活动对自然环境的影响，气候变化等问题在政治议程上日益突出。大量的文献致力于了解这些环境变化的原因，并寻找通往可持续未来的途径。这是该项目最广泛的研究背景。对环境危机的许多神学反应构成了一个更具体的背景，其中经常有人认为，必须在世界观、价值观和态度的层面上寻求问题的原因和解决办法，而这些基本上是宗教问题。更具体的是林恩·怀特（Lynn White Jr .）在一篇现在已成为经典的文章中表达的对基督教传统的挑战，怀特认为，西方的基督教世界观导致了对自然世界的工具性态度，并且在很大程度上要对人类开发造成的环境退化负责。怀特的批评有力地提出了一个问题，即圣经传统是否必然产生一种不充分重视非人类世界的人类中心主义世界观。神学家以各种方式回应这一论点，并经常诉诸《圣经》来支持他们的论点。然而，这种吸引力大多是肤浅的，集中在某些“最喜欢的”文本上，缺乏对当代圣经学术的认真参与。相比之下，许多圣经研究都没有与当代伦理和神学讨论联系起来。因此，本项目首先旨在批判性地审视在讨论环境问题的背景下对《圣经》提出的各种呼吁，从将《圣经》视为教导人类卓越和地球即将毁灭的文本的呼吁，到将《圣经》视为负责任的管理任务的呼吁，甚至是一种全新的、非人类中心主义的生态神学的资源。该项目的核心是密切关注旧约和新约中的关键圣经文本，具有历史敏感性和训诂关怀，并考虑这些文本的生态维度和伦理潜力。因此，在该项目的支持下开展的工作旨在将圣经学术和历史研究的方法和结果与环境问题和生态神学进行对话，促进跨学科边界的学术互动。因此，最后的任务将是考虑《圣经》在这一重要领域对当代神学伦理的贡献，以及考虑什么样的解释方法是合理和适当的，以使《圣经》文本在生态神学的形成中发挥建设性作用。这些不同且相互关联的任务将由项目组成员直接完成，也将通过访问演讲者、国际访问者和咨询委员会成员的贡献来完成。这个项目的好处包括以下几点。首先，它将对各种对圣经的吸引力对环境的影响——积极的和消极的——进行批判性的评估，这一评估可能会丰富对这一领域宗教世界观与政治和伦理立场之间关系的更广泛的分析。其次，它将提供一些有充分根据的材料，说明具体的圣经经文如何与生态问题和关注联系起来。第三，它将为当代生态神学的形成提供宝贵的核心资源，从而有助于完成一项紧迫而重要的神学和伦理任务。

Awareness of the impact of human activity on the natural environment has been growing in recent decades, with issues such as climate change now increasingly prominent on the political agenda. A large body of literature is devoted to understanding the causes of these environmental changes and to finding ways towards a sustainable future. This is the broadest level of research context for the project. A more specific context is constituted by the many theological responses to the environmental crisis, in which it is often argued that the causes and solutions to the problems must be sought at the level of worldview, values and attitudes, and that these are essentially religious concerns. More specific still is the challenge to the Christian tradition expressed in the now classic article by Lynn White Jr, where White argued that the Christian worldview in the West has resulted in an instrumental attitude towards the natural world and is in large part responsible for the environmental degradation that has resulted from human exploitation. White's critique forcefully raises the question as to whether the biblical tradition necessarily generates an anthropocentric worldview which inadequately values the non-human world. Theologians have responded in various ways to this argument, and have often appealed to the Bible in support of their arguments. However, much of this appeal is superficial, focused on certain 'favourite' texts and lacking serious engagement with contemporary biblical scholarship. By contrast, much biblical scholarship proceeds without making connections with the contemporary ethical and theological discussion.This project therefore aims first to examine critically the various kinds of appeal to the Bible that have been made in the context of discussions of environmental issues, ranging from appeals that see the Bible as a text that teaches human preeminence and imminent destruction for the earth, and thus countermands any environmental concern, to appeals that see in the Bible a mandate for responsible stewardship, or even the resources for a radically new and non-anthropocentric ecotheology.Central to the project is a concern to engage closely with key biblical texts in both Old and New Testaments, with historical sensitivity and exegetical care, and to consider the ecological dimensions and ethical potential of these texts. The work undertaken under the auspices of the project is thus intended to bring the approaches and results of biblical scholarship and historical research into conversation with environmental issues and ecological theology, fostering scholarly interaction across subdisciplinary boundaries. The final task will therefore be to consider what kind of contribution the Bible might make to contemporary theological ethics in this vital area and to consider what kind of approach to interpretation is justifiable and appropriate to allow the biblical texts to function constructively in the formulation of an ecological theology. These various and interrelated tasks will be undertaken both in research done directly by the members of the project team and also through the contributions of visiting speakers, international visitors, and advisory board members.The benefits of this project include the following. First, it will provide a critical assessment of the environmental implications -- positive and negative -- of various kinds of appeal to the Bible, an assessment which may enrich wider analyses of the relationship between religious worldviews and political and ethical stances in this area. Second, it will provide some well-grounded material on the ways in which specific biblical texts can be related to ecological issues and concerns. Third, it will produce valuable resources central to the formulation of a contemporary ecological theology and thus contribute to an urgent and important theological and ethical task.