Category: Ecology

Deterioration of the Human and Remembering Pope Francis

I’ve been watching some coverage of Pope Francis’ passing this morning and I keep asking out loud, “Why isn’t anyone talking about Laudato Si??”

This feels like such a dark day, just a few hours after we Christians celebrated Easter. I pray that we all have the power to speak up about the importance of integral ecologies and the ecology of the cross in the coming days/weeks/months/years as technocratic oligarchic capitalistic interests will surely challenge the concept Francis championed…

I’m thankful for Bill McKibben to pointing out this aspect of Francis’ legacy…

Pope Francis and the Sun – by Bill McKibben:

The ecological problems we face are not, in their origin, technological, says Francis. Instead, “a certain way of understanding human life and activity has gone awry, to the serious detriment of the world around us.” He is no Luddite (“who can deny the beauty of an aircraft or a skyscraper?”) but he insists that we have succumbed to a “technocratic paradigm,” which leads us to believe that “every increase in power means ‘an increase of “progress” itself’…as if reality, goodness and truth automatically flow from technological and economic power as such.” This paradigm “exalts the concept of a subject who, using logical and rational procedures, progressively approaches and gains control over an external object.” Men and women, he writes, have from the start

“intervened in nature, but for a long time this meant being in tune with and respecting the possibilities offered by the things themselves. It was a matter of receiving what nature itself allowed, as if from its own hand.”

In our world, however, “human beings and material objects no longer extend a friendly hand to one another; the relationship has become confrontational.” With the great power that technology has afforded us, it’s become

“easy to accept the idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology. It is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth’s goods, and this leads to the planet being squeezed dry beyond every limit.”

The deterioration of the environment, he says, is just one sign of this “reductionism which affects every aspect of human and social life.”

Thinking Religion 169: The Theology of Trees

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4KEJKlIOFn62dCGev8ketQ

Here’s the new episode of the next season of my Thinking Religion podcast. This season is titled Rooted in Mystery: The Rewilding of Thinking Religion.

It’s a short episode, and this season will have a few longer episodes as I unpack some of the ideas I’ve been working on in the braids that combine theology, ecology, intentionality, faith, family, and life.

But let’s start with this one and this question… What would change if you believed the world was watching you with love?

50 Tons of iPhones

Staggering numbers, indeed. 50 tons of new iPhones sold in the US EVERY day. Imagine the manufacturing scale alone, but really imagine the resource acquisition needed to source every bit of material to make these things. Wow.

Daring Fireball: How Many New iPhones Can Fit on a Freight Plane?:

But Apple sells about 50 tons of new iPhones in the US alone every day. We all know that Apple’s iPhone business is huge. But when you start to consider it in practical terms like this it’s just staggering.

The Honeybee Issue

The collapse of honeybee populations in the US (even though they were introduced to the continent by Europeans) is a startling development and a cautionary tale for us to wise up about our personal and corporate choices…

US honeybee deaths hit record high as scientists scramble to find main cause | US news | The Guardian:

“Something real bad is going on this year,” said McArt. “We have been seeing high losses year after year but if anything it is getting worse, which is troubling. Some places are having devastating losses and there was a shortfall in pollination in some almond orchards this year. Whether these impacts will cascade to other crops remains to be seen, it’s certainly possible.”

Ecological Intentionality: Performing Peace Beyond Human Boundaries

I just returned home to Spartanburg, SC from attending the American Academy of Religion Western Region meeting at Arizona State Univ in (beautiful) Tempe, AZ. Here’s the 2025 AAR Western conference program (pdf).

I spoke on Sunday about the notion of Ecological Intentionality as a component of my PhD project I’m calling The Ecology of the Cross (in honor of Edith Stein and her work The Science of the Cross).

Here’s the full text of my talk (attached here as a PDF as well)…

Ecological Intentionality: Performing Peace Beyond Human Boundaries
Sam Harrelson
California Institute of Integral Studies
American Academy of Religion, Western Region – Arizona State University
March 16, 2025

Introduction

Good afternoon. I’m honored to be here today to present on the concept of Ecological Intentionality and how it can inform and transform our understanding of performing peace beyond Human boundaries. My work explores the intersection of ecology and religion, theology, and phenomenology, drawing particularly on process thought, embodied consciousness, and participatory awareness via decolonization. Today, I want to suggest that ecological intentionality offers a framework for peace that extends beyond Human interactions, challenging anthropocentric models of peace and instead envisioning peace as a relational, ecological, and more-than-human performance.

I’ll begin by defining this concept of ecological intentionality within a phenomenological and process-relational framework, then explore its implications for peace beyond Human boundaries through examples drawn from both ecological and spiritual contexts. Finally, I’ll propose that peace, in this framework, is not simply an absence of conflict but a mode of relationality grounded in ecological reciprocity and mutual flourishing. This is part of a larger project for my PhD work that I’m calling Ecology of the Cross in reverence to Edith Stein and her influential work (on me) Science of the Cross.

Defining Ecological Intentionality

The term intentionality has deep roots in phenomenology, particularly in the work of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In a classical sense, intentionality refers to the directedness of consciousness toward an object, or the idea that consciousness is always about something. However, this model presumes a Human subject directing intentionality toward a discrete object.

Phenomenological Foundations

Edmund Husserl introduced the concept of intentionality as the foundational structure of consciousness. For Husserl, consciousness is never a self-enclosed entity but always directed toward an object or experience. This implies that intentionality is not passive but an active process of meaning-making and a co-constitution between subject and object. Consciousness, therefore, is inherently relational.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty extended this idea by situating consciousness within the body and the material world. In Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty argues that intentionality is not purely cognitive but embodied. The body is not simply a vessel for the mind; it is the means through which we engage with and perceive the world. The body’s intentionality is not directed toward abstract objects but toward the flesh of the world or the interwoven fabric of nature, matter, and perception.

Merleau-Ponty’s notion of the flesh, the chiasmic intertwining of self and world, dissolves the boundary between subject and object. When I touch the bark of a tree, I am not simply touching it as an external object; I am being touched by the tree. Perception, in this sense, is a reciprocal exchange between human and more-than-human beings. This is where the concept of ecological intentionality begins to emerge in that it is a perception that is not a unilateral human act but a mode of participation in the world’s unfolding.

Edith Stein and Empathy as Ecological Intentionality

Edith Stein’s work on empathy (On the Problem of Empathy) provides a crucial bridge between classical phenomenology and ecological intentionality. Stein defines empathy as the ability to experience the consciousness and emotional states of others through a form of participatory perception. Unlike Husserl, who viewed intentionality primarily as a cognitive act, Stein insists that empathy involves an affective and embodied process of entering into the experience of another.

What makes Stein’s model of empathy important for ecological intentionality is that it expands the boundaries of intentionality beyond Human consciousness. If empathy is not limited to Human-to-Human relationships but reflects a broader capacity for intersubjective connection, then it opens the possibility for empathy toward the more-than-Human world.

Stein’s notion of eidetic reduction, the process of bracketing out subjective interpretation to encounter the essence of another’s experience, has direct ecological implications. To encounter a tree, a river, or a forest empathically is to bracket out anthropocentric projections and allow the other to disclose itself on its own terms.

Ecological intentionality, then, draws from Stein’s understanding of empathy as an affective and relational act. Just as we can empathize with another person’s suffering, we can empathize with the suffering of a dying forest or an acidifying ocean. Ecological intentionality is not just about knowing the world, it is about feeling with and through the world.

Processual Extensions of Phenomenology

Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy extends this phenomenological framework by rejecting the static distinction between subject and object altogether. In Whitehead’s cosmology, all entities, Human, more than Human and non-Human, are processes of becoming constituted by their relationality. Whitehead’s notion of prehension suggests that all entities “feel” the presence of others and respond creatively.

John Cobb extends this insight into theological reflection, suggesting that God’s presence is not external but relational, and a lure toward creative and harmonious becoming. Thus, ecological intentionality involves not only an empathic perception of the world but a participatory process of becoming within the web of ecological life. Peace, in this view, is not a static state but an ongoing relational achievement, or a balancing of diverse needs and potentials within the cosmic and/or ecological order.

Performing Peace Beyond Human Boundaries

What would it mean to perform peace beyond human boundaries? This requires a shift from peace as a Human-centered political or ethical state to peace as a mode of ecological reciprocity. Peace, in this sense, emerges not from the absence of Human conflict but from the flourishing of interdependent relationships across Human and non-Human worlds.

One example is found in Indigenous ecological practices that treat ecosystems not as passive backdrops but as active agents in the process of community formation. The practice of controlled burns among many Indigenous people in North America reflects a form of ecological peace: a reciprocal relationship between human communities and fire-adapted landscapes that ensures the health and sustainability of both. This practice challenges Western models of peace as stability or containment, reframing peace as an ongoing process of participatory ecological reciprocity.

We might also consider the theological implications of this framework. Thomas Berry’s concept of the Earth Community reflects an understanding of peace rooted in interdependence and shared flourishing. For Berry, peace is not solely a human achievement but an ecological performance, and a harmonious balancing of biospheric and human needs.

Religious traditions have long recognized this interdependence. In the Christian tradition, the biblical notion of shalom implies not only Human wholeness but right relationship with the land, the animals, and the broader creation. Similarly, Buddhist traditions frame peace as a state of inter-being, where the suffering or flourishing of one being is tied to the suffering or flourishing of all others.

Implications for Theological and Ecological Praxis

Ecological intentionality reframes peace as a participatory and ecological act. It demands that we move beyond Human-centered models of conflict resolution and embrace a broader vision of relationality. This has profound implications for theological and ecological praxis, particularly when viewed through the framework of Ecology of the Cross, a theological model that holds together the suffering and flourishing of creation within the example of the Cosmic Christ.

Ecology of the Cross challenges anthropocentric readings of peace and redemption by presenting the cruciform pattern as a decolonized ecological reality and not only a Human drama, but a cosmic and ecological process of death and rebirth and ultimately peace. If peace is not just an ethical or political goal but a state of relational balance within the web of life, then faith communities have a crucial role to play in performing peace through liturgical, ethical, and ecological practices.

This shift has profound implications for theological and ecological praxis, particularly for faith communities and individuals who are seeking to cultivate deeper relationships with the Cosmos.

For faith communities, in this Christian context from which I speak as an ordained person, the framework of ecological intentionality presents an opportunity to reshape how they understand and perform peace, moving beyond Human-centered conflict resolution into a more expansive model of relational harmony with the land, water, air, and non-Human beings. This also offers individuals new pathways for spiritual formation and ethical engagement, as ecological intentionality invites a shift in both perception and practice.

1. Ecological Reframing of Peace and Justice

One of the most immediate implications of ecological intentionality for faith communities is a theological reframing of peace and justice. In many Christian traditions, peace is understood primarily as a Human or theistic moral or political goal, such as the absence of violence, conflict, or injustice between Human beings. However, ecological intentionality challenges this definition by suggesting that peace is not merely the absence of conflict but the presence of right relationship a dynamic equilibrium within the web of life.

Possibilities for Churches and Faith Communities:

• Revising the concept of justice: Justice can be reframed not only in terms of Human rights but also in terms of environmental justice such as protecting watersheds, ensuring biodiversity, and advocating for the rights of Indigenous communities to manage their traditional lands.

• Eco-theology and sermons: Preaching and theological teaching can incorporate ecological themes, exploring peace not only as human reconciliation but as harmonious interdependence within creation. Sermons might engage scriptural texts like the Psalms’ call for rivers to “clap their hands” (Psalm 98) or Paul’s vision of creation groaning for redemption (Romans 8) as invitations to ecological intentionality.

2. Liturgical and Ritual Practices

Liturgy is one of the most powerful ways faith communities embody theological truths. If peace is an ecological and relational reality, then liturgical practices can become spaces where this relationality is both symbolized and performed. Faith communities can integrate ecological intentionality into their rituals and sacraments, recognizing that acts of worship are not only directed toward God but also toward all Creation.

Possibilities for Churches and Faith Communities:

• Blessing the more-than-Human world: Rituals like the blessing of animals, water, or land can be expanded to reflect an intentional recognition of non-Human life as sacred. A ritual of blessing could include water drawn from a local river, soil from a community garden, or plants representing local biodiversity.

• Seasonal and agricultural liturgies: Faith communities can integrate seasonal changes and ecological rhythms into worship. Celebrating the beginning of planting or harvesting seasons, or offering prayers of lament during times of ecological destruction, can embody peace as relational engagement with the land.

• Eucharistic expansion: In traditions that celebrate the Eucharist, there is an opportunity to explore the ecological significance of bread and wine as products of Human and non-Human collaboration. Bread depends on soil health, water access, and pollinators; wine depends on grapevines shaped by climate and weather patterns. Eucharistic liturgies could recognize these dependencies, reframing the sacrament as an act of ecological gratitude and celebration.

3. Spiritual Formation and Individual Practices

Ecological intentionality offers individuals a new framework for spiritual formation. Just as contemplative traditions have emphasized inner peace and mindfulness, ecological intentionality calls for a broader, outward-facing form of contemplation — an intentional attunement to the rhythms and needs of the natural world. This involves not only perceiving the world differently but responding to it with care and reciprocity.

Possibilities for Individuals:

• Sabbath as ecological rest: The biblical model of Sabbath involves not only Human rest but also rest for the land (Leviticus 25). Individuals could practice ecological Sabbath by ceasing certain activities that harm or limit ecological health, reducing consumption, refraining from single-use plastics, or setting aside time for ecological restoration.

• Walking as spiritual practice: Pilgrimage and walking meditations could be reframed as intentional acts of ecological engagement. Walking through a local forest, a park, or along a coastline could become a practice of attunement to the interdependence of Human and non-Human life.

4. Political and Advocacy Engagement

Ecological intentionality challenges faith communities to extend their peace and justice work into the political sphere. If peace involves ecological balance, then protecting ecosystems, advocating for biodiversity, returning national and state parks to Indigenous people for leadership and direction, and supporting climate justice become theological and ethical imperatives. Faith communities and individuals can leverage their moral authority to advocate for political changes that support ecological flourishing.

Possibilities for Churches and Faith Communities:

• Climate action and legislation: Faith communities can engage with local, state, and national governments to support policies that protect ecosystems, reduce carbon emissions, and ensure environmental justice for marginalized communities.

• Community-based ecological stewardship: Churches could sponsor community gardens, urban reforestation projects, or wildlife corridors as expressions of ecological peace. These projects would reflect the theological claim that peace involves active participation in the flourishing of creation.

• Water justice: Churches could partner with Indigenous communities and environmental organizations to protect access to clean water and resist pollution and extraction. Recognizing water as a sacred gift and a living presence aligns with Indigenous ecological frameworks and Christian sacramental theology (e.g., baptism).

5. Reimagining Mission and Evangelism

Ecological intentionality calls for a reimagining of mission, not as conversion or colonialist domination, but as relational participation. If performing peace involves reciprocal relationship with the natural world, then mission becomes an act of learning from and alongside creation rather than imposing Human control over it.

Possibilities for Churches and Faith Communities:

• Mission as listening: Instead of traditional missionary work framed around changing Human hearts and minds, mission could be reframed as a process of listening to and learning from local ecosystems and Indigenous knowledge.

• Ecological pilgrimage: Mission trips could focus on ecological restoration and cross-cultural dialogue with Indigenous communities. Participants would engage in ecological restoration not as an act of charity but as a recognition of shared vulnerability and interdependence.

6. Interfaith Collaboration and Ecological Peace-building

Ecological intentionality provides a common framework for interfaith engagement. While doctrinal differences have often divided religious communities, the shared recognition of ecological interdependence creates an opportunity for collaboration.

Possibilities for Churches and Faith Communities:

• Joint ecological action: Faith communities from different traditions could collaborate on local environmental projects, such as tree planting, river restoration, and habitat protection, as shared acts of peace-building.

• Interfaith prayer and ritual: Sacred sites like rivers, mountains, and forests could become spaces for interfaith prayer and contemplation, grounded in the shared recognition of the sacredness of creation.

• Ecological dialogue: Faith communities could hold interfaith dialogues focused on theological visions of peace, exploring how different traditions understand the relationship between humanity and the natural world.

Conclusion

Ecological intentionality challenges the anthropocentric assumption that peace is a Human achievement. Instead, it calls us to recognize peace as a mode of relationality that encompasses Human, more-than-Human, and Non-Human beings alike. Performing peace beyond Human boundaries requires attunement to the rhythms of ecological reciprocity and a willingness to engage in the ongoing, dynamic process of becoming together.

As Thomas Berry reminds us, “The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.” Peace, in this sense, is not the absence of violence or conflict but the flourishing of interdependent relationships within the broader webs of life. Ecological intentionality, therefore, offers a vision of peace that is not static or anthropocentric but dynamic, participatory, and deeply ecological.

Bibliography

Berry, Thomas. The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. New York: Bell Tower, 1999.
The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988.

Cobb, John B., Jr. A Christian Natural Theology: Based on the Thought of Alfred North Whitehead. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007.

Cobb, John B., Jr., ed. Back To Darwin: A Richer Account of Evolution. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.

Hartshorne, Charles. Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1970.

Hartshorne, Charles.”Panpsychism.” In Philosophical Essays for Alfred North Whitehead, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, 117-131. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1936.

Husserl, Edmund. Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology. Translated by W. R. Boyce Gibson. London: Routledge, 2012.

Husserl, Edmund. Logical Investigations. Translated by J. N. Findlay. 2 vols. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2001.

Lane Ritchie, Sarah. “Panpsychism and Spiritual Flourishing: Constructive Engagement with the New Science of Psychedelics.” In Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences 7, no. 1 (2020): 95-111.

Lumpkin, Tara W. “Perceptual Diversity: Is Polyphasic Consciousness Necessary for Global Survival?” Anthropology of Consciousness 12, no. 1-2 (2001): 37-70.

Merchant, Carolyn. Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Donald A. Landes. London: Routledge, 2012.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. The Visible and the Invisible. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1968.

Segall, Matthew D. “Altered Consciousness After Descartes: Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism as Psychedelic Realism.” In Process Studies 50, no. 1 (2021): 39-59.

Sjöstedt-H, Peter. “On the Need for Metaphysics in Psychedelic Therapy and Research.” Frontiers in Psychology 12 (2021): 1-8.

Stein, Edith. On the Problem of Empathy. Translated by Waltraut Stein. Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1989.

Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology. Corrected edition, edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne. New York: Free Press, 1978.

Whitehead, Alfred North. Modes of Thought. New York: Free Press, 1968.

Ecological Intentionality: Performing Peace Beyond Human Boundaries (PDF)

“We need so much less than we take and we owe so much more than we give.”

I often get asked why I always use squirrels as my mascot and avatar as a teacher. Here’s a good reason why. Andrea Gibson’s work is so important and needed in times like these. Worth your four minutes to watch (and re-watch)…

California Monarch Numbers Plunging

I’m speaking a bit on this situation with monarchs at a conference at UC Santa Barbara this Spring. There’s no mystery as to why the insect is seeing such diminished numbers (a 95% drop since the 1980s in California), but there is a mystery as to why we continue to allow pesticides to harm pollinating species (as well as humans). 

Insect species numbers are known to ebb and flow, but this sort of trend line is not good.

California monarch butterfly numbers plunge; wildfire wipes out Topanga habitat – Los Angeles Times:

“We know pesticides are a key driver of monarch and other pollinator declines. Yet there are glaring gaps in the EPA’s oversight of pesticides: the vast majority of pesticides have never been tested for their impacts on butterflies,” said Rosemary Malfi, director of conservation policy at the Xerces Society, in a statement. “How can we protect these essential species if we’re missing the basic information needed to make better decisions?”

Isaiah 43, Ecology, and the “New Thing” God Is Doing

One of the most inspiring aspects of my studies in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion as a PhD student (even at 46, we new students can be inspired!) has been deeply exploring and reflecting on how ancient texts speak directly into our modern ecological context. Although the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament is ancient in his authorship and structures, passages like Isaiah 43 continue to spark deep conversations about our relationship with the land, with animals, and with the Creator.

Merianna and I are still figuring out our church situation after moving back here to Spartanburg this fall. With a hurricane, professional career changes, new schools, new routines, new roads and trails and parks to explore, and this week’s snow storm under our belt, we’ve had quite the process of figuring out which faith community we’re being called to ultimately join. There are many solid contenders and each have their own strengths, connections, histories, and pulls. I don’t want to label this process “chruch shopping” as that seems gross and capitalistic to think of such a prayerful process something akin to picking out new pants or a new car.

This morning we attended The Episcopal Church of the Advent, which is a lovely campus and congregation. There are some familiar faces there from our time in Spartanburg previously as well as Merianna’s cousin who is a Priest there. As a Baptist, I’ve always found Episcopal liturgy beautiful and moving if not something out of a Hollywood movie showing what church should “feel” like in its setting and order of worship (that’s not meant as a slight by any means). Part of the worship this morning included a reading of Isaiah 43, and I was glad to have the chance to make some notes in the bulletin on the connections between my own studies in Religion, Spirituality, and Ecology with that passage and how it “fit” into a service commemorating the Baptism of Jesus by John (also a fellow Baptist who shared my righteous indignation about society in general).

Isaiah 43 is typically read as a promise of deliverance to a weary people and a “nation” of Israel. God is reminding Israel that they have been created, redeemed, and will be guided through fire and water. But there’s an ecological dimension to these verses that also calls us to see more than a metaphor about a “nation” (I use that term loosely as there were no nations as we think of them – or did think of them) or group of people being tested. When we consider Isaiah’s imagery of turning deserts into fertile gardens and making a way in the wilderness, we recognize a God who is intimately involved not just with people’s well-being but with the healing of the land itself.

From an ecotheological perspective, this passage offers hope that God’s plans for restoration isn’t limited to saving souls or guiding humanity alone; it encompasses rivers, deserts, and all of creation. That’s a powerful message today as we wrestle with climate crisis, habitat loss, and the fragility of life on our planet from Hurricane Helene’s devastation here and in our beloved Western North Carolina to the ongoing situation of California’s wildfires

In my Christian tradition, salvation is often taught as a personal or communal experience and is God’s intervention in human affairs for the sake of our redemption (again, we Baptists love to talk about salvation and redemption!). Yet, Isaiah 43 suggests a broader and more holistic narrative. God’s redemptive mission includes making rivers spring forth in parched landscapes, reimagining deserts as places teeming with life. This isn’t just about human salvation and all that it implies such as our species being somehow distinct or alien to our surrounding ecologies.

Where many of us have learned about salvation exclusively as a human-centered event, Isaiah’s words remind us that nature isn’t an afterthought in the Creator’s plan. Humanity and the environment are woven together in this tapestry of divine renewal that can be extended to concepts like our own baptisms. Instead of picturing a future rescue from a doomed earth, this passage hints at a glorious transformation that involves all of the earth itself.

We are, in a very real sense, co-participants with God and the land and sea and rivers and creatures and soil and all things in the ongoing act of creation.

Isaiah 43 aligns beautifully with that perspective. God’s pledge to “do a new thing” signals a broader cosmic renewal. Some theologians see this as a foundational text for talking about ecological hope. If the prophetic imagination envisions deserts blossoming and creation singing for joy, we’re invited, maybe even obligated I dare say, to participate in nurturing that vision. If it’s in the Bible, then it must be true, right? I’m just using my Baptist toolbox here.

Reflecting on Isaiah 43 also invites us to reconsider our responsibility as “stewards” (again, that is a loaded term that needs to be unpacked in a different post) of creation as set forth over and over again in the Old and New Testaments since the beginning in Genesis. If we believe the land is part of God’s redemptive plan, then our everyday actions, how we treat the environment, engage in sustainable living, advocate for just policies and ethical considerations of both the human and non-human, become acts of worship and devotion.

Isaiah’s words, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (43:19), continues to challenge me. In the face of environmental degradation, such as deforestation, overfishing, or global warming causing actions such as our cars, paving over nature with petroleum products that burn petroleum in the manifest destiny of “progress,” this verse holds out a hopeful expectation. God is still active, still creating pathways in the wilderness, still nourishing deserts into blossoming landscapes (and not just paving over them).

The question then becomes: Do we have the eyes to perceive it? In a world that can feel increasingly cynical about the fate of our planet, Isaiah 43 reminds us to look deeper. Renewal might be slow, but it is happening, and we can either join in or stand by and not fulfill our duty and ethical demands as we so often do (I’m being cynical).

Ultimately, Isaiah 43 offers more than a comforting word to a people in exile. It’s a biblical rallying cry and a still small voice for those of us who believe that spiritual transformation isn’t separate from ecological transformation. The same divine force that wills rivers in the desert also wills flourishing life for the ecosystems we depend upon.

My hope, both as a student of theology fascinated by the Old Testament and as someone immersed in the study of ecology, spirituality, and religion, is that these ancient words continue to point us toward a deeper reverence for creation and a stronger commitment to stewardship. In the grand narrative of redemption, the desert isn’t forgotten. Neither are the forests, nor the oceans, nor the skies. Even the mosquitos and gnats have a part to play.

God’s “new thing” involves all of it, and each of us has a place in that unfolding story.

Isaiah 43

But now thus says the Lord,
   he who created you, O Jacob,
   he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
   I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
   and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
   and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
   the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
   Ethiopia* and Seba in exchange for you.
4 Because you are precious in my sight,
   and honoured, and I love you,
I give people in return for you,
   nations in exchange for your life.
5 Do not fear, for I am with you;
   I will bring your offspring from the east,
   and from the west I will gather you;
6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up’,
   and to the south, ‘Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away
   and my daughters from the end of the earth—
7 everyone who is called by my name,
   whom I created for my glory,
   whom I formed and made.’


8 Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes,
   who are deaf, yet have ears!
9 Let all the nations gather together,
   and let the peoples assemble.
Who among them declared this,
   and foretold to us the former things?
Let them bring their witnesses to justify them,
   and let them hear and say, ‘It is true.’
10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
   and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
   and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
   nor shall there be any after me.
11 I, I am the Lord,
   and besides me there is no saviour.
12 I declared and saved and proclaimed,
   when there was no strange god among you;
   and you are my witnesses, says the Lord.
13 I am God, and also henceforth I am He;
   there is no one who can deliver from my hand;
   I work and who can hinder it?


14 Thus says the Lord,
   your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
For your sake I will send to Babylon
   and break down all the bars,
   and the shouting of the Chaldeans will be turned to lamentation.*
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,
   the Creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus says the Lord,
   who makes a way in the sea,
   a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse,
   army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
   they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 Do not remember the former things,
   or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing;
   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
   and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honour me,
   the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
   rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
21   the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.


22 Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;
   but you have been weary of me, O Israel!
23 You have not brought me your sheep for burnt-offerings,
   or honoured me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
   or wearied you with frankincense.
24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money,
   or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins;
   you have wearied me with your iniquities.

Let’s Preach About This…

Amen and amen… this should be the focus point of way more sermons every Sunday morning in our united states. Reminds me of the great Thomas Berry:

rapid transition, deep transformation – by John Seng:

In the westernized world, especially in the domain of policy and politics, we are trained to demand timely, quantitative solutions. We’re going to have to grow to operate outside of that narrow lens on life. We need to evolve as a species, to embrace our role as one of many life forms, and find joy in a lifestyle that is compatible with the basic properties of our beloved planet. Only when we learn to honor and appreciate our relationships with all of the living world will we be able to transition to ways of life that protect us from extinction. Unlike purely technological fixes, which can be imposed through the hammers of policy and finance, a shift in the direction of right relationship with our planet needs to happen outside of the halls of power, within our own hearts and minds.