The Travail of Nature

The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology
by H. Paul Santmire
Theology and the Sciences Series
Kevin J. Sharpe, Series Editor
Fortress Press, 1985
274 pages
ISBN 0-8006-2333-9

In 1967 historian Lynn White, Jr. published the groundbreaking article, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis." This article said that much of the negative western attitudes towards nature and the environment could be traced to the Christian worldview. One major result of the article was that it inaugurated the discussion in the Christian community about the relationship between Christianity and the natural world. Concurrent with this discussion were the critical questions Christian feminists were raising that connected canonical attitudes towards nature with negative attitudes towards women and the body. H. Paul Santmire, scholar and church rector, saw that what was needed in this conversation was an historical study that looked at the post-biblical or classic Christian thought about nature. The result of that study is "The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology."

Rev. Santmire begins the book by deeply investigating what he considers to be a series of root metaphors and motifs within Christianity. Two core images of what Santmire calls "the experiental matrix' are those of the "Overwhelming Mountain," and the "Promising Journey." The motif of the sacred mountain is an image common to many religious traditions. It is often seen as the axis mundi, the place where the worlds of creation meet and intersect, and the place where it is possible to enter into more direct communication with the Holy, "a place of theophany" (17). As an image "the overwhelming mountain is rich, but ambiguous, as far as its assumptions about human identity and nature are concerned" (17). Mountains also conjure images of majesty, power, and awe. This image of the "Overwhelming Mountain" is found in the Judeo-Christian tradition in such places as Mount Sinai and the Mountain of the Transfiguration.

Mr. Santmire then says that there are two ways that we can respond, and that Christianity did respond to this image of the overwhelming mountain. These are the metaphors of ascent or of fecundity. The mountain can raise our eyes, our attention, and our journey upwards, towards the expanse of the sky. We travel upwards, rising above the worlds of earth and nature to the world of God. "It should be clear, furthermore, that the metaphor of ascent brings with it implicitly or explicitly, as we will observe in a number of contexts, the nuances of not merely rising toward God above, but specifically rising above and beyond the world of nature, in order to enter into communion or union with God who is thought of as pure spirit. This metaphor of assent is that which generates what Mr. Santmire calls the "spiritual motif" with Christianity.

The other reaction to the climb up and encounter with the mountain is to look down. From the perspective of height we have a larger more panoramic apprehension of the vastness, beauty, and mystery of the earth below us. This motif is labeled the metaphor of fecundity. This motif is seen as an ecological one.

As the experiential matrix of the "Overwhelming Mountain" was an universal image that had Judeo-Christian applications, Rev. Santmire suggests that the particular and unique Judeo-Christian experiential matrix is that of "The Promising Journey," or the metaphor of "Migration to the Good Land." This metaphor too belongs in the category of an ecological motif.

Once this methodological structure is in place Rev. Santmire then uses it to explore post-biblical Christian attitudes towards nature and the environment. Starting with Irenaeus, Origin, and Augustine and then moving to Aquinas, Bonaventure, Dante, and Francis of Assisi we are brought up to the Protestant Reformation. Time is spent analyzing the thought of Luther and Calvin, and in the modern period Karl Barth and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Time is spent then considering biblical spiritual and ecological motifs.

The result of this excellent study is that it does appear that Christianity does have an ambiguous attitude towards the natural world. The spiritual motif of moving up and away from the world is certainly more dominate that the image of the fecundity of the world. But to label the tradition as being only otherworldly is inaccurate. It is from these ecological trends that Rev. Santmire calls for a new theology that is based on biblical and post-biblical precedents.

I do not think this book is especially appropriate for high school students, but I do think that teachers would gain a great deal out of reading it. It is so easy for students to essentialize Christian attitudes towards the world and not see the varied and rich responses that deeply spiritual and engaged thinkers have made. This book takes that essentialist cover off the tradition and allows us all to look at historic Christian attitudes towards nature in a deeper and more nuanced way.

Tom Collins
Seabury Hall
Makawao, Hawaii

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