Jonathan A. Moo

Summary: An survey of the relevant scriptures concerning how we might think biblically and theologically about the creation and our role in it, and the relevance of this teaching to current environmental concerns.

Many discussions about the environment get caught up in arguments about scientific findings and public policies. Often Christians end up fighting each other about these matters as well. What the father and son team of Douglas and Jonathan Moo offer is a study that takes us back to first principles. As Christians, our actions in the world ought not be informed fundamentally by talk radio, political party positions, or scientific papers, but rather biblical teaching, and the wisdom principles that arise from that teaching that we seek to humbly and prayerfully apply to all the activities of our lives.

This work serves as a kind of sourcebook for thinking about caring for creation. The authors begin by asking what we mean by the care of creation and contend that this ought matter to us because it matters to the God we love. They then explore how do we develop a theology of creation, and how we understand the evidence of scripture in light of theology, culture, and science. They suggest a "roundabout" model where understanding of text and these influences feed into each other.

The next seven chapters, the majority of the work, develop the teaching of scripture. They begin with the beautiful world God has created, that it is his and our beginning posture is one of joining all his creatures in worshiping his goodness. They turn to our place as members, rulers, and keepers of creation. In discussing dominion and the idea of subduing the earth, they suggest particularly the idea of "bringing the earth under the appropriate rule of those who bear God's image," a task that becomes even more urgent in a post-Genesis 3 world. This involves abad and shamar, working and caring for God's garden. They explore Israel's relationship to the land, their homeland, and yet owned by God and thus a gift and not a possession. Their use is shaped by sabbath and jubilee, as they trust God to sustain them in the land.

At the same time, they discuss the impact of the fall on a creation "subject to frustration." All creation suffers because of our rebellion against God, yet the context of Paul's reference is that God has acted to redeem and reconcile both us, and the creation. The incarnation reveals God's care for the material creation. God in human flesh in the person of Christ reveals what it means to properly rule in God's world as his image bearers, and died and rose to inaugurate the renewal of God's loving rule through his reconciled creatures. They are part of the new creation accomplished through the resurrection of Christ that not only means new life for those who believe but a new heaven and a new earth. They deal with 2 Peter 3, often understood as "it will all burn," and used to denigrate our care for what will be destroyed, and contend that this passage is best understood as speaking of refining and not destroying fire, consuming all that is dross and evil, preparatory to the new creation.

The last part of the book is a reflection on the relevance of this biblical material in our present time. They propose that caring for creation is an integral part of our gospel. They affirm our role as stewards accountable for good care of the creation, that is also shaped by the realization that our care for creation also is an act of caring for people, and their flourishing. Understanding the biblical teaching leads us into wisdom, which involves knowing and doing, using all of our knowledge of the world, much coming from science, to care for the world in ways that acknowledge God's ownership, the earth's goodness, is just toward all God's creatures, in dependence upon God.

The authors include a chapter briefly summarizing current environmental challenges that require our caring attention: the loss of biodiversity, deforestation, the plight of the world's oceans (depletion of fisheries, destruction of coral reefs, etc.), soil loss and developing sustainable agriculture, and our changing climate. They are measured in their treatment, providing peer-reviewed data. They conclude with the importance of putting creation into our teaching of new creation and putting ourselves into the creation. They commend five ways in which we might be AWAKE to caring for creation:

Attentiveness to the creation and its suffering.
Walking and de-emphasizing mechanized transportation.
Activism, often beginning in our own churches and communities.
Konsumerism: learning to step back from excess to enough.
Eating, through choosing food grown sustainably.
While others have covered this ground, Douglas and Jonathan Moo bring strong evangelical credentials and careful treatment of biblical texts to this task with a strong commitment to biblical authority. Because of this most of the work is formulation of the Bible's teaching. It might be faulted on being short on practical recommendations, yet what this allows is for the reader to reflect on the theology of creation care and determine their own response, perhaps side-stepping politicized discussions.

I would love to commend this work for adult education in churches. The difficulty is that this is a more academic work than I sense many adults in the church willing to engage in an adult education program. The issue is less comprehensibility than comprehensiveness. The treatment of the biblical material is thorough and lengthy, more appropriate for a college or seminary level course. It also would be a good resource for a creation care task force in a church or Christians concerned about the environment who want to think Christianly about their activism. The authors do help us see what is distinctive about a Christian concern for creation and balance proper dominion with care and serving of the creation. They help us understand both how fallen human beings are the problem, and offer hope that as redeemed and reconciled new creations, we can care for God's good world in anticipation of the new heaven and the new earth.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.… (mehr)

The evangelical faith I was reared was full of eschatological predictions. We knew Jesus was coming back. Many expected it to be soon and most expected a radical shift from this material age to a heavenly kingdom. There was little concern with creation because this ‘world was passing away.’ Today, the churches I’ve been a part of still look forward to Christ’s return but there is a greater enthusiasm for creation care. These days the doomsayers tend to be environmentalists and activists warning us about the effects of overpopulation and our wanton use of the world’s finite resources. But does our Christian hope speak to our current ecological predicament?

In Let Creation Rejoice (IVP Academic-forthcoming) authors Jonathan A. Moo and Robert S.White give a compelling argument that we have hope in the midst of our ecologically brokenness. Moo is an assistant professor of New Testament at Whitworth and White is a Cambridge professor of geophysics. Their combined expertise enables them to examine the scientific evidence for overpopulation, the loss of bio-diversity and climate change, as well as biblical passages which address our attitude and responsibility to the created order. Creation groans with us under the effects of human sinfulness (Rom. 8:22). It also awaits the renewal of all things (Matt 19:28).

Moo and White unfold their argument over the book’s nine chapters. Chapter one introduces the topic, various Christian responses to the environment and provides a map to the chapters that follow. Chapter two and three explore the broad scientific consensus around environmental problems such as overpopulation and the loss of biodiversity (chapter 2) and climate change (chapter 3). While climate change (aka, global warming) is controversial among a few, vocal opponents, Moo & White regard it as a given but also attempt to answer the skeptics.

Chapter four provides an overview of the biblical hope–the gospel and the future. Moo & White eschew models that either denigrate the physical world in favor of eternity or seek to replace Christian eschatology with the idea of ‘God’s grace breaking into the present’ (82). Both these approaches are at best, sub-Christian. The value of creation is affirmed in Genesis 1 (God called creation, ‘good’ and ‘very good’) and the gospel presents us with God’s plan to redeem the world in Christ. Our hope is that Christ came and will come again to restore that which has been lost. Models of Christian engagement with the environment which are not rooted in this biblical hope have nothing ‘Christian’ to offer. As Moo and White write:

There are two apparent opposite dangers that we must avoid if we are to be faithful to what the Bible teaches about the gospel and the future. The first danger is to assume that biblical hope is of the “pie in the sky, by and by” variety that limits concerns with this world and shuts down engagement with the difficulties and challenges inherent to living here and today. Such an assumption is often linked to views of the gospel as something all about me, as something that speaks only to my own existential crisis or answers only to my individual plight as a sinner before a holy God. We have begun to see that though this a popular caricature of Christian belief, it does not reflect the biblical perspective of the gospel taken as a whole. . . .The opposite error is equally seductive, however. This is to give up on biblical hope in the face of its despisers, to suppress the reality of our own rebellion against God and our need for his mercy, and to assume that Christian faith can be reduced to a pattern of living in the present that gives no consideration to the future. (94-5).

Chapters five through eight take a closer look at Bible passages which address creation and our attitude towards it. Chapter five examines what the Old and New Testament tells us about Creation’s future–affirm its value and linking its fate to our own (114). In chapter six Moo and White examine 2 Peter and passages that seem to describe the earth’s cataclysmic destruction. They argue that rather then emphasizing the destruction of the created order, these passages lay emphasis on God’s judgement of human sinfulness (122). Our response shouldn’t be to fail to care for creation but to put on the righteousness and virtue befitting citizens of Christ’s future kingdom. If God’s kingdom is breaking in, it should effect how we steward the earth. Chapter seven describes Jesus’ parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 and his coming like a ‘thief in the night.’ Moo and White argue that Jesus’ critique of the rich fool’s greed and self-absorption has implications for own treatment of the environment (136). Chapter eight looks at John’s cosmic vision of the New Heaven and earth and how we find our proper stance toward creation in the worship of God.

Chapter nine concludes the book by exhorting us to have hope, to watch and pray for creation and allow our eschatological hope to inspire us to loving and a joyful response to our ecological crises. An afterward lists several Christian organizations which are working in the area of creation care.

Let Creation Rejoice is an important contribution for Christians wondering how to respond to the environment. I have several friends working creation care, sustainable farming and environmental advocacy (I live in the Northwest, this is not unusual). It is unfortunate that care for the environment requires an apologetic among some evangelicals (my tribe). Moo and White provide such an apologetic building their case scientifically and biblically. I highly recommend this book to environmentalists and skeptics who feel their is ‘no need to polish the brass on a sinking ship.’ I appreciate how even-handed and thorough Moo and White are for such a short book. I give this book five stars: ★★★★★!

Thank you to IVP Academic for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Let Creation Rejoice is due out in June 2014. You may pre-order from IVP or Amazon.… (mehr)