Green Witness

Book

Laura Ruth Yordy. Green Witness: Ecology, Ethics, and the Kingdom of God. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2008.

Reviewer

Luke Gascho, Executive Director, Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College, Wolflake, IN

Laura Yordy has a vision for churches engaging holistically in ecological discipleship. She begins her discourse by briefly describing a fantasy congregation that fully integrates earth-friendly practices into its worship and daily actions. Yordy illustrates her vision by using examples from real churches that are implementing ecological practices.

According to the author, the greening of the church in North America has been limited because of the ineffectiveness of education, difficulties with real change, powerlessness of leadership, individualism in church life, the magnitude of the environmental crisis, and the hope of technological fixes. “The point is not to make the church a participant in the ‘environmental movement,’ but to make the church more faithful by including the eschatological import of creation in its performance of worship, … a ‘way’ of life that praises and witnesses to Father Son, and Holy Spirit” (161).

Yordy develops her thesis around the need for the church to renew its understanding of the eschaton – “the fulfillment of God’s promises for creation” (2). The church is to be a witness to the coming Kingdom of Heaven, the result of Christ’s redemption of all of creation. The author contends that Christians are not to be managers trying to fix the environmental crisis but witnesses of Christ’s relationship to creation through faithful ecological practice.

Yordy critiques the positions of three eco-theologians – Larry Rasmussen, Catherine Keller, and Rosemary Radford Ruether – by observing that they reject several central doctrines of Christian eschatology. She notes the losses that occur when eschatology does not include Jesus, the sovereignty of God, or the concept of an afterlife. She writes that our practices today in relation to ecology witness to our belief in the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

The doctrine of creation should be examined from an eschatological framework, says the author. God’s future view of redeemed creation is what makes the Christian creation story distinct from views found in the “common creation story.” She carefully states that it is God’s love that generated the universe (57), and proceeds with helpful insights into the concepts of God creating the world out of nothing, the Trinitarian role in creation, the goodness of creation, and the “Fall.”

Christian ethics is described as discipleship -- where the lives of Christ’s followers witness to the Kingdom through worship, action and character. Yordy provides stimulating insights into eco-discipleship by probing key characteristics of the Kingdom: peace, justice, abundance, righteousness, and communion with God. The resulting praxis is summarized well by her statement that “Christians’ witness to the Kingdom is not simply watching, but pointing toward God’s gracious creating and redeeming activity with the activity of their own lives” (112).

Yordy sees the church serving as a “demonstration plot” for ecological discipleship. She develops the view that everything the church practices – here specifically its relation to the earth – should witness to Christ’s coming redemption of all creation. It is from within community that the witness and practice will best occur.

The concluding concept centers on the ecological virtue, patience. Yordy lifts it up as a key virtue while not excluding other much-needed virtues. She says it is our impatience that plays a major factor in our dominance over the natural world.

But patience is woven into the web of the universe and reflects the character of God. “Part of the human need for patience (as well as other virtues) is the imperative for humans to re-align themselves with the patient character of God’s creation” (155). From this framework Yordy calls us to practice eco-discipleship.

The author develops logical arguments throughout her discourse, though at points the writing style recalls the doctoral dissertation on which the book is based. The work is in the frame of a constructive theology, and it leans heavily on the arguments between various theological and philosophical positions. Yordy formulates her thesis based on a broad array of authors along with insights of her own.

This volume would serve well as the basis of discussion for serious study by adults interested in articulating a biblical and theological basis in response to the environmental crisis of today, but it doesn’t include an extensive list of examples of creation care actions. (It would also be helpful there were an index in addition to the bibliography.) Upper-level college students in environmental studies would benefit from exploring the intersection between faith and ecological praxis found in this text.