CES Musings March 2009

ECOLOGY AND RELIGION: CHRISTIANITY

By Herman Greene

When Thomas Berry writes of how society needs to change he writes of the “four
establishments”:  Government, Education, Religion and Business. As we know the Great Work
involves  everyone. As Thomas says, it is something everyone is involved in and no one is
exempt  from. When we consider the Great Work it is comprehensive, it involves everything  and
no one person can be involved in all the areas of the work. Each person must find her or his  place
to make a contribution, and it will not only be one place—one will be involved in the  Great
Work in one’s personal and family life, in how one engages in business or how one shops,  how
one votes, and so forth.

I have always had an extensive involvement in the Christian church, so religion is one
area in which I engage in the Great Work. I do not make exclusivistic claims for Christianity. I
do claim particularity for this tradition and it is this particularity (diversity) through  which it
offers its contribution. Here is an article I wrote in 2004 in reflection on the relationship  between
the particularity of Christianity and ecology.