Book Review: Jesus and the Earth
by James Jones, London: SPCK, 2003, £6.99.

Presenting an Anglican bishop under the title of ‘Forget heaven, we must save the earth’ (The Times, 27 November 2003) has startled some. What’s a leading evangelical, James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, up to?

When I grew up in North Carolina there were Anglican vicars blessing hounds soon to be set free upon foxes. My parson father was a keen huntsman who was frustrated trying to get me to take up the manly sport of shooting (deer, bears, birds, you name it). Once after injuring his back in a fall from a tree while in pursuit of opossums, Dad preached by remote control from his parsonage bedside to the congregation next door.

There have been – and still are – many clergy who join hunts and have a good aim with the gun. Recently one was interviewed in a popular British sporting magazine. He insisted that shooting was a necessary affinity with his flock! This has long been the case in Britain. The Reverend Jack Russell (1796-1883) was the exemplary ‘sporting parson’. As perpetual curate at Symbridge, Russell was also master of the fox-hounds. And yes, he is best known for the short-legged terrier he developed – the Jack Russell.

Clergy – Catholic and Anglican – still turn a blind eye to coursing and bull-fighting, as well as ignoring the warnings of scientists as to the plight of the planet. But, mercifully, times are ‘a-changing’. I think that Bishop Jones’ book marks a watershed in British Christian concern for both animal welfare and the environmental issues. I also believe it essential for those of us primarily involved with animal welfare to recognise that the two concerns are inextricably connected. You cannot promote better treatment of animals in isolation from the larger environmental issue: the creatures are at as much risk as are the creatures’ habitats.

Christianity has been the most anthropomorphic religion the world has known, making it possible for man to exploit nature to the point that, as Jones says, the renowned astro-physicist and Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, predicts there is only a 50-50 chance of our surviving the twenty-first century if we keep going the way we are doing now.

Much of the problem we face comes from the distorted versions of God’s intention in creation. God’s injunction to ‘fill the earth and subdue it’ came to be interpreted as meaning that God created all of nature for man’s sole benefit: no item in creation had any purpose save to serve man’s designs.

This theological view is in sharp contrast with Eastern and native faiths, where man is seen as fundamentally a part of nature. St Francis of Assisi, of course, thought similarly, but remained a voice crying the wilderness as on this point his Church paid little attention. They considered it verging on pantheism.

As the brilliant historian Lynn White Jr warned, back in 1967, ‘We shall continue to have a worsening ecological crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man.’

Son of the the earth

Bishop Jones argues similarly, reminding Christians of Jesus’ prayer that ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ When it came to describing himself, Jesus used the term ‘Son of Man’ exclusively. Son of Man is Ben Adam, Son of Adam: in Hebrew, adamah, the one formed from the earth. Jones makes a good point of this, and carefully went through the Gospels to see when ‘there were occasions when Jesus calls himself the Son of Man and in the same breath or in the same context talks about the earth’. The Bishop excitedly adds: ‘There are!’ and lists seven occasions and points to others as well. Interestingly, Paul never refers to Jesus’ ‘unique self-reference as Son of Man’.

Next, Jones goes on to state that Christian, Muslim and Jewish theologians could concur with environmentalists, pressure groups and lobbyists ‘to the truth that the wholeness of the earth and the future of the planet depend upon the repentance and restoration to wholeness of the human family’. This time he points to Paul where, in Galatians 6:7 he said, ‘God is not mocked. You reap what you sow’; thus now ‘the earth bears the wounds of human sinfulness’.

We are reminded that in Greek the word for judgement is ‘crisis’: environmental crisis is ‘a truth greater than we realise’. As a good Evangelical, Jones also reminds us that we were created through Christ and for him: ‘Never has so much theology hung on two such small prepositions, ‘through’ and ‘for’.’ Creation, therefore, ‘does not exist for the human family but for Christ. The earth is here for us to delight in, to manage, to serve, but its centre is inhabited by Christ alone and not us. It is a blasphemy to usurp Christ’s place.’

Strong stuff – and there is more. Jones also speaks of ‘Jesus and the animal kingdom’, and says that in Matthew’s Gospel alone there are twenty-seven separate occasions when Jesus speaks of the creatures. After all, Jesus was born surrounded by beasts: how often that is overlooked. In his forty days in the wilderness Jesus was out in the desert among wild creatures. Jones thinks that Jesus ‘enlists the animals as “fellow evangelists”: “Look at the birds of the air … Are not sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from [without] your Father [knowing].”’

One of the reasons Jones’ Jesus and the Earth is so significant is that the author is a leading Evangelical and hopes to make Evangelicals more aware of environmental issues. He says that ‘for many Christians, Christianity has taken the form of escapology. Evangelism has been skewed and reduced to providing converts an escape route from the earth …’

The Bishop’s book will strengthen the case of stewardship of the earth and its creatures: ‘We are not just interested in saving souls, we are also interested in the redemption of the Earth.’ This is an important book.

David Sox