Christianity Encourages or Discourages the Conservation of Biodiversity

According to the rules of academic honesty, I must mention that I embarked on this research project with a vivid awareness of my own personal bias against religion, in general, and against Judeo-Christianity, in particular. I had hoped to hammer my bias into a reasoned polemic against what Erich Fromm (1976) called Judeo-Christianity’s “life-negating tendency” to fixate on redemption and the afterlife. Supporting me in this venture would be Nietzsche (1888), who argued similarly that Judeo-Christianity’s mission was “[to] reverse the whole love of the earth and the earthly…”

If I could demonstrate that Judeo-Christianity’s preoccupation with death creates a mindset in believers facilitating the devaluation and/or subjugation of nature,

Dominion over creation Master-slave relationships (Fromm 1976)

“the passionate attraction to all that is dead, decayed, putrid, sickly; it is the passion to transform that which is alive into something unalive; to destroy for the sake of destruction; the exclusive interest in all that is purely mechanical. It is the passion to tear apart living structures.”

Nietzsche and Fromm demonstrate the life-negating aspects of Judeo-Christianity on the macro-scale. I zoomed into the micro-scale via Lynn White’s (1967) theological examination of Genesis I in order to better understand Judeo-Christian eco-theology.

Man made in image of God Extreme narcissism (Fromm 1976)

Finally, liberal eco-theology calls for a total revamping of Judeo-Christian theology. Liberal eco-theology actually advocates the re-animation of nature, albeit with the Holy Ghost, in some instances. Nevertheless, the spirits of nature must be resurrected and baptized in the true faith in order for them to become effective park rangers. Liberal eco-theology calls for radical theological changes as well as similarly radical social changes. Liberal eco-theology goes so far as to reject modernity and to promote a return to pre-modern modes of existence. Liberal eco-theology argues for a new Judeo-Christian spiritualism that ironically hearkens back to pre-Christian pantheistic religions (Allitt 1998; Kearns 1996; Vogel 2001; Wallace 2000).

CONSERVATIVE ECO-THEOLOGYECO-JUSTICE MOVEMENT POLITIC & POLICY STATUS QUO

According to Fromm, most people possess necrophilic character traits, but Fromm points out that, amongst the general population, a far more attenuated manifestation of necrophilia is the norm. Fromm designates Hitler and Stalin as examples of individuals with extreme necrophilic characters. The father who delights in administering corporal punishment to his children or the bureaucrat who relishes the loss of important paperwork are more mundane examples of garden-variety necrophilia.

Some topics in this essay:
Conservative Judeo-Christian, Critiques Judeo-Christian, Hitler Stalin, According Hinchman, Obviously Judeo-Christianity, Erich Fromm, Judeo-Christianity Judeo-Christianity, , Genesis White, Holy Ghost, judeo-christian eco-theology, environmental ethic, conservation biodiversity, liberal eco-theology, judeo-christian theology, moderate eco-theology, judeo-christian environmental ethic, character traits, fromm 1976, necrophilic character, paradigm shift, psychological theory necrophilia, necrophilic character traits, philosophical critique judeo-christianity, life-negating aspects judeo-christianity,