Systematic Theology

All things bright and beautiful All creatures great and small All things wise and wonderful The Lord God made them all.1 In an age where global warming, environmental pollution, waning natural resources and species extinction are clear and present dangers, we need a theology that attends to humanity’s relationship to and actions towards particular aspects of creation. This realization became more apparent to me at a recent Earth Day chapel in which the seminary community thanked God for giving us the earth, lamented our abuse of that gift and asked God to help us take better care of it now and into the future. As we worshipped, I was struck by the irony of praising God with the birds, squirrels and other animals only minutes before many of us would make animals part of our midday meal. Realizing the detachment between our words and deeds, my mind filled with questions. What does it mean to “care for creation ” when our eating habits devalue the lives of some of God’s creatures? How do we decide which parts of creation to preserve (humans, coral reefs, dogs, rainforests and spotted owls) and which to exterminate (cattle, wetlands, chicken