This is the third part of a series exploring the meaning of revival, worship, and salvation in the Old Testament, amid the challenges of climate change and global unrest. In this post I explore the colossal confusion between dominion and domination.
It never fails that someone asks right away, “what can we do?” And that’s always a question on Western minds. Western minds first want to know and then they immediately want to fix it, quickly. They believe they can fix everything; this is part of the worldview. I want to preempt that presumptive question. Usually, the answer I give is just to listen for a long time. -Randy S. Woodley-
Listen to a (summarized) story told among the Chickamauga tribe of the Southern United States:
A long time ago, the Terrapin (a box turtle) was a whole lot bigger than it is now. Terrapin was a great warrior, and he would walk down the road and he would expect everybody to move out of the road for him.
One day he encounterd a defiant wolf on the road who says, “You know, I’ve had enough! This time, I’m not getting out of Terrapin’s way at all. He’s going to have to move me if he wants me to move.”
So, Terrapin kills the wolf, takes his ears, and demands food and shelter from the first village he reaches. Unbeknownst to Terrapin, it's a wolf town, and the wolves, recognizing their brother's ears, decide to kill him.
They throw Terrapin off a cliff, thinking he'll drown, but he survives with his shell shattered.
As he was lying there dying Terrapin thought, There’s no way I’m ever going to heal from this mess I’m in.
But then something came to him. He remembered this song, this old, old song, and he started singing this song he remembered because it’s a healing song.
After a while, something miraculous happened. Some of those shell parts began to come back and form themselves on his back. Sure enough, the song healed his back.
Terrapin got up from there much smaller than he was before, and you know what? He walked a whole lot more humbly after that.
This is how Woodley understand the Western (Christian) worldview: it’s Terrapin.
It has taken up too much space, and it has insisted on its way in every single system that we have. From education to religion, and economics to politics. And that big Western (Christian) worldview said, “We’re doing this our way, cause we are right and everybody else has to come along or get run over. Do what we say or watch out.”
Many of us are part of Western civilization or influenced by its culture. It's a civilization marked by individualism and materialism. It's impact, like so many other civilizations before it, is dehumanization by class, race, ethnicity, and gender.
We are not all quite human in the way the Creator made us all to be human.
There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism -Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History (1939)-
How did the Church begin its affair with civilization just like the early settlers at Babel?
The source of confusion stems from differing interpretations of the Genesis creation account, specifically in Genesis 1:26-28, where Yahweh tasks humanity with subduing the earth and having dominion over other living creatures.
Dominion was mis-interpreted as domination.
Randy S. Woodley in his book Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview and Richhard Bauckham in his book Living with Other Creatures, list some contributing factors:
- The Influence of Greek Philosophy on the Church Fathers and other Christian thinkers.
- Ignatius of Antioch was likely the first to create a Christian hierarchy by trying to make it a little easier on the church suffering persecution and modeling the Church's system of hierarchy off the Roman military. Christendom, and therefore utopianism, was the unintended consequence.
- Philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon.
Bacon assumed that because nature exists solely for human benefit, it is not only right, but a prime human duty to exploit it for human benefit as far as possible. His idea of human progress became the main ideology of the modern West until the recent development of ecological consciousness.
According to this domination mindset, says Woodley, Christendom promises our salvation, development, security and civilization. Drawing a connection to my previous post, its origins can be traced back to Babylonian religious influences.
In her book, Inspired: slaying giants, walking on water, and loving the bible again, Rachel Held Evans points out that one of the most important questions facing the people who gave us the Bible was: How do we resist Babylon, both as an exterior force that opposes the ways of God and an interior pull that temps us with immitation and assimilation?
Dominion
As we seek to answer the same question, we must look to another Christian tradition that portrays attitudes toward the natural world that is much more closely connected to the Old Testament Covenant and New Testament Kingdom.
It involves stories of hermits and saints, such as St. Francis, who chose to live apart from society to fully devote themselves to Yahweh. They deliberately sought remote places and lived in the wild.
There are many stories of these saints and their relationships with the natural environment and wild animals, spanning regions from Egypt to Belgium and from Georgia to Ireland.
According to them, dominion in its biblical context is focused on the idea of common creatureliness.
- Humanity is not the crown of creation. We were created (figuratively) on the same day as the rest of the land animals. While unique among the creatures, we are also equals.
- Human dominion over creatures is recognizing our dependence on them, as well as a shared dependance on the Creator, leading to a call for brotherly or sisterly respect.
Praised be you, my Lord
with all your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
who is the day through whom
you bring us light.
Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Moon and Stars.
In heaven you have formed them,
lightsome and precious and fair.
robust and strong.
Praised be you, my Lord,
through our Sister, Mother Earth,
who sustains us and directs us
bringing forth all kinds of fruits
and coloured flowers and herbs.
Where domination places humanity at the center of order within cities and civilization; dominion places humanity at the center of Yahweh’s covenant and among the rest of creation.
Given this colossal confusion between domination and dominion, how do we respond?
Like Terrapin, will we embrace humility, recognize that making a name for ourselves has led us astray, and acknowledge the danger we are in?
Will we listen for our own healing song and embrace new forms of worship in order to avoid the consequences of our civilization's destructive pursuit towards Gehenna?
As in any recovery from debilitating socio-cultural problems, the journey begins with “Hello, my name is ____. I have a problem.”
2 Chronicles 7:14
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin, and will heal their land”
References & Suggested Reading
Bauckham, Richard, Living with Other Creatures.
Held Evans, Rachel, Inspired: Slaying giants, walking on water, and loving the bible again. p.118
Woodley, Randy S., Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview, Chapters 1-3
St. Francis, Canticle of the Creatures: https://www.stanthony.org/the-canticle-of-the-creatures/
Haida Sea Turtle: https://www.redbubble.com/i/art-print/Haida-sea-turtle-by-gabitolgyesi/116406036.1G4ZT?ref_list_id=srp_results&ref_list_index=5
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