Podcast appearances and mentions of lynn white

**Chris Stewart's Soulful Etiquette Show Replay On traxfm.org. This Week Chris Featured Soul/Boogie/Reggae/Contemporary Soul From Level 42, Black Girl Singer, Buju Banton, Chronixx, Erma Franklin, The Isley Brothers, Commodores, Billy Paul, NYNE, Whitney Houston, Miss Disco, Lynn White, Teddy Douglas, Will Downing, Fat Larry's Nad, Chaka Khan & More #originalpirates #soulmusic #contemporarysoul #70smusic #80smusic #disco #reggae Catch Chris Stewart's Soulful Etiquette Show Every Tuesday From 12:00PM UK Time On www.traxfm.org Listen Live Here Via The Trax FM Player: chat.traxfm.org/player/index.html Mixcloud LIVE :mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092342916738 Trax FM Live On Hear This: hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Radio Garden: Trax FM Link: http://radio.garden/listen/trax-fm/IEnsCj55 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs...cs=uk.traxRadio Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/Trax_FM..The_Originals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm-103-3.htm**

Govert Buijs speaks to Carmody Grey about Integral Ecology and the Encyclical Laudato Si', by Pope Francis (2015). Carmody Grey is the newly appointed special professor in Integral Ecology at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The chair is part of the Laudato Si' Institute for Integral Ecology in cooperation with Socires, the independent think tank in The Hague. Carmody Grey's doctoral thesis Theology, Science and Life (2019) was published by T&T Clark in 2023 and is available in paperback, hardback and e-book. Govert Buijs is philosopher and professor at the VU University Amsterdam in Political Philosophy, Worldview and Economics-- Support De Nieuwe Wereld by joining our year-end's rally: http://gofundme.com/dnw2024. Prefer direct transfer? Then you can transfer your donation to NL61 RABO 0357 5828 61 under the name Stichting De Nieuwe Wereld. You can become a patron via http://www.petjeaf.com/denieuwewereld. -- 00:00 Personal introduction 01:28 Laudato Si' and Catholic Social Teaching 09:10 How a social encyclical like Laudato Si' comes about 14:57 Ecological concern is native to the Christian tradition 17:08 Distinct focus, intertwinement and scope of Laudato Si' 18:20 Has Christian anthropology caused the ecological crisis? (Lynn White) 22:25 Estrangement from nature as our common home (Günther Anders) 25:34 Unequal responsibility for ecological destruction 28:20 Integral ecology unifies environmental and social justice 30:30 Carmody's personal journey towards integral ecology 35:42 Remaining hopeful in spite of the climate crisis (Václav Havel, Rowan Williams) 42:00 Hope as the condition for action (Pope Benedict XVI, Bryan Stevenson, MLK) 44:50 Bridging the divide between a Christian hope and a secular world (Thomas Merton) 50:23 The human sense of identity, meaning, purpose and value 55:00 Interpreting the turning political tide against ecological concern -- Mentioned resources (chronological order) Encyclical Letter Laudato Si' of the Holy Father Francis on Care for our Common Home (2015) https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html Lynn T. White. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis." Science, Vol 155, Issue 3767 (March 10, 1967) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.155.3767.1203. Günther Anders. Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen. Volume 1. München: Beck, 1956. English translation: https://libcom.org/book/export/html/51647. And Volume 2. München: Beck, 1980. English translation: https://files.libcom.org/files/ObsolescenceofManVol%20IIGunther%20Anders.pdf. Hannah Ritchie. Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet. London: Chatto & Windus, 2024. "Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." From Havel, Václav. "Never Hope against Hope" Esquire Magazine (October1, 1993) https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a12135/vaclav-havel-hope-6619552/. Rowan Williams. The Tragic Imagination: The Literary Agenda. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, men and women religious, and all the lay faithful on Christian Hope (2007) https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi.html Equal Justice Initiative founded by Bryan Stevenson (JD): https://eji.org Martin Luther King. "I Have a Dream" (1963) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3170387.stm. David Foster Wallace. "This is Water" (2005) https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/.

Ad Verbrugge in gesprek met fotograaf en wetenschapsjournalist Rypke Zeilmaker over zijn boek en Magnum Opus ‘Liever Dood Dan Slaaf, een Pelgrimstocht door de Friese Natuur op zoek naar Vrijheid', een biertafelboek van twee kilo. Vermeld 'De Nieuwe Wereld' bij 'opmerkingen' en ontvang een gratis tas bij het boek: https://lieverdooddanslaaf.com/index.php/store/Het-Boek-LIEVER-DOOD-DAN-SLAAF-door-Rypke-Zeilmaker-GRATIS-VERZENDEN-p404128655 Bronnen en links bij deze uitzending: - De site bij het boek ‘Liever Dood Dan Slaaf' hier: https://lieverdooddanslaaf.com/ - 'Een meelijwekkend volk – Vreemden over Friezen van de oudheid tot de kerstening': https://www.wijdemeer.nl/product/een-meelijwekkend-volk-vreemden-over-friezen-van-de-oudheid-tot-de-kerstening/ (11:07) - 'De grondslag van de Friese vrijheid', M.P. van Buijtenen, Gemeentearchief Schiedam: https://boeken.schiedam.nl/boeken/D6C0F65D-CD7A-3557-F804-6A60D8A505AD (19:07) - 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis', Lynn White, Jr. (PDF): https://www.uvm.edu/~gflomenh/courses/ENV-NGO-PA395/articles/Lynn-White.pdf (47:27) - 'Science and Spiritual Practices: Transformative experiences and their effects on our bodies, brains and health', Rupert Sheldrake: https://www.sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/science-and-spiritual-practices (49:54) - Rypke Zeilmakers Blog: https://www.interessantetijden.nl/

Zen Gardens: Philological and Philosophical Analysis of the "Meditation Gardens" Zen (Japanese) = Chan (Chinese) = Dhyan (Sanskrit) One of the most widely cited papers by Lynn White, Jr. mentions Japanese Zen Gardens and their influence on European Gardens: The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis Lynn White. 1967. Science 155: 1203-1207 https://www.cmu.ca/faculty/gmatties/lynnwhiterootsofcrisis.pdf #Nature #zen #meditation #zengarden --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/profpankajjain/message

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the clutter in your home, but don't know where to start? In today's podcast, I am joined by the wonderful YouTuber, Lynn White. Together, we'll reveal the secrets to decluttering your home quickly and efficiently! Lynn will share some tips and tricks on how to ease into the decluttering process without having to part ways with your belongings. Get ready to be inspired and motivated to declutter your home and create a beautifully organized space that you deserve!   Check out Lynn White's YouTube page here: https://www.youtube.com/@mrslynnwhite   You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast  

This week on The Gospel Jubilee Chip and Denny will be playing new music by Right Road Quartet, Zane & Donna King, Scotty Inman, Big Mo, and of course our mystery artists of the week. We will also have an interview with the station manager of Radio For Life, Lynn White. Lynn carries the Gospel Jubilee twice weekly on his station. Here are all of the ways you can listen to the Gospel Jubilee On your Echo device say, Alexa, play the Gospel Jubilee on Apple podcast. For a direct download go to: https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/58531062/download.mp3 Ocean Waves Radio ... every Wednesday at 5:00 PM Eastern time., www.OceanWavesRadio.com Thursday afternoons at 4:00 PM and Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM EST on Southern Branch Bluegrass Radio, www.sbbradio.org Saturday evenings at 7:00 and Wednesday afternoons at 4:00 CST on Radio For Life, www.RadioForLife.org Legend Oldies Radio. Our broadcast will be aired every Sunday morning at 9:00 AM CDT. https://www.legendoldies.com Playlist: Artists |Song Title | Album 01. Scotty Inman - Southern Gospel - "Southern Gospel - Single" 02. Big Mo - Thinking outside the box - "Thinking Outside The Box - Single" 03. The Guardians - Heaven is happening - "Come On In" 04. Right Road Quartet - Walking on the right road now - "On The Right Road" 05. Voices Won - Fishing trip - " Just Call It Southern - Volume 10 - Disk 2" 06. Zane & Donna King - Front porch sittin - "Front Porch Sittin - Single" 07. TrueSong - Waiting for me - "Tell Someone" 08. Avenue Trio - Keeping it real - "Here We Are - Deluxe Edition" 09. Woody Wilson Wright - His way with thee - "Hymn Time" 10. Bradley Walker - With His arms wide open - "Call Me Old Fashion" 11. Interview with Lynn White - Station manager - Radio For Life and Greater Vision with, God Does 12. George Jones - Lord, You've been mighty good to me - "20 Gospel Greats" 13. Ed Bruce - I pray - "In Jesus' Eyes" 14. Endless Highway - I'll get over it - "This Is The Moment" 15. Daryl Williams Union - I am saved - "I Am Saved - Single" 16. The Williamsons - You made the mountain - "Above Everything" 17. Mystery artists of the week - Stand by me 18. The Gaither Vocal Band - He's still the King of Kings - "All Heaven & Nature Sing"

This week we're bringing you an episode from our back catalogue, this time from March 2022. The latest report from the UN's climate scientists was both incredibly downbeat about climate change and almost entirely ignored by a media fixated on Ukraine. In this episode we consider the communication and changing narratives around climate change, why an unscientific hyper-fatalism has set in with many activists, and what impact this might be having on younger generations terrified humanity itself is going extinct. We then discuss what an authentically Christian response to our environmental crisis would look like. How can we steer a middle path between complacency and despair? Does our different theology of the future change how we act on climate change? • Christian Aid's climate change projects https://christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/campaign-climate-justice • A Rocha's Eco Church scheme https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/ • Christian Climate Action's principles and values for Christian climate activism https://christianclimateaction.org/who-we-are/cca-principals-and-values/ • 'The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis' - 1967 essay by Lynn White https://www.cmu.ca/faculty/gmatties/lynnwhiterootsofcrisis.pdf • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

durée : 00:04:11 - Le Pourquoi du comment : économie et social - par : Dominique Méda - Selon l'historien américain Lynn White, "l'écologie humaine est largement conditionnée par des croyances relatives à notre nature et à notre destinée". Il incrimine la religion judéo-chrétienne et plus particulièrement la Genèse d'avoir désacralisé le monde et permis l'exploitation de la nature.

Welcome to the season 1 finale of ESG Unlocked! We have had an incredible first season exploring key ESG topics, and we are thrilled to wrap it up with a panel of four amazing Corporate Sustainability professionals who will share their diverse experiences working in ESG today. Host Pamela Mutumwa welcomes Candace Smith, Social Leader for American Woodmark, Lynn White, Chief of Staff at Genworth Financial, Anthony Triplin, Executive Director of Sales at ISS Corporate Solutions, and Logan McCoy, Associate Director of Sustainability Product Management. Tune in to hear their valuable insights as they open up and share their personal stories. Thank you for being a part of our first season and we can't wait to return in the fall with another series of compelling conversations with ESG leaders to continue unlocking the value of ESG today.Host: Pamela MutumwaGuests: Anthony Triplin, Candace Smith, Logan McCoy, Lynn White

This Autism Activist Turn Autism Into Awesomeism. We talk about how Lynn is turning autism into optimism. Thank you for tuning into Defining Moments podcast. This episode is brought to you by CMM Financial Services. At CMM, we know how hard it is to find someone who knows and cares enough to create the tax and wealth plans that you deserve.After walking alongside hundreds of clients for the past 20 years with accounting, bookkeeping, tax strategy, and financial planning, we have created a proven system to help you reach your financial goals. CMM has your complete financial team to reach your financial goals, book a call at cmmfinancialservices.com.

Recorded by Corrie Lynn White for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on January 25, 2023. www.poets.org

Lynn is on this podcast to talk about Before August, bust chops, and talk music

Place des religions, saison 5 : Écologie, où sont les religions ?   Le récit de la Création, dans la Bible, a fortement contribué à donner à l'être humain une place centrale dans son environnement. Au point que certains ont accusé le christianisme d'être ainsi "responsable" de la crise écologique. Comment comprendre cette vision anthropocentrique, et comment, dès lors, sortir de la culpabilité pour avancer ? ► Episode 5 sur 12 : Le christianisme est-il responsable de la crise écologique ? Les questionnements sur la responsabilité du christianisme dans la crise environnementale remontent à plus d'un demi-siècle. En 1967, l'historien médiéviste Lynn White publiait alors une thèse sur "les racines historiques de notre crise écologique". Il y mettait en cause le christianisme médiéval latin, dont l'anthropo­centrisme serait à l'origine, selon lui, de la dégradation de la planète. Mais sur quels fondements théologiques s'appuyait-il ? Le christianisme reconnaît-il l'existence d'un “péché écologique” ? Comment, dès lors, sortir de la culpabilité pour avancer ?  ► Les spécialistes rencontrés : • Martin Kopp. Théologien protestant, chercheur associé à l'Université de Strasbourg, membre du Conseil de la Fédération protestante de France (FPF) et président de la Commission écologie et justice climatique de la FPF. • Isabelle Priaulet. Docteure en philosophie, diplômée de l'Institut de sciences et de théologie des religions (ISTR), membre de la chaire Jean-Bastaire de l'Université catholique de Lyon (Ucly). • Alexandre Siniakov. Moine orthodoxe, recteur du séminaire orthodoxe russe d'Épinay-sous-Sénart, propriétaire d'une ferme dans la Sarthe où il élève, entre autres, des chevaux, des ânesses, des poules et des chèvres. • Christine Kristof-Lardet. Eco-journaliste, reporter et militante écologiste, cofondatrice du réseau des écosites sacrés et du mouvement Chrétiens unis pour la terre, elle a notamment coordonné l'ouvrage collectif "Écologie et Spiritualité - la rencontre" (Yves Michel 2004). ► "Place des religions", un podcast mensuel :  Découvrez un nouvel épisode de la 5ème saison de "Place des religions" chaque dernier mercredi du mois, sur le site et l'appli du journal La Croix, et sur toutes les plateformes de podcast.  ► Vous avez une question ou une remarque ? Écrivez-nous à cette adresse : podcast.lacroix@groupebayard.com  CRÉDITS :  Rédaction en chef : Fabienne Lemahieu et Dominique Greiner. Journalistes : Malo Tresca et Clémence Maret. Réalisation : Flavien Edenne et Clémence Maret. Chargée de production : Célestine Albert-Steward. Musique et mixages : Théo Boulenger. Responsable marketing : Laurence Szabason. Visuel : Yasmine Gateau.  Place des religions est un podcast original de LA CROIX – Septembre 2022 

What does it mean to reengage religious and spiritual practices that we grew up with, that meant something to our ancestors, and, might mean something to us? In the words of biblical scholar Micah Kiel, “Rather than jettison, we must reexamine and rethink those traditions that have formed us” (Apocalyptic Ecology, xxi, relying on Lynn White). Sunday, August 7, 2022

Real Talk Monday is excited to have Lady Lynn

Steve Harper Interviews Jodi Lynn White Certified Psychic Medium --    https://www.jodi-lynn.com https://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast  %20business%20news%20network&c=us https://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+network

Steve Harper Interviews Jodi Lynn White Certified Psychic Medium --   https://www.jodi-lynn.com/ https://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast  %20business%20news%20network&c=us https://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+network

How did Western culture get so disconnected from nature? Some people point to the scientific revolution of early modern Europe, with its quest to control nature. But where did those early scientists get the idea to conquer nature? Today we look at the famous theory of historian Lynn White in 1967—that the creation stories of Genesis taught medieval Christianity to “subdue nature.” It's a theory that people still repeat today, even though most of White's evidence has been refuted. We look especially at how centuries of Jewish teachers interpreted Genesis—as a cautionary tale about what happens when humans fail to take moral responsibility. If two religious traditions can read the same creation story in opposite ways, what does that say about how creation stories actually work? And where, again, does that urge to conquer nature come from? Notes and links following the transcript.

Environmental activists often focus on facts and data, as if more climate information will lead to more climate action. That strategy may be effective with some communities, but overall it hasn't prevented global emissions from climbing year after year or habitats from being destroyed day after day.Many folks in the environmental movement are thinking a lot about how to make messaging more effective. But it's not just the message we need to question—it's also the messenger.In the U.S., white evangelical Christians are not known for their strong support of environmental protections or for believing that humans are even causing climate change, but maybe they haven't had the right messengers.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is an evangelical Christian climate activist, which is not a combination of descriptors we often hear. Kyle has spent years building a movement of young messengers from within the evangelical community who speak a new language of creation care.He believes that Christians don't need to look any further than the Bible to become fierce and passionate advocates for ecological protection and climate action.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap was National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action before becoming Vice President at the Evangelical Environmental Network.I met Kyle in 2019 at a week-long climate storytelling retreat in New York City. I was super excited to continue our conversation here and dive deeper into his own ecological awakening, what scripture says about caring for the environment, and how Christians and non-Christians alike can find common values and build power together to care for life on Earth across cultural lines that often divide us.You can listen on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.Please rate, review, and share to help us spread the word!Rev. Kyle Meyaard-SchaapRev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap serves as the Vice President of the Evangelical Environmental Network. He holds an undergraduate degree in religious studies from Calvin University (B.A. '12), a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary (M.Div. '16), and is ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA). Much of his professional experience has involved the integration of theology, science, and action toward a deeper awareness of the Christian responsibility to care for God's earth and to love one's neighbors, both at home and around the world. Kyle has been named to Midwest Energy Group's 40 Under 40 and the American Conservation Coalition's 30 Under 30 cohorts for his work on climate change education and advocacy. Most recently, he was named a Yale Public Voices on the Climate Crisis Fellow for 2020. His work has been featured in national and international news outlets such as PBS, NPR, CNN, NBC News, New York Times, Reuters, and U.S. News and World Report. He is married to Allison and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with their son, Simon.Quotation Read by Rev. Kyle Meyaard-SchaapThe Peace of Wild Things When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. - Wendell Berry © Wendell Berry. This poem is excerpted from New Collected Poems and is reprinted with permission of the Counterpoint Press.Recommended Readings & MediaTranscriptionIntroJohn FiegeEnvironmental activists often focus on facts and data, as if more climate information will lead to more climate action. That strategy may be effective with some communities, but overall, it hasn't prevented global emissions from climbing year after year or habitats from being destroyed day after day.Many folks in the environmental movement are thinking a lot about how to make messaging more effective. But it's not just the message we need to question—it's also the messenger.In the US, white evangelical Christians are not known for their strong support of environmental protections or for believing that humans are even causing climate change, but maybe they haven't had the right messengers.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is an evangelical Christian climate activist, which is not a combination of descriptors we often hear. Kyle has spent years building a movement of young messengers from within the evangelical community who speak a new language of creation care.He believes that Christians don't need to look any further than the Bible to become fierce and passionate advocates for ecological protection and climate action.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapSo when humans read, have dominion and subdue the earth, and they separate that, from the rest of scriptures witness, which is that Christ is creations true king, then it's easy for us to say, "Well, I guess we have a blank check. Let's do whatever we want." Instead of saying, "Well, let's shape our dominion in our rulership after creation's true king, which is Christ." And when we actually do that, then the way we have dominion and subdue the earth is going to look a whole lot different. It's going to look a whole lot less like privilege and a whole lot more like responsibility.John FiegeI'm John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis.Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap was National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action before becoming Vice President at the Evangelical Environmental Network.I met Kyle in 2019 at a week-long climate storytelling retreat in New York City. I was super excited to continue our conversation here and dive deeper into his own ecological awakening, what scripture says about caring for the environment, and how Christians and non-Christians alike can find common values and build power together to care for life on Earth across cultural lines that often divide us.Here is Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap.---ConversationJohn FiegeYou grew up in Michigan. And that's where I wanted to start. Can you tell me where you grew up? And as a child, what was your relationship to the earth, to the forest, to the ocean, to the rest of life on the planet?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, absolutely. I did. I grew up in Holland, Michigan, which is a beautiful, small town, on the shores of Lake Michigan, western part of the state and grew up, you know, minutes from Lake Michigan. So the beach and dunes were always a big part of my life growing up, as was camping, and just enjoying the beautiful landscapes of Michigan. Northern Michigan, with it's in the lakes and forests, and obviously, Lake Michigan and the coast there. So creation and its beauty, you know, was always a part of my childhood and my upbringing. I can't say it was always a conscious part, though. We didn't talk often about our relationship to the natural world, our responsibilities toward it. My community was a beautiful Christian community, that that taught me lots of really important lessons and values and virtues. But I don't remember a conversation about God's creation and our relationship to it, our responsibility to it, certainly nothing about climate change. And I don't remember outright hostility, to be honest. I think a lot of people expect that from a small Evangelical community like mine. What I remember most was just silence, around climate change, around environmental issues in general, pollution. Except for recycling, which I'm not sure we would have done if the truck didn't pick it up at our curb every other week for us. Except for that, I can't really remember any intentional choices that we made as a family or as a larger Church community. And, and so my childhood was marked by kind of this dissonance between my experience of God's grandeur in these beautiful, breathtaking landscapes that were just a part of me and a part of my life growing up, and the relative silence around those gifts. Silence around what our responsibility would be toward those things. I think it was taken for granted that these things were here, and very little conversation about how to protect them, or what our faith, well how our faith could inform the way we approached questions about how to protect those gifts.Right. And an interesting thing, though, is even if you're not talking about it, in articulating this connection, you obviously had that really profound experience with the natural world. Even if kind of culturally, politically it wasn't, you know, positioned that way. Do you have any, like, particularly strong memories of an experience that has really stuck with you in terms of being in the natural world?Yeah, I think more than one experience, I think I have just a general sense memory, of being in the sand and in the water in Lake Michigan. I don't think I ever really reflected on how formative that body of water was to me and continues to be for me. It's almost like a my center of gravity. I travel a lot for my work, but I feel most at home back in this landscape in Michigan, close to the lake. It's my directional guide for someone who struggles with innate sense of the cardinal directions with Lake Michigan's always West. So if I know where Lake Michigan is, I know where West is. So I think more than kind of a general, distinct, or discreet memory, just the the general sense memory of being near Lake Michigan, of going to Lake Michigan often in the summers, going to the beach often, being in those dunes, being in the water. A couple of years ago, I was invited to a multifaith space where people were invited to bring a part of creation that's meaningful to them to the space, and to kind of offer it to the group. And I brought a vial of Lake Michigan water because that was the only thing I could think of, right? Lake Michigan is the spot for me. Yeah.John FiegeOh, that's awesome. Yeah, I've, over the last couple years, I've started, when meditating, I've started visualizing, being in the surf of the ocean and having the water come in and out in the same cadence as the breath. And that's, I've really, like connected with that as like a technique. And I've thought about it. And I realized, you know, I grew up going to the Atlantic Ocean every summer for a long time. And it's so embedded in me and in my psyche. It sounds like you might have a similar water relationship there.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, I love that! I love that. And people who grew up in the mountains speak similarly about the mountains. I don't think I realized it, until relatively recently, the impact that that gift has had on me in my life. Yeah.John FiegeOh, that's awesome. Can you tell me the story of your brother spending a semester abroad in New Zealand?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, so my older brother is three years older than me. My hero for much of my life, continues to be one of my best friends. He went off to a semester abroad program in New Zealand when he was a sophomore in college, and I was still in high school, I was a junior in high school. And he grew up, you know, in the same kind of milieu as I did. Pretty conservative, Evangelical Christian community. Very, very little discussion around the environment around climate change in particular, pollution, and the environment in general. And he went on this semester abroad trip, which was designed for Christian college students to engage the disciplines of ecology, biology, environmental science, and biblical studies and theology, in conversation with each other, to examine this beautiful, unique ecosystem in New Zealand; and to bring theological questions and biblical insights into conversation with what they were discovering. And he came back totally transformed.John FiegeIt sounds like an amazing program!Kyle Meyaard-SchaapIt does! I almost went on the same program myself! I ultimately chose to take a different trip elsewhere, but it was an amazing trip. And he came back pretty on fire for what he had learned, and particularly for the way that the trip helped him integrate his existing Christian values, with his burgeoning understanding of the environmental and climate crisis. I think the climax of his return was when he announced to the family...I forget what it was...a couple of days, maybe a week or two, after he came back that because of what he had learned, he was now a vegetarian. Which for my Midwestern, pretty conservative meat and potatoes family, that was pretty shocking. I remember for myself as a junior in high school, I didn't know anybody like me who had ever made that choice. And I had the caricature in my mind of the hemp-friendship-bracelet-weaving, vegan-pizza-eating, throw-paint-on-fur-coats-on-the-weekends-vegetarian, and I was forced to to either keep that caricature and then put my brother in that camp along with them, which was painful, or to suspend my assumptions and hear him out. And he was gracious and patient, and kind of laid out for me all of his rationale for the decision. And most importantly, he helped me see why that decision to become a vegetarian was not a jettisoning of the values that we had been taught by our community. It was, in fact, a deepening of those values. It was a way for him to live more fully into those values, like loving our neighbor, loving God, caring for God's creation. All of the values that we had been instilled with, it was another opportunity to express those values more deeply. And that was, that was a real lightbulb moment for me. I think I had assumed that to make those kinds of decisions or to care about something like the environment or climate change, I would need to turn my back on my community, turn my back on the lessons I learned in Sunday school, turn my back on the values that were instilled in me by my family. And he was the first person who gave me permission to recognize that actually taking these things seriously and doing something about it is a way for us to live more fully into those lessons and those values that we had been taught.John FiegeGreat. That's so interesting, because it seems to set up a trajectory for so much of what you've done since. I'm thinking in particular about this idea, this assumption that, if we just explain the facts, if we just reveal the scientific truth, and everyone would be like, "Oh, okay! Well, let's change everything now!" You know? And it doesn't work that way. You know, we're changed by the people who are closest to us. And that's the key that unlocks people's ability to transform. So I'm wondering if you can kind of start with that moment with your brother. And you know, what path did that take you on? And what does your work and life look like now? And in particular, I'd love to hear you talk more about the work you're doing with young people, and that idea of change from within the community.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapAbsolutely. So that that experience with my brother was really the spark that was fanned into flame, when I myself went off to college a couple years later. Went to a small Christian liberal arts school here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I took classes, and had professors, and read books, and went to lectures, and made friends and all of it just combined to continue to advance my understanding of what my faith had to say about the environmental crisis and the climate crisis in particular, and in how my commitment to my faith was drawing me more deeply into action. At the same time, I was studying religion there. I thought I was going to be a biology major, and all of the intro to bio classes were closed. So I signed up for a religion course, because I had to take two of those as a requirement of the school I was at, and I loved it! I loved it! It was scratching the itch I didn't know I had. It was asking the questions that really got me excited. So I continued to pursue that. I was studying scripture and theology deeply at the same time as I was being exposed to the realities of the climate crisis, being exposed to activists who were doing something about it, embedding myself in a community of peers who are passionate about these things. And were asking these questions too. And all of that led me to after graduation to pursue a seminary degree. I was feeling a call to serve the church. I was pretty clear at that time that that particular calling was likely not to be a traditional pastor of a congregation, but to help the church understand that addressing the climate crisis and taking care of God's creation is a fundamental component of what it means to be a Christian.John FiegeDid you have any models for that? Where did that idea come from? That was in seminary school that you first conceived of that as a calling?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, it was. I had a few models. One model was actually the founder of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, which I think we're going to talk about in a minute, that I had gotten to know over the last couple of years at that point, his name was Ben Lowe. He was certainly a model for me. Other models were Evangelical Christians, or Christians in the Evangelical space, who are active on social justice issues in general, Shane Claiborne, is certainly an influence on me and other Christian activists, who use this language. Who talk about how caring for the vulnerable, protecting the oppressed is a fundamental part of the church's calling in the world. And it's not an ancillary issue for a handful of members in the church who have a predisposition to care about those things. It's not an affinity group on the sidelines of the church. It's at the heart of the church's mission in the world, especially when it comes to climate change. It's just a fundamental part of what it means to follow Jesus and in the 21st century. And so I did have a few models for that. I also had terrific mentors, who helped expand my idea of what could be possible, who kind of helped me discern this calling and tease out the shape of it. And that took some time. That took a few years to really get a sense of the particular shape of that calling. I entered seminary with a general sense that I was called to serve the church in some way. And I was passionate about social justice at the same time, and then over the course of my time in seminary, and conversations with mentors, that the shape of that calling really kind of filled out.John FiegeAnd how would you describe the work that you've done since seminary?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah. So since seminary, I have been working with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, which is a national organization of young Christians around the country, many with a very similar story to mine grew up in a conservative Christian community, were not given a whole lot of tools to help them integrate their faith and the values they were being taught in church and Christian day school, in many cases, with the realities of climate change, and environmental degradation. Many of them came to be concerned about the climate crisis. But were often told they needed to keep that separate from their life at church. So, many of them would join a Sierra Club or three-fifty protests on the weekend, and then go to church and not tell anyone about it. Because they felt implicitly or explicitly that they were told that those things had to be separate. So my ministry really for the last several years, since seminary has been to come alongside these young people, and to hopefully catalyze the kind of experience that I had. Because of my brother, because of other experiences because of other people I had in my life, that wedded together my faith and my faith values with climate action, to do that, for young Christians across the country, and to hopefully, create a space where that transformation can happen more quickly. Because it took me years, and where that transformation can happen for more people more quickly. And that can translate into a movement within the church of young people calling the church back to our own stated values, our own calling in the world, and can translate into real political pressure that can hopefully create the circumstances that will lead to policy change that can address the climate crisis at the speed and scale necessary. So I use the word ministry, because I believe that's what I'm doing. I believe that's what this is. That this calling I have to educate, equip, and mobilize young Christians. And recently, I actually transitioned to a role with Y.E.C.A parent organization where I'm now the vice president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, continuing to support Y.E.C.E., but also leading other programs for other Christians across the country to. I do believe this as a ministry and I believe I'm called to this ministry. Because the gospel of Jesus, in Jesus's own words is about setting the oppressed free, proclaiming good news to the poor, and climate action is that, and the church needs to recognize that and to get to work.John FiegeWell, great. I'm curious to hear more about, kind of your assessment of how that is going. But before we do that, I want to just jump into more of the heart of some of these ideas that I think that you spend your time steeped in and talking about. So I wanted to jump into this book you contributed to called Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care. I was wondering if you could talk about the evolution of the idea of creation care. So let's let's start in 1967, when historian Lynn White Jr. wrote an explosive article in the science in the journal Science called the historical roots of our ecological crisis, he cites the Dominion Mandate from Genesis in blaming the Judeo Christian tradition for its abusive attitudes towards the Earth and its non-human creatures. So here's Genesis 128, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." What do you hear in this passage, and how do you think it's been read or misread by Christians or non-Christians?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapHmm. That's a terrific question. And you're right. I think a lot about this. So I'll try to be concise, but I am a preacher by training. This is one of the passages I've maybe thought most about. So I hear a few things. I think the first thing we should name is that read on its face in the English translation from the original Hebrew that you just read. It sure sounds like God has given humans license to do as they please with creation. However, I think my seminary education in particular has sensitized me to the importance of a slow, and careful, and contextual reading of Scripture. So when I hear that passage, I want to ask the question, "What's around it? What's around that verse, those verses that can help us contextualize that command?" And when I asked that, I see a couple of things. The first thing I see is that that command comes after 27 verses of God, creating and reveling in that creation. Genesis 1 says, "God looks at what he had made and calls it good," says that seven times and in the Hebrew imagination, the number seven connotes wholeness, perfection, even holiness. So having that Hebrew word in there, "Tov," seven times, for good, signals something to the original listeners, right? God is calling God's creation maximally good. This is this creation, I'm making as good as it gets. And the other thing I see is, pretty clearly, creations true king going about the work of creating, right? The language of dominion, and rulership evokes kingship. And so when we see God giving humans the command to subdue, have dominion over. That is the language of kingship. And we have to ask ourselves, "Is God really placing humans as creations true king? Or does the rest of Scripture attest that creations True King is actually Christ?" And if that's the case, then we have to ask ourselves, "Is our dominion separated from the dominion of Christ's or is our call to rule over creation supposed to be shaped in a particular way?" I would argue our call to dominion is derivative of Christ's true claim to the rulership of all of creation. And if that's the case, then our rule has to be shaped after the way that Christ rules and scripture is quite clear about how Christ exercises his authority over creation. We see it in the Incarnation, when he empties himself and and takes on human form, and limits himself in human form, to bring creation back to himself. I think Paul says it really well in Philippians, when he says that Christ did not see equality with God as something to be exploited for his own advantage. But he emptied himself and became a servant when he came to serve us in the Incarnation, and in his death and resurrection. So we see that Christ as creations true king exercises Dominion in a particular way, and it's not through exploitation, or through domination, it's through humble sacrifice, and through service. So when humans read, have dominion and subdue the earth, and they separate that, from the rest of scriptures witness, which is that Christ is creations true king, then it's easy for us to say, "Well, I guess we have a blank check. Let's do whatever we want." Instead of saying, "Well, let's shape our dominion in our rulership after creation's true king, which is Christ." And when we actually do that, then the way we have dominion and subdue the earth is going to look a whole lot different. It's going to look a whole lot less like privilege and a whole lot more like responsibility. Responsibility to serve that which we are ruling over. And I think Genesis 2 actually supports that interpretation. Genesis: 1 and 2 are two creation accounts in Scripture. Genesis 1 is really high minded language that belongs and, you know,magisterial archives along side the decrees of the king, but Genesis 2, the language is really intimate and earthy. It's a story about a God who stoops in the mud and forms humans with his hands, and then breathes his own breath into it, into the humans that he's creating. And the first command he gives to humans in Genesis 2 is to serve and protect creation. Genesis 2:15 has the Hebrew words "svad" and "shamar," the garden, those are often translated as till and keep it, which I don't like. Really, when you actually go to the Hebrew, it's pretty clear the word Avad. The Hebrew word Avad is all over the Old Testament. So we have a good idea of what it means. It's almost always used in the context of service and even slavery. And Shamar is also used everywhere. And it's quite clear that it connotes jealous protection and proactive guarding from harm. So in Genesis 2, God takes the humans he just made, puts them in the garden and says, serve and protect this, this thing that I've made. I think when you put that next to Genesis 1's call to dominion, it's quite clear that both of them are calling humans toward a particular responsibility to creation. Not to privilege, but to responsibility.John FiegeWow. Well, that amazing textual reading you just gave it, makes me think about the Protestant Reformation. In the sense that so much of the tumult in the church over the past millennium, has been about who interprets the Bible. And the Protestant Reformation was all about the ability of everyone to be able to read and interpret the Bible as they'd like. But when I listened to you have this amazingly learned and nuanced interpretation of the contextual reading of any one particular line, you know, it makes it gives me pause. I was like, "Yes, we should all be able to read ourselves." But that doesn't mean we don't need help from people who spend their lives studying the intricacies of a very complex text with very old language, that can be interpreted in many different ways. How have you approached that?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, I like that a lot. I think you're right. And I think we can have both at the same time. I think we can invite people to experience scripture on their own terms. Because I do believe that Scripture is alive, that it is less an object to be dissected, which much of modern interpretive methods have tried to do and it's much more a living subject to be encountered. I believe the Holy Spirit works through our engagement with scripture to shape and change us. So I want people to encounter scripture on their own. And at the same time, I want people who have, like you said, spent their lives studying the cultural context of Scripture, studying the linguistic intricacies of Scripture. I want those people also speaking into folks' individual readings of Scripture to help people understand some of the complexities of what they are reading and what they're experiencing. You know, much of especially modern Evangelicalism, has emphasized a plain reading of the text. And that has been held forth as a way to honor scripture and honor the Bible on its own terms. I actually interpret that as the opposite. I think that's doing scripture a great disservice by ignoring all of the depth that is present in Scripture, that can be gained through a deep study, and winsome explication of it.John FiegeYeah. And it's a bit like constitutional originalism. I see a lot of parallels there with this very plain reading of texts. And it's interesting what you say about interpretation. Where, you know, some of the brilliance of these texts, is their openness and their invitation for interpretation and invitation for nuance, and like almost built in layeredness of meaning, and what meaning could be. And to read that plainly can, as you say, really be a disservice to it.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, absolutely. And it's even, there's even more layers than constitutional originalism when it comes to the Bible because the Constitution was written in English, older style English, but English nonetheless. But, you know, Scripture is coming to us through the Hebrew language and the Greek language. Coming to us through a variety of manuscripts, different versions, different interpretations, different translations. There's there's a longer history and more layers of interpretation they're already baked in. So to pretend like we can read the Bible in English and read it, you know, to gain everything we possibly can from it in that one English reading, again, just does a disservice to the complexity and the depth of Scripture.John FiegeLet's go back and read Lynn White Jr's article from 1967 very briefly. What I find interesting is that while he clearly blames the Judeo-Christian tradition for our ecological crisis, as he calls it, his solution is not to abandon religion or even Christianity. He says, "I personally doubt that disastrous ecologic backlash can be avoided simply by applying to our problems more science and more technology." Instead his solution is St. Francis of Assisi. He wants to dig back into Christian history and on earth, more earth friendly theologies that have been suppressed over time. And I'd love to read just his last paragraph from his piece. He writes, "The greatest spiritual revolutionary in Western history, Saint Francis, proposed what he thought was an alternative Christian view of nature and man's relation to it; he tried to substitute the idea of the equality of all creatures, including man, for the idea of man's limitless rule of creation. He failed. Both our present science and our present technology are so tinctured with Orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature that no solution for our ecological crisis can be expected from them alone. Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refill our nature and destiny. The profoundly religious, but heretical sense of the primitive Franciscans for the spiritual autonomy of all parts of nature may point a direction. I propose Francis as a patron saint of ecologists." I think of our current Pope Francis, I think he would agree. There's this dominant secular idea of replacing Christianity with a purely scientific worldview. But that's not what Lynn White Jr. is calling for. What do you think when you hear this passage? I don't know if you've read it before, but what does it make you think?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapI'm always struck when I'm reminded of Lynn White's conclusion. There's no doubt that this paper looms large in environmental consciousness, particularly in the consciousness of the modern environmental movement, it because in many ways it was one of the catalysts for it. I appreciate his recognition that religion and the Judeo-Christian worldview is so part and parcel with Western civilization that I don't even think a project to jettison it is possible. And I think that's what he's saying too. He's saying, look, we're not going to replace the cultural impact, but the cultural foundations of the Judeo-Christian worldview and Western civilization, probably ever. So how do we work in recognition of that reality toward a better spirituality, a more earth friendly, Judeo-Christian perspective. So I appreciate that. And that's in many ways what we are trying to do in our work. St. Francis is a great example. Scripture is full of support for Saint Francis' kind of spirituality that recognizes the inherent goodness and the inherent sanctity of the created world. Scripture shouts this stuff, not just in Genesis, but all over Psalms, Job, the Pentateuch, the Law, the Gospels, Colossians, Ephesians, Revelation, it's everywhere! Romans. You can't run away from it. And you know, people like St. Francis and other leaders have shown us what it looks like to take those teachings and turn it into an operative theology and a way of life. And this is part of our heritage, too, right? I think that the Church, often especially after the Reformation, the Protestant Church tends to think that the Church of Jesus Christ in the world was established when Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the wall, to the door of the church. But it goes back so much farther. And that's all our heritage and that's all worth reexamining. Especially in the light of the current ecological crisis that we are in. We have tools and resources. The church has tools and resources at its disposal that we can use to help understand the crisis we're living through and can point us forward, give us a way forward toward positive action.John FiegeYeah, great. Well, can you talk about Christian environmental stewardship and how that grew out of a response to this criticism of dominion as domination?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapSure, yeah. So the Lynn White article was a catalyst for a lot of Christians to examine Christianity's perspective around dominion, and how that influences the way we interact with creation. And that started some conversations that kind of culminated in the late 70s, early 80s. Around this concept of stewardship, that was kind of the Protestant Churches, at least in America, the Protestant church's answer to Lynn White's, I think, correct critique of dominionist theology, and the Church saying, Look, Lynn White is right! The Bible does not give us a blank check to do whatever we want with creation. Dominion does not mean domination. It means stewardship, it means wise management. And so stewardship became kind of the dominant frame that was articulated by Christian environmentalists and Christian theologians just looking to try to do better theology, say, look, Dominion. Dominionism, isn't it. Stewardship is much closer to what Scripture is talking about. So stewardship was a necessary corrective and a really important step in the right direction. It wasn't without its limitations, though. One limitation is that from a communication standpoint, a lot of rank and file folks and churches didn't quite understand what it meant. And there was a lot of confusion around are we talking about stewarding creation? Are we talking about why stewardship of money. A lot of studies have been done that show that Christians dominant views on stewardship centered around money still. So stewardship had always been used around language of finances and money, and so to add stewardship onto conversations around ecology and creation felt a little confusing to a lot of folks in the church, and it continues to confuse some people. Another limitation of the stewardship model is it creates unnecessary distance between us and the rest of creation. A steward is someone who is outside of and separate from the thing that is being stewarded. A steward is a custodian, a manager, but it can separate us from the rest of creation and kind of reinforce the hierarchy that dominionism created between us and the rest of creation. When in fact, I think scripture actually teaches us that humans are much more radically interconnected with creation. We are not separate from creation, we are created ourselves. We have a unique role to play in the midst of creation, but we are not separate from it. So stewardship kind of developed out of Lynn White's critique, and now, some of us in the church are thinking about stewardship and its legacy. We're grateful for the ways that it's reframed dominionism, but trying to imagine other ways to think about our relationship to creation that might be more effective in mobilizing Christians toward deeper action and care for the earth.John FiegeAnd this seems to be this, this problem of our separation from the rest of the natural world. You know, that's a problem shared by the broader environmental movement. This idea of locking away nature as wilderness in reserves, as important as that might be, it's not everything. And it creates this distance. As a replacement for the concept of stewardship, you suggest the idea of kinship and commonality in difference. I think this is a really wonderful idea for our view of both the nonhuman and the human world. Can you explain what you mean by kinship? And maybe talk about this beautiful metaphor you use of the mother and the child?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, sure. So the the project of the Beyond Stewardship book was to imagine multiple different vantage points that we might use to better understand our relationship to the natural world. So I highly encourage reading the whole book because the contributors offer other really insightful perspectives about how we can think about our relationship to the rest of creation. My contribution was, as you said, this idea of kinship, and off the bat, I want to say, this is certainly not a unique idea. Indigenous cultures, throughout time and space, have been articulating our relationship with creation as one of kinship. And I also think that the Old Testament, and the new, but especially the Old Testament, attests to this relationship too. And what I'm trying to get at with kinship is this idea that, for so much of the Christian Church's history, we have elevated ourselves above the rest of creation. We have elevated our uniqueness over against creation and diminished or completely flattened out our commonality with the rest of creation, in a way that I don't think Scripture supports. I think Scripture is clear that humans are different in an important way from the rest of creation, but not separated from it. One of the ways I think Scripture does that really beautifully, is I often say this in my presentations, and people are surprised, but humans don't have their own special creative day to themselves. Humans are created on the same day as all of the other land creatures, day six, when God creates badgers, and beavers, and billy goats. He also creates human beings.John FiegeRight. And that's not insignificant.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapRight! It's a really brilliant reminder for humans that, hey, we may have this unique image of God thing, which actually, is a call to responsibility and privilege. But we are embedded in creation. We are a part of creation in really important ways. And I think kinship helps us remember that and center that and keep that front of mind. So that the way I tried to express that is through the metaphor of a mother and a child. And I think that was on my mind because when I was writing this chapter, we had recently had our first child. And the metaphor is essentially trying to get at this idea that a mother and a child are deeply connected, right? They are connected through shared DNA, they're connected through shared spaces, but they're different. They are different beings. So just as we are different from other creatures in creation, we also have shared features, we have commonalities. We are all created from the same earth, from the same stuff, we were created on the same day in Genesis 1. In Genesis 2, that connection is even deeper through the the use of a Hebrew pun. The scripture in Genesis 2 says that God formed Adom, which is where we get the English name Adam, for the first man scripture actually never named Adam as Adam. It's just the Hebrew word Adom, which is "man from the soil," Adamah, we are Adom from the Adamah, we are soil people is essentially what Genesis 1 says. And we share that with the rest of creation. So there's a deep kinship and similarity between us and the rest of creation, while distinctiveness and distinction, and we have to hold both of those at the same time, right? We cannot elevate our uniqueness at the expense of our commonality, and we can't collapse our uniqueness for the sake of emphasizing our commonality because that also doesn't honor scriptures witness scriptures witness is that we are radically embedded in the rest of creation. We are radically connected to the rest of creation. And we are unique in that we alone bear the image of God, we alone were called to exercise authority, exercise responsibility toward the rest of creation. We have to hold both of those at the same time.John FiegeAnd that idea of kinship and commonality and difference. It feels like, it's such a beautiful way to live your life in so many ways. It's not just about the environment. But when we talk about race or human rights, or so many other things that that we're dealing with that centering around kinship and commonality in difference is, it's hard to fault that.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, yeah, I think you're right, I think it it extends to a lot of our lived experience. And I think it can inform a lot of the conversations we're having right now, like you said, around race, civil rights, immigration reform, a lot of social justice issues that at their root, in my opinion, are kind of the product of elevating one at the expense of the other. Usually elevating our difference at the expense of our commonality. But if we can find a way to honor our commonality, and our differences, at the same time, recognize that we have commonality and difference, then I think we could we could go a long way in healing some of the divides and divisions that exist.John FiegeYeah, for sure. This mother child relationship is a metaphor used in many cultures across history. But usually in terms of Mother Earth, where we're the children. What you're doing here is flipping the metaphor. We are the mother and the earth is our child. Seeing Earth as our child brings with it, this kind of fierce sense of love and protection and adoration. Do you have a sense of how this image of us loving and protecting the earth as our child is resonating with pastors and congregations and other Christians?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapHmm. I love that. I actually hadn't considered that I had kind of borrowed that metaphor and flipped it on its head. But you're right. I one of my favorite books of the last year is Braiding Sweetgrass, and Robin Wall Kimmerer talks often about how humans are the youngest siblings among the rest of creation, how we have the most to learn from our siblings and creation, about how to live in harmony and in reciprocity with Mother Earth. So yeah, you're right, I flipped it. And and I kind of make us as the mother, because we are given in scripture, this responsibility to steward, to rule over, again, ruling as Christ rules, which is through sacrifice and service, seeking the good of that which is ruled. To your question of how it's resonating, even though as I said, indigenous thinkers and wisdom keepers have been teaching this for millennia. The white Evangelical Church is very much steeped in kind of Dominionism. And I think stewardship even is still trying to break in 40 years after it was put forth as an alternative. So I think the jury's still out, we have a long way to go in reaching pastors with this kind of idea in reaching lay folks and lay leaders with this idea that our relationship to the rest of creation is much more intimate and interconnected than we often think. So I don't have a whole lot of data on that yet. I hope that I hope that in the next several years that this idea can continue to get some traction and can start to make a difference.John FiegeAwesome. You talk about liturgies of kinship, that have been enacted for centuries, including the "Canticle of the Sun," a song written by none other than St. Francis of Assisi. And that reminds me of the second encyclical of the current Pope Francis, which takes its name from the first line of a canticle. I just want to read for a second how Pope Francis begins the encyclical. "Laudato si mi Signore, praise be to you my Lord. In the words of this beautiful canticle St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. Praise be to You, my Lord, through our sister, mother earth, who sustains and governs us and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs. This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts wounded by sin is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air, and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself burdened and laid waste is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor. She groans and travail. We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth. Our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air, and we receive life and refreshment from her waters." What did "Laudato Si," the Pope's second encyclical mean to you, as a Christian, if not a Catholic?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapI remember being deeply moved. As I read it. It's just such an important teaching from such an important figure. And like you said, even though I'm not Catholic, I can recognize the beauty of it, the heart of it. I just think the importance of such of such a consequential teacher and leader in the church, saying the things that are said in that encyclical, right, are hard are hard to overemphasize. I think it's so important. And studies have actually shown that even Protestants were affected by the encyclical. Some of their views on creation and the environment and climate kind of spiked after the release, most evidence shows that it went down again. So I wish that had been sustained. But it had an impact even outside of the Catholic Church, and certainly on me personally, I think it's a gift to the Church universal for all time that will be treasured for a long time.John FiegeSo I wanted to talk a bit about the idea of love. Love is an essential element in Christianity. Here's 1 John 4:8 from the King James Version. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." In your work, it seems to me that you're making an argument to Christians that the biblical idea of love must be expanded to include the nonhuman world. Similar to Aldo Leopold's call and his land ethic to enlarge the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants and animals, or Albert Einstein's call to widen our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. How is your call for love of the nonhuman world in harmony with these ideas are distinct from them?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, you're right. That is what I and others in this movement are trying to do. We're calling the church to expand our understanding of love and who our object of love is. I think it's distinct because the way that I understand this call to an expansive love is rooted in a command given by Jesus in Matthew 22 and other passages in the gospels too, you'll find this in Mark and Luke as well. When Jesus is asked by a teacher of the law, which is the greatest commandment, this questioner is trying to trip Jesus up, because at the time there were over 630 commands in the Torah. So essentially, he's asking Jesus to choose a side, and Jesus refuses to play that game. And he says, actually, I'll tell you this, all of those laws and commandments can be boiled down to these two: love God with everything you've got with your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And that is the heart of, I believe our call to care for creation and address the climate crisis. Because if we are truly going to love God and love our neighbor, in this 21st century, when the evidence is clear, that God's creation that God called good, that is the work of God's hands, is being degraded and destroyed. Creations own ability to praise God and worship God is being inhibited through human actions, then what better way to love God than to protect those works of God's hands? What better way to love God than to ensure that the rest of creation can do what it was created to do, which is to give praise and honor and glory to the Creator. Taking care of creation and addressing the climate crisis is a concrete way for us to get better at loving God. And it's a concrete way for us to get better at loving our neighbor. Because we know that the effects of pollution, the effects of the climate crisis are human. In their effect, in their impact. We know that especially black and brown communities are being disproportionately harmed by environmental pollution. We know that poor communities are being disproportionately harmed by climate impacts. So taking care of creation, loving creation, addressing the climate crisis, are actually ways for Christians to get better at following Jesus' command. When Jesus said, this is the most important thing that you can do. This is the center of my ethic. Love God with everything you got and love your neighbor as if their present circumstances and future prospects are your own. We believe in the work that we do. And I certainly believe that addressing environmental pollution that harms people's ability to flourish and thrive on the earth, and addressing the climate crisis, which is killing people right now. Right is a way for us to tangibly get better at obeying that command. I also believe that the outpouring of love when we cultivate love for creation, the effects of that love will mean that we are really practically also expressing love for God and our neighbor at the same time.John FiegeWow, that's really beautiful. So let's talk about language for a moment. Language is important in so many ways, it can unite us and build community or it can divide us along lines of identity. It can quickly signal commonality and just as easily signal opposition. In this country, the environment is often seen as a concern of liberals in cities, and when Christians don't identify with those broad political or cultural labels, they often think that the environment cannot and should not be a concern of theirs. You don't use these broad, nebulous terms of nature, or the environment very often you talk about the creation and creation care. What are your thoughts on the complicated nature of relationship, of language and, and how you can use a word to connect with one group, but at the same time, that same word might alienate or repel another group?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah, I completely agree. I don't think I can offer thoughts that are any better than the thoughts you can just offer. That's those, that was beautifully put. And that's exactly right. And it's central to the work of anybody who's trying to organize a community around a particular issue or toward a particular action is, first and foremost, you have to understand who you're trying to reach, you have to understand your community, you have to understand what they care about, you have to understand how they perceive their identity, you have to understand what values drive their actions, and then find the language that will connect to those identities to those values. Right, rather than alienate, and creation and creation care. And using those words is one way that we try to do that. But you know, a lot of the research bears out what you shared, which is that language is the the message is critical. How you share the message is critical, depending on who you're trying to reach. And in many ways, the messenger is almost more important than the message itself too. Who is delivering that message? Are they an outsider or do they get us? Do they understand who we are? Do they share important values? And do they share our identity or not? All of that goes into whether or not anyone is receptive to any kind of message. And just like my brother gave me permission to lean more deeply into who I was, and the values that I held dear in my action on this. That's what we try to do with the people we're talking to. Give them permission to recognize how their existing identity and the values that already drives them are exactly the identity and the values that the movement needs and that they can bring to bear on this issue. A lot of people in the Evangelical church, a lot of folks right of the political center, hear a lot of environmental language. And a lot of times they hear it communicated as essentially saying here are all of the ways that you and the community you love are wrong. Here are all of the ways that you need to change the life that you love to be more like us. Doing so will alienate you from people you love. But don't worry, because it'll make you more like us and the world way more like we want it to be instead of hearing here are all of the things about you and the community you love that are great. Here are other people who share your values that are taking action, as a way to deepen those values. When you take action to join them, you become more connected to them, you become more connected to your community. And the world becomes more like you want it to be.John FiegeThat makes me think a bit about the enlightenment and the scientific revolution where, you know, at that time, you know, truth and knowledge came from people. You believed it because this person said it was, so that may be your priest, that might be your king. And that's where truth came from. And one part of the Enlightenment project was to replace that with objectively verifiable scientific knowledge that isn't dependent on who's saying it. And it feels like we're still fighting that battle, sometimes where sometimes I feel like the environmental movement is saying, "Just look at the science! We don't need to have opinions. We don't need to have personalities. We don't need to have identities. We just need to look at the data and it'll tell us where to move." But that is not that simple. And it's not how people work. It's not how the vast majority people work. And even the people it does work for, does it really? Or is it actually cultural things that are predisposing them to accept scientific knowledge?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapYeah. And it ignores such a huge swath of human psychology, right? Like, we are rational beings, but that is hardly all of who we are. We are also cultural and social beings. We're tribal beings. So yeah, so much of the social science and psychological research is bearing out what you're saying, which is that you know that the scientific revolution has done wonders for the human condition. But it has also, in many ways, at least in the project that you just explained, it has issued huge portions of what it means to be human, in its pursuit of communicating truth and ignores that for millennia, humans have interpreted and understood truth very, very differently. And that's not going to go away anytime soon.John FiegeRight, exactly. So in the foreword to beyond stewardship, Bill McKibben writes, in the most Christian nation on earth, the most Christian people have grown ever more attached to leaders in causes antithetical to the idea of taking care of the earth. And here's what you wrote, in a CNN, Op-Ed entitled Young Evangelicals Are Defying Their Elders' Politics. You write, "We've grown weary of the current expression of Evangelical politics stoked by Trump's Republican Party, that seeks to convince us that faithful civic engagement is a black and white, 'us vs. them' proposition where danger to our way of life lurks around every corner and that our overriding political concern should be our own cultural power and comfort rather than advancing the good of our neighbors. Many of our peers have simply left the Evangelical tradition behind, fed up with how selfish, some of the followers of our famously selfless Savior have become." Wow, those are really strong words! I feel like, you know, are you are you channeling the book of Job here?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapThere was some pathos in that, yeah!John FiegeSo I pulled this Job 34. "Can someone who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One? Is he not the one who says to Kings, 'You are worthless,' and to nobles, 'you are wicked,' Who shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?" How have American Evangelicals become so aligned with worthless kings and wicked nobles who trade in destruction of the natural world? How do you understand that?Kyle Meyaard-SchaapWow, great question. So I've thought a lot about this, as you might imagine, and I think it's the result of a couple of realities. I think one explanation that's necessary is understanding the history of suspicion around scientific discovery and scientific findings in the white Evangelical Church in America. Much of this goes back to, uh, it depends on how far you want to go back. You know, it exists in the church universal going back to Galileo and Copernicus. But more recently in the American Protestant tradition, you can kind of trace it back to the middle of the 19th century when Darwin's Origin of the Species is published. And the US church is divided on how to respond. Some churches and church leaders say, Look, we can integrate this into our understanding of Scripture, we can recognize that Scripture is not a science textbook. It's It's teaching us something other than what Darwin is explaining. And both can be true. And we can integrate an understanding of evolution into how we believe God created the earth and how God sustains it. And other portions of the church said, No, this is this is the straw that breaks the camel's back, we cannot abide this, we need to reject this because it is a threat to the authority of Scripture. It is a threat to the bedrock of our lives and our cosmology, and how we understand God to be at work in the world, and we have to reject it. These camps kind of solidified into what became known as the modernists and the fundamentalists. The modernist arguing for integration of evolution into Christian life and the fundamentalist arguing for rejection of it. And it kind of came to a head in the Scopes Monkey Trial in the 1920s, when a teacher in Tennessee was put on trial for teaching evolution in school. And it became this national frenzy, the front page of all the papers around the country and Clarence Darrow. And William Jennings Bryan, went head to head and the fundamentalists won! William Jennings Bryan won the case! The teacher was convicted, but in the court of public opinion, the fundamentalists looked backwards, they looked ignorant, and public opinion really turned against those who are arguing to keep evolution out of schools. And the fundamentalists were kind of humiliated. And they, in many ways, went underground tended to their wounds, but didn't disappear. They were building institutions, they were planting new churches. And in many ways, they reemerged with Billy Graham, in the 1950s and 60s. And his movement, which in many ways became the precursor to the Moral Majority, the religious right, the rise of the religious rights in the 80s and 90s. Which, more than Graham, to his credit, Graham always expressed concern about wedding a particular political party to Christianity. Went a step beyond Graham and really wedded Christian faithfulness and Christian discipleship to Republican politics. And created a culture for an entire generation of political participation that said, if you're a Christian, you need to check the box with a "R" next to it, that is what God requires of you. And it was it was connected to arguments around particular policy issues, especially abortion, which which was kind of engineered into a wedge issue. If you look at the history of how that happened.The religious right really has its roots in opposition to federal desegregation efforts at Bob Jones University. But these leaders who are trying to create a constituency, turned abortion into a wedge issue and organize millions of Evangelicals into their camp. And that's the legacy right? And it's rooted in this suspicion of science going back to that fundamentalist and modernist controversy. And it's rooted in what a lot of Christians were formed in, which is this idea that faithful Christian civic engagement means supporting the Republican Party. And somehow, environmentalism got wedded to this suite of conservative Evangelical policy concerns also including gay marriage, LGBTQIA rights, feminism in general, and environmentalism as secularism. Environmentalism became seen as a sibling to the evolution debate. An effort to de-legitimize the authority of scripture to replace it with observable objective of scientific method, empiricism. And so environmentalism became lumped in with this suite of policy concerns that animated the religious right, and the movement of Evangelical conservative Christians in the US. And that was exploited by fossil fuel corporations who stood to lose the most from any sort of policy to curb emissions and documents abound, attesting to the fact that Exxon Mobil all the way back in the 80s was suppressing data. That they were spending billions of dollars to resurrect the playbook of big tobacco to hire their own scientists to commission their own studies with no other purpose other than to cast doubt within public dialogue around this conversation about the severity of the problem, the root causes of it, potential solutions around it. And a lot of that money went to target Evangelical Christians, because they were already primed to be suspicious about environmentalism as an "ism," which is to say, as a system of belief ultimate answers to ultimate questions like, why are we here? Who is governing the world or what is governing the world? So they were identified as a particularly ripe constituency to be misinformed. And then they were misinformed to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. And that's the history we're fighting against. And it's really powerful, and the interests allied against our efforts are strong. Those who benefit from the status quo are very powerful. And so it helps to understand some of that history because it gives me, it helps cultivate some compassion in me. I know a lot of these people. I know, a lot of these people are my family. I have extended family, most of my extended family does not understand why I do what I do. And even comes at me sometimes on social media especially. But understanding all of the forces that have aligned against them understanding this gives me some compassion, and also helps to remember my own journey, right? It took me years to recognize this to break the spell that had been cast on me. And so if it took me years, it's okay if it takes others years to and all I'm called to do is try to be one person on that journey, guiding them toward deeper understanding and deeper action.John FiegeWell, I've never heard a more succinct, more beautifully articulated story that starts with Darwin and ends with Merchants of Doubt.Kyle Meyaard-SchaapSuccinct is generous!John FiegeHey, for a reverend, you know!Kyle Meyaard-SchaapI'm rarely described as succint.John FiegeSo what could the largely secular environmental movement learn from Christian environmentalism in the idea of creation care?Rev. Kyle Meyaard-SchaapHmm. I hope one of the lessons is that the environmental movement should try not to give up on anybody. Because I think the emergence of the Creation Care movement, the emergence of Christian and especially Evangelical action on climate change, is a great case study, in the fact that constituencies can move. Especially when those constituencies are being reached by effective trusted messengers with messages that resonate with them. So I hope the larger environmental movement can look to the Creation Care movement, as an example of a constituency that shares their ultimate

In this episode, Amanda reads poems and short story extracts from the forthcoming anthology "From the Shadows". Blurb In this Printed Words anthology, the lines merge between crime and horror, fiction and poetry. So, you'll be kept guessing whether the villain is human or monster. Sometimes, the worst monsters are those who pass as human. Thanks to the authors: Jack Horner, Rosie Cullen, Amanda-Jane Bayliss, Yaqub Abdullahi, Jennifer Crow, Chloe Allen, Richard Harries, Michael Thame, Roz Ottery, Maria Byrne, Andrew Scott, Charles Robertson, Dorinda MacDowell, Amanda Steel, Nigel Astell, Stephen Oliver, Juleigh Howard-Hobson, Christy Vincent, John Grey, John Ward, Kara Blackwood, Gary S. Watkins, Lynn White, Lena Ng, Andy N, Tony Domaille, Daragh Kennedy, Miriam H. Harrison, Harry Hawke, LaVern Spencer McCarthy, Zoë Sîobhan Howarth-Lowe. *** Some of the ways to buy a copy: Paperback UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B098WBJ7XH Paperback US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098WBJ7XH Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B098MVL3J5 Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098MVL3J5 Other eBook platforms: https://books2read.com/u/bQJ0XZ If the paperback is out of stock at Amazon, you can use this link to see where it is available: https://www.bookfinder.com/book/9798201317706/

Welcome to The Sisterhood Podcast. In today’s episode we will talking about Josh Duggar’s arrest, Environmentalism: our responsibility to each other and Mother Earth, Kristin Hannah’s new book, and as always, we will spotlight an inspiring sister.     News Story Josh Duggar arrested for child pornography  Main Topic Church Newsroom: Environmental Stewardship and Conservation  D&C 59:16-20 Y Religion podcast, episode 13 “Wildlife and the Word of Wisdom”  A Thoughtful Faith Podcast: The Spiritual Practice of Earth Care with Prof. George Handley Article from the Friend Magazine May 2021 Lynn White and Eco-Theology  A chart showing how the world’s land is used  The film Climate Refugees: The Human Face of Climate Change Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. How Humans Have Impacted the Planet  Plastic Wars Favorite Things   NatGeo’s “Before the Flood” documentary   Main takeaways from the documentary  Various eco-friendly home goods replacements:      Zip Top storage containers (Replace plastic tupperware and ziploc baggies.) Eco- friendly laundry detergents   Eco-friendly deodorants Eco-friendly shampoo bars  Eco-friendly reuasbale straws   Sun Basket (Plant  based, organic meals from sustainable sources.)    Citrus and Shine Glade candle The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah Quote/poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller Inspiring Sister Brandee Nadauld

**The Groove Doctors Drive Time Show Replay On traxfm.org. This Week The Groove Doctor Featured Artists Such As Rene & Angela. Raymond Barton. Paradise. Michon Young. Curtis Gadson. Game. Shalamar. Vince Broomfield. Niteflyte. Oliver Cheatham. Lynn White. Raja-Nee. D-Train. Isley Jasper Isley. The David Sylvester Band Plus Loads More Boogie Classics. Rare Grooves. Soul & Funk Classics The Groove Doctors Drive Time Show Live Tuesday's & Friday's At 5PM UK Time The Station: traxfm.org #traxfm #groovedoctor #drivetimeshow #soul #funk #boogie #raregrooves #70dance #80dance #70ssoul #80ssoul #disco #neosoul #r&b #groovedoctor Listen Here: traxfm.org Mixcloud LIVE mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Hearthis LIVE here hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : facebook.com/original103.3 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs=uk.trax Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Tune In Radio : tunein.com/radio/Trax-FM-s225176 Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/TraxFM..TheOriginals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm**

Madison and Abbey sit down with ecologist and friend, Jared Meek, to discuss more specifically how Mormonism and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are disconnected from the Land, the Earth, and the World. Can the modern ecological crisis be blamed, as Lynn White suggests, on Christianity? Can White's criticisms be fairly leveled at Mormonism? As well, Jared, Abbey, and Madison explore how we might re-ground Mormon culture and our personal and communal spiritual practices in the stuff of the Earth. “Your religion is not the church [you belong] to but the cosmos [you] live inside of.” — GK Chesterton Links: The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis by Lynn White Can LDS Theology Solve Our Ecological Crisis by Jared Meek Music by Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) The post 02: Re-Grounding Mormonism in Earthiness appeared first on Bristlecone Firesides.

While many apologists for the Christian faith have focused on defending the intellectual integrity of Christianity’s factual claims, for example historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, over the last 100 years opponents of the faith have criticized the moral legacy of the faith. One of the most potent has been that Christianity has contributed to […]

While many apologists for the Christian faith have focused on defending the intellectual integrity of Christianity’s factual claims, for example historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, over the last 100 years opponents of the faith have criticized the moral legacy of the faith. One of the most potent has been that Christianity has contributed to […]

While many apologists for the Christian faith have focused on defending the intellectual integrity of Christianity's factual claims, for example historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, over the last 100 years opponents of the faith have criticized the moral legacy of the faith. One of the most potent has been that Christianity has contributed to the degradation of the ecosystem. Perhaps the most significant article published in the last 50 years or so has been Lynn White, Jr.'s The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis from the March 10, 1967 edition of the journal, Science. Today the Pugsters respond to White's article and, hopefully refute his charges, and set the record straight. Here's a link to the article: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/155/3767/1203 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-theology-pugcast/support

WARNING!!! LIBERAL TALK ZONE.It's the night of the 2020 election, and we did not want to be alone with the results. So, we invited a few knowing friends with whom we were in near total agreement. That's is how we roll:Lincoln Mitchell is a political pundit and professor at Columbia University -- Poli Sci. We talked with Lincoln about his recent book "San Francisco Year Zero" at BCR #73.The News Broads Podcast's hosts Gina Cirrito and Lynn White joined us on BCR #95. They are savvy media news veterans and they talk with top political thinkers on their podcast. Martín Espada is a renowned poet who tells stories of the Puerto Rican diaspora. He and his talented wife Lauren Schmidt had joined us for BCR #88. Essayist, translator, editor, and attorney, Martín pursues social justice. He reads his poem "Litany at the Tomb of Frederick Douglass." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Take a Ride into the Psychic World with Lynn White as we discuss Her new Book, Psychic Focus Journey. Great Read and Great Listen!!

All things were created by God and for God. This pause in production has allowed the earth to breathe again.  Passage: Psalm 24:1; Colossians 1:15-16 Link to Lynn White, Jr. article, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis": http://home.sandiego.edu/~kaufmann/hnrs379/White_1967.pdf Make sure you go to pointlomachurch.org for all the latest updates on how COVID-19 is effecting various programs at the church. Also, during the COVID-19 pandemic, our Sunday services have moved online at 9:30am & 11am. We would love to see you there! For event happenings: http://pointlomachurch.org/connect/events/ To register for any event: http://pointlomachurch.org/register If you would like to give to the ministry: http://pointlomachurch.org/give/ Music in this podcast by Marc Shaw

Shane, Wolf and Levi talk about their most embarrassing moments along with embarrassing moments that they have witnessed. This episode was a subscriber idea. Thank you Lynn White.

Welcome to The Not Old Better Show. I'm Paul Vogelzang, and this is episode #461. As part of our Smithsonian Associates, Inside Science, Earth Optimism Initiative series, today's show is another in our series about the global conversation regarding climate. Over the past half-century, from historian Lynn White's influential 1967 essay attributing many of the causes of the ecological crisis to Latin Christianity to Pope Francis's 2015 addresses to Congress and the United Nations about the need to combat climate change, the Christian churches—and to some extent the other world religions—have made a momentous shift toward incorporating environmentalism into their teachings. The change is evident in the emergence of ideas such as integral ecology in Catholicism, eco-kashrut in Judaism, and green Buddhism, as well as various forms of religious environmental activism. Our guest today, ethicist and author Dr. William Barbieri answers our questions about how and why these religious traditions have adapted their teachings in response to ecological challenges, and about what we can learn from this process regarding the role of religions in the modern world. Dr. Barbieri discusses the ethical ramifications of the greening of Christianity, as well as other models of ecological spirtuality and ethics. Dr. William Barbieri is associate professor of ethics in the School of Theology and Religious Studies and director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Catholic University of America. My thanks to Dr. William Barbieri, joining us today to talk about Earth Optimism, and how the global conservation movement has reached a turning point, especially with religion. We all are aware, and it has been well documented the fast pace of habitat loss, the growing number of endangered and extinct species, and the increasing speed of global climate change. Yet while the seriousness of these threats cannot be denied, there are a growing number of examples of improvements in the health of species and ecosystems, along with benefits to human well-being, thanks to our conservation actions. Earth Optimism celebrates a change in focus from problem to solution, from a sense of loss to one of hope, in the dialogue about conservation and sustainability. Let's support and celebrate Earth Optimism. And my thanks always to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience. Remember, stay safe everyone, practice smart social distancing, and Talk About Better. The Not Old Better Show. Thanks, everybody. For details on Zoom from Smithsonian Associates, please go here> https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/greening-of-religion-ethics-and-environment

White Cliffs of Dover was one of Vera Lynn's best-known recordings and among the most popular World War II tunes.

Karenna Gore, founder and director of the Center for Earth Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, describes eco-ministry, and the need for healing in multiple arenas and contexts in our communities. She discusses the historic context of colonialism and cultural subjugation, and how such dynamics over centuries have lead to the […]

Jeff Moyer Podcast Rodale Institute Y on Earth Community

This is a special episode of the Patriot Podcast that is in response to COVID-19 and Covenant Academy's effort to continuing our students' educational pursuits in an on-line fashion during this time.

Episode: 1835 Lynn White, Thomas Kuhn, Charles Darwin: Beginnings of great ideas.  Today, stirrups revisited.

Lynn's WebsiteSUU

In 1967, medieval historian Lynn White published a now-infamous paper that traces the current environmental crisis back to a Judeo-Christian worldview… essentially, he blames the creation story in Genesis, especially the part in which God gives humans the task of “ruling” over animals. I wanted to take a closer look and knew the thing to do was to ask a rabbi.I got help from Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein, rabbi-in-residence for Hazon, the Jewish lab for sustainability.We talk about Rabbi Rothstein’s own background - he grew up in a mixed-race family in an ultra-orthodox community, in Monsey, New York - and how this led to his current position with Hazon; about the current Jewish environmental movement and Hazon’s declaration that the Jewish new year, 5270, is the year of the Environmental Teshuva, and I ask Rabbi Rothstein to walk me through the Hebrew of the creation story in Genesis.Buckle your seatbelts and get ready for a bumpy (and fascinating) theological ride!For more information see:hazon.org/environmentalteshuvain-the-weeds.net

In this episode of the Patriot Podcast, host Michael Gaines discusses the topic of shepherding our children's hearts with Leslie Collins, Head of School, Lynn White, Director of Instruction and Deborah Adesokan, a parent of four Covenant Academy students.

After having three children and finding herself in repeated overwhelm, Lynn White realised that there was a huge gap in the way we help women navigate pregnancy, motherhood and careers - the infamous, 'Can we have it all?' question. So she set up Talent On Leave to change the game. Providing women with coaching and tools to set themselves up for a different way.

Lynn White is a Vietnam Veteran who is the board chair of Vet-to-Vet Maine, an all volunteer veteran led organization that helps address loneliness and service needs of Maine's veterans. He's also a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute grad (like me!). This is a recording of an appearance we put together on WGAN's Inside Maine.

What are some of the greatest things humans have achieved that most people don't know about?Andrew GrimmEver wondered why the world was basically the Middle East and the tropics for many generations and then some people moved to the colder places like Europe and such?I have an answer and its one you probably didn't expect.Hay.yes, that dry bundle of grass that most farmers now take for granted is one of the most important reasons why people were able to move into colder climates.You see, hay is durable dry feed for animals during the winter months (especially horses), and before that, if you moved to the colder areas, you may have had yourself to feed, but you couldn't run any livestock.Hay changed all that.From the period when Hay was first cultivated and used, this enabled people to finally travel to some of the much colder climates and actually last through more than a single winter without preserves and pickles.Freeman Dyson:"My suggestion is not original. I don't remember who gave me the idea, but it was probably Lynn White, with Murray Gell-Mann as intermediary. The most important invention of the last two thousand years was hay. In the classical world of Greece and Rome and in all earlier times, there was no hay. Civilization could exist only in warm climates where horses could stay alive through the winter by grazing. Without grass in winter you could not have horses, and without horses you could not have urban civilization. Some time during the so-called dark ages, some unknown genius invented hay, forests were turned into meadows, hay was reaped and stored, and civilization moved north over the Alps. So hay gave birth to Vienna and Paris and London and Berlin, and later to Moscow and New York."So the next time you visit a major European city and look around at its 500 plus year magnificence .. you can thank the use of Hay on a regular basis for that.

Vandaag staat de show in het teken van de soul ladies die ook de blues eren. Je hoort o.a. Lynn White, Betty Wright, Shirley Brown, Denise LaSalle en Nellie Tiger Travis.

I en klassisk artikel från 1967 i tidskriften Science ("The historical roots of our ecologic crisis") så menar Lynn White att västerlandets ekologiska kris har sin grund i kristendomens tanke om människan som skapad till Guds avbild. Genom denna tanke fick människan en särställning och det är detta som legitimerat västerlandets exploatering av naturen.  Lynn Whites artikel har fått stort genomslag, i alla fall i detta avseende. Att White i artikeln menar att västerlandets vetenskapliga revolution i stora drag är ett utlopp av kristna tankar är inte lika känt, men samtidigt förutsättningen för att Whites resonemang ska hålla. I påve Franciskus encyklika om miljön (som på svenska givits namnet "Om klimathot och ojämlikhet") försöker påven dels analysera klimatkrisens konkreta och kulturella orsaker, dels presentera en teologisk respons till klimatkrisen.  Om Lynn White förlägger problemet till tanken på människan som skapad till Guds avbild, så ser påven det som att problemen hänger ihop med synen att den mänskliga friheten inte har några legitima gränser: att det inte finns några värden utanför henne själv som hon behöver respektera. Om verkligheten ytterst är "ren materia" och värde är något som människan, ja individen, ger saker i kraft av sina val, så finns det inga egentliga moraliska gränser för friheten. I kontrast till en sådan syn, formulerar påve Franciskus en teologisk respons till klimatkrisen som skulle kunna kallas för en "ekologisk spiritualitet". Kärnan i denna spiritualitet är att skapelsen är en gåva, som människan givits att odla och bruka - inte förstöra och exploatera. För att nå dit behöver vi ett nytt språk, det vill säga ett nytt sätt att tala och tänka om vår relation till naturen. Här är det exempelvis intressant att påven talar om naturen som "vår syster" som vi genom vårt beteende har "bedrövat". Bara detta ger klimatkrisen en annan inramning och naturen blir något som vi hör ihop med och har sårat: inte som något enbart främmande som beter sig kaotiskt.  Moderniteten skulle kunna beskrivas som en process där individen träder ut ur de sammanhang som hon tidigare har ingått i, ibland av godo men ibland också av ondo. I Franciskus analys skulle man kunna säga att det är den moderna människans bristande förståelse för sammanhang - det vill säga bristande ekologiska grundhållning - som är problemet. Sammanhang här ska dels förstås som det ekologiska i sedvanliga mening: att vi ingår i och är beroende av naturen. Men påven kopplar ihop exploateringen av naturen och exploateringen av de fattiga till samma bristande medvetenhet om sammanhang. Men även bristande känsla för andligt sammanhang hör ihop med klimatkrisen eftersom den överdrivna konsumtionen hänger ihop med en andlig tomhet. Påven ser klimatkrisen som ett uttryck för en upp-och-ner-vänd ekologi där tre områden "abstraherar sig" eller "isolerar sig" från det större verklighetssammanhanget, men samtidigt förstärker dessa isoleringar på de olika nivåerna varandra: det är alltså isolerande tendenser på tre nivåer som hör ihop och bildar en "inverterad ekologi". På individnivån sker isoleringen när vi söker vår egen lycka genom konsumtion utan att tänka på vilka andra värden vi behöver - vad som verkligen skulle ge oss lycka - och isolerar oss från frågan om hur vår konsumtion påverkar andra människor och miljön. På marknadens nivå sker isoleringen när företag gör ekonomisk vinning till ett absolut värde och isolerar sig från överväganden om hur det påverkar miljö och människor. På denna nivån både behövs individerna på den första nivån, samtidigt som de stimulerar sådana människor. På politikens nivå sker det när politiker söker makt och därför försöker smörja de ekonomiska hjulen utan hänsyn till natur (eller människor) för att kunna därigenom ge människor det som de efterfrågar i form av ekonomiska värden och så bli omvalda. I kontrast till detta kräver klimatkrisen en ekologisk omvändelse på tre dessa nivåer. Samtidigt är det viktigt att komma ihåg att grundtonen inte är i första hand moraliserande i betydelsen staka ut gränser utan snarare "ögonöppnande": att se sammanhangen och den gåva naturen är, och vårt ansvar för den. Faktum är att i påvens analys är den inverterade ekologin beroende av en slags nihilism där konsumtion, pengar och makt bildar en slags substitut till det som ger lycka.  Hållpunkter i programmet: 1: Presentation av dagens tematik, lite kort generellt, samt: a) Sammanfattning av enycklikan b) Sammanfattning av Whites artikel 2. Diskussion kring rötterna för den ekologiska krisen: människans transcendens eller att hon ”tar Guds plats?” 3. Hur kan vi öva upp en ekologisk spiritualitet?

How someone who struggled growing up without a father, became homeless, and struggling with identity issues met the person of Jesus Christ. Tune in when he shares his story of...

Jordan Kee and Katie Lynn White from Real Beauty Bosses share the movement they've started of helping stylists stop trading their hands and time for money. From getting their business behind the chair booming, to capturing and packaging their story as content to share with others, these entrepreneurs are committed to growing as many people as possible in the beauty industry.

Cymene and Dominic rediscover the Violent Femmes on this week's podcast and that prompts a discussion of the best albums of all time. We then (18:54) welcome American U’s Evan Berry to the podcast, author of Devoted to Nature: The Religious Roots of American Environmentalism (U California Press, 2015) and the PI of a Luce Foundation funded project on “Religion and Climate Change in Cross-Regional Comparison.” We start with the Pope and his views on climate change and then quickly move on to Evan’s argument that much apparently secular environmentalist thinking has deep affinities with Christian theology. We revisit Lynn White’s famous argument that Christianity devalues nature, discuss the need to move past “great man” narratives of the evolution of environmentalism, and ruminate on what 19th century Christian environmentalists considered to be the “moral salubriousness of nature.” Evan shares his thoughts on how Protestant nominalism may have informed American climate denialism over time and also about how walking as a form of “recreational salvation” became linked to the valorization of wilderness. We discuss whether American Christianity is exceptional in terms of climate morality and why American political culture has become an incubator for religious radicalism. We then turn to how climate change is now impacting religious systems across the world and how better intergenerational ethics might teach us to think collectively rather than individually. Finally, we discuss another recent book project Evan has undertaken with Rob Albro, Church, Cosmovision, and the Environment: Religion and Social Conflict in Contemporary Latin America (Routledge 2018).

This week's episode features a conversation with Dr. Keisha McKenzie, aka @mackenzian on Twitter. She shares her story of growing up in the UK, attending school in Jamaica, as well as her time living in the US, all while engaging her Adventist faith and finding communities that helped her continue to ask the questions she wanted to ask. It’s a great conversation that covers a lot of ground across politics, religion, and sexuality—what she refers to as “the three taboos” on her website. Follow Dr. McKenzie on Twitter @mackenzian and visit her site at mackenzian.com. Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/exvangelical. Follow me on Twitter @brchastain. Follow the show on Facebook at facebook.com/exvangelicalpod. Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @exvangelicalpod. Show Notes: The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone: http://amzn.to/2e5spjr Strong Democracy by Benjamin Barber: http://amzn.to/2fwSRax The Roots of Our Ecological Crisis by Lynn White: http://www.uvm.edu/~gflomenh/ENV-NGO-PA395/articles/Lynn-White.pdf Enough Room at the Table Film: http://www.enoughroomfilm.com/

Cymene and Dominic compare their ecospirituality on this week's episode of the Cultures of Energy podcast, appreciate the mystical connectivity among all Californians and then Dominic explains the two aspects of Nature that frighten him the most. After all that (10:44) we welcome to the podcast our true spirit guide, Bron Taylor, Professor of Religion and Nature, Environmental Ethics, and Environmental Studies, at the University of Florida (brontaylor.com). We talk about his landmark book Dark Green Religion (U California Press, 2010) and Bron explains the increase in naturalistic and Gaian spirituality across the world today. We discuss the struggle between biocentric and anthrocentric ethics, how collaborations between indigenous and environmentalist movements have helped create green countercultures and we debate Lynn White's thesis that Christianity has helped to accelerate contemporary ecological crisis. We cover the mainstreaming of green spirituality in popular culture, science and media and whether the “dark” in “dark green” also has something to do with violence. Finally, we turn to Bron's most recent book, Avatar and Nature Spirituality, (Wilfrid Laurier U Press, 2013) and discuss what role films like Avatar might play in spreading green spiritual ideas and feelings. Why have most humans been so slow to react to their environmental predicaments? How is Abrahamic spirituality connected to agriculture? Is surfing an aquatic nature religion? All these answers and more on this week's episode!

This episode of Sinica is a wide-ranging conversation with Cheng Li (李成), one of the most prominent international scholars of elite Chinese politics and its relation to grassroots changes and generational shifts. He discusses the historical rise and fall of technocracy, corruption and the campaigns against it, power factions within the Communist Party and the new dynamics of the Xi Jinping era. Cheng Li has authored and edited numerous books and articles on subjects ranging from the politics behind China’s tobacco industry to the nature of collective leadership under Xi. He began his career as a doctor after three years of medical training in the waning years of the Cultural Revolution, then changed course in 1985 to study under scholars such as Robert Scalapino and Chalmers Johnson at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lynn White at Princeton University. He is the director of the John L. Thornton China Center and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, as well as a director of the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations. Recommendations: Jeremy: Hugh White’s review of The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia by Kurt Campbell and Kurt Campbell’s reply Cheng: The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks by Joshua Cooper Ramo Kaiser: Scientism in Chinese Thought: 1900-1950 by D. W. Y. Kwok and Xi Jinping is No Mao Zedong by Keyu Jin  

http://bizwomenrock.com/257-2 Biz Women on the Move The Biz Women on the Move segment features the amazing accomplishments of the members of the Biz Women Rock community! Today, we're featuring big wins from two of our community members... Lynn White of Lynn White Designs Kim Randall of KiMedia Strategies The Main Event - [4 PART SERIES] How to Build a Community - PART 3 The Main Event is our main feature of the show. Sometimes a deep dive interview with a kick ass business woman, sometimes a case study digging into a phenomenal business strategy, sometimes a diatribe from me about some cool lesson learned in business...whatever it is, its always chalk full of wisdom for you. Today on our Main Event... This week it's your truly bringing you the best of the best about HOW you can build a powerful community! This is more than just adding more followers on social media, having more readers of your blog or listeners of your podcast. This is about bringing them all together, uniting them under your brand and leading them with love and purpose! I'm also bringing in some of the most influential and highly respected community builders I know to give you their insights on how amazing communities are built! This segment is sponsored by... facebook groups rock: http://bizwomenrock.com/facebookgroupsrock Productivity Hacks Our quick segment that delivers bite-size tips on how to run your business more efficiently and effectively!

When historians say that European dominance was caused by Europe's superior technology, they are right. But this doesn't tell the whole story. For behind that superior technology, there was a superior faith with a superior worldview, which made both the science, and the technology, and the economic infrastructure possible. Without this understanding, we can't understand history. Book of the Week: – Medieval Technology and Social Change by Lynn White, Jr.

What does it mean that humans are created in the image of God? In this episode, the guys discuss the biblical theme of the image of God and its implications for Jesus followers. As humans, we bear the image of God, but what is the purpose of this for us––what is the purpose for God? Creating images of gods was a fairly familiar concept in the ancient world, but representing the image of God, not through a statue or idol but through your very being, has profound significance. In the first part of the episode (01:31-13:58), the guys talk about Genesis 1. This passage tells us that humans were created in God’s image and then given the task to rule over creation. Compared to the Babylonian creation myth, the biblical story of creation gives a worldview and social order that is pretty unique. In the second part of the episode (14:14-26:10), Tim and Jon talk about the purpose behind God creating humans in his image. After God creates Adam and Eve, he tasks them with subduing creation? What does this mean? How should we be “subduing” God’s creation? In the final part of the episode (26:26-44:50), the guys talk about the ancient context of creating images of gods. What were images of gods in the ancient world? Statues or idols were viewed as a special connection to the god they represented. This is true of humans too. Humans are the realization of God’s presence––his temple on earth. God’s rule here on earth is not through elite kings, it is through humans multiplying, gardening, and making neighborhoods. Video: This episode is designed to accompany our video called, "Image of God." You can view it on our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbipxLDtY8c&t=2s References: The Babylonian Creation Story (Enuma elish) from Grand Valley State University http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Enuma_Elish.html The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis by Lynn White, Jr. https://www.uvm.edu/~gflomenh/ENV-NGO-PA395/articles/Lynn-White.pdf Scripture References: Genesis 1-2 Show Music: Defender Instrumental by Rosasharn Music Blue Skies by Unwritten Stories Flooded Meadows by Unwritten Stories

Ever since Lynn White’s 1967 essay on “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis”, it is common to read in many publications that Christianity is both too anthropocentric and not much concerned with the protection of nature and the environment. Subsequently the environmental movement has developed along very secular lines using science to underpin their arguments for the protection of nature and the environment. For religion there seems no place amongst modern environmentalists. But in the late 19th century and early 20th century this was quite different and early American conservationists were often deeply religious but had no difficulties in combining this with new scientific ideas about nature. A recent book entitled Inherit the Holy Mountain: Religion and the Rise of American Environmentalism shows that religion provided early environmentalists both with deeply embedded moral and cultural ways of viewing the natural world which provided them with the direction, and tone for the environmental causes they advocated. It reveals how religious upbringing left its distinctive imprint on the life, work, and activism of a wide range of environmental figures such as George Perkins Marsh, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, E. O. Wilson, and others. This podcast episode explores the history of conservation and religion in America with Mark Stoll, Associate Professor of History at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, Texas. He is the author of Inherit the Holy Mountain.

Le radici storiche della crisi ecologica Lynn White jr., nel 1967,

Jean BASTAIRE, écrivain et théologien et Jacques GRINEVALD, philosophe et historien des sciences, IHEID et UNIGE

Jean BASTAIRE, écrivain et théologien et Jacques GRINEVALD, philosophe et historien des sciences, IHEID et UNIGE

This is the 10th episode in our series examining the impact Christianity has had on history & culture. Today we consider the impact the Faith has had on science.This subject is near & dear to me because when I first went to college in the mid-70's, I was studying to be a geologist. I'd always been fascinated by science and loved to collect rocks, so decided geology would be my field. I took many classes on the trajectory of one day working in the field as a geological engineer.I was only a nominal believer in those days and when I first entered college saw no incompatibility between evolution and Christianity. It seemed obvious to my then uninformed mind that God had created everything, then used evolution as the way to push things along. I now realize my ideas were what has come to be known as theistic evolution.One of my professors, who was herself an agnostic, was also a fastidious scientist. What I mean is, she hadn't imbibed the ideology of scientism with its uncritical loyalty to evolution. Though she admitted a loose belief in it, it was only, she said, because no other theory came any closer to explaining the evidence. She rejected the idea of divine creation, but had a hard time buying in to the evolutionary explanation for life. Her reason was that the theory didn't square with the evidence. She caught significant grief for this position from the other professors who were lock-step loyal to Darwin. In a conversation with another student in class one day, she acknowledged that while she didn't personally believe it, in terms of origins, there could be a supreme being who was creator of the physical universe and that if there was, such a being would likely be the Author of Life. She went further and admitted that there was no evidence she was aware of that made that possibility untenable. It's just that as a scientist, she had no evidence for such a being's existence so had to remain an agnostic.For me, the point was, here was a true scientist who admitted there were deep scientific problems with the theory of evolution. She fiercely argued against raising the theory of evolution to a scientific certainty. It angered her when evolution was used as a presumptive ground for science.It took a few years, but I eventually came around to her view, then went further and today, based on the evidence, consider evolution a preposterous position.I give all that background because of the intensity of debate today, kicked up by what are called the New Atheists. Evolutionists all, they set science in opposition to all religious faith. In doing so, they set reason on the side of science, and then say that leaves un-reason or irrationality in the side of faith. This is false proposition but one that has effectively come to dominate the public discussion. The new Atheists make it seem as though every scientist worth the title is an atheists while there are no educated or genuinely worthy intellects in the Faith camp. That also is a grievous misdirection since some of the world's greatest minds & most prolific scientists either believe in God, the Bible, or at least acknowledge the likelihood of a divine being.A little history reveals that modern science owes its very existence to men & women of faith. The renowned philosopher of science, Alfred North Whitehead, said “Faith in the possibility of science, [coming before] the development of modern scientific theory, is[derived from] medieval theology."' Lynn White, historian of medieval science, wrote, "The [medieval] monk was an intellectual ancestor of the scientist." The German physicist Ernst Mach remarked, "Every unbiased mind must admit that the age in which the chief development of the science of mechanics took place was an age of predominantly theological cast."Crediting Christianity with the arrival of science may sound surprising to many. But why is that? The answer goes back to Andrew Dickson White, who in 1896 published A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. Ever since then, along with the growth of secularism, college & university professors have accepted White's argument that Christianity is an enemy of science. It unthinkable to many that Christianity could have fostered the arrival of science.There are differences between Christianity and pagan religion. One is that Christianity, with its heritage in Judaism, has always insisted that there's only one God, Who is a rational being. Without this presupposition, there would be no science. The origin of science, said Alfred North Whitehead, required Christianity's “insistence on the rationality of God."If God is a rational being, then human beings, who are made in His image, also employ rational processes to study and investigate the world in which they live. That idea moved Christian philosophers to link rationality with the empirical, inductive method. Robert Grosseteste was one of these philosophers who in the 13th C went further and began to apply this idea practically. A Franciscan bishop and the first chancellor of Oxford University, he was the first to propose the inductive, experimental method, an approach to knowledge that was advocated by his student Roger Bacon, another Franciscan monk, who asserted that “All things must be verified by experience.” Bacon was a devout believer in the truthfulness of Scripture, and being empirically minded, he saw the Bible in the light of sound reason and as verifiable by experience. Another natural philosopher & Franciscan monk, was William of Occam in the 14th C. Like Bacon, Occam said knowledge needed to be derived inductively.300 years later another Bacon, first name  Francis this time, gave further momentum to the inductive method by recording his experimental results. He's been called "the creator of scientific induction."' In the context of rationality, he stressed careful observation of phenomena and collecting information systematically in order to understand nature's secrets. His scientific interests did not deter him from devoting time to theology. He wrote treatises on the Psalms and prayer.By introducing the inductive empirical method guided by rational procedures, Roger Bacon, William Occam, and Francis Bacon departed from the ancient Greek perspective of Aristotle. Aristotelianism had a stranglehold on the world for 1500 years. It held that knowledge was only acquired thru the deductive processes of the mind; the inductive method, which required manual activity, was taboo. Remember  as we saw in  a previous episode, physical activity was only for slaves, not for thinkers & freemen. Complete confidence in the deductive method was the only way for the Aristotelian to arrive at knowledge. This view was held by Christian monks, natural philosophers, and theologians until the arrival of Grosseteste, the Bacons & Occam. Even after these empirically-minded thinkers introduced their ideas, a majority of the scholastic world continued to adhere to Aristotle's approach.Another major presupposition of Christianity is that God, who created the world, is separate and distinct from it. Greek philosophy saw the gods and nature as intertwined. For example, the planets were thought to have an inner intelligence that caused them to move. This pantheistic view of planetary movement was first challenged in the 14th C by Jean Buridan, a Christian philosopher at the University of Paris.The Biblical & Christian perspective, which sees God and nature as distinctively separate entities, makes science possible. As has been said, Science could never have come into being among the animists of Asia or Africa because they would never have experimented on the natural world, since everything—stones, trees, animals & everything, contains the spirits of gods & ancestors.Men like Grosseteste, Buridan, the Bacons, Occam, and Nicholas of Oresme, and later Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, saw themselves as merely trying to understand the world God had created and over which He told mankind in Gen 1:28 to have "dominion". This paradigm shift is another example of Christianity's wholesome impact on the world.Belief in the rationality of God not only led to the inductive method but also to the conclusion that the universe is governed by rationally discoverable laws. This assumption is vitally important to scientific research, because in a pagan world, with gods engaged in jealous, irrational behavior, any systematic investigation of such a world was futile. Only in Christian thought, with the existence of a single God, the Creator and Governor of the universe, Who functions in an orderly and predictable manner, is it possible for science to exist and operate.From the 13th to the 18th C  every major scientist  explained his motivations in religious terms. But if you examined a science textbook for the local public school you'd never know. Virtually all references to the Christian beliefs of early scientists are omitted. This is unfortunate because these convictions often played a dominant role in their work.One early cutting-edge concept was "Occam's razor", named in honor of William of Occam. This idea had a tremendous influence on the development of modern science. Simply put, it's the scientific principle that says what can be done or explained with the fewest assumptions should be used. This means that a scientist needs to ‘shave off' all excess assumptions. The idea first arose with Peter of Spain but Occam finessed it into usable form. Modern scientists use this principle in theorizing and explaining research findings.As was common with virtually all medieval natural philosophy, Occam didn't confine himself just to scientific matters. He also wrote 2 theological treatises, 1 dealing with the Lord's Supper and the other with the body of Christ. Both works had a positive influence on Martin Luther.Most people think of Leonardo da Vinci as a great artist and painter, but he was also a scientific genius. He analyzed and theorized in the areas of botany, optics, physics, hydraulics, and aeronautics, but his greatest benefit to science lies in the study of human physiology. By dissecting cadavers, which he often did at night because such activity was forbidden, he produced meticulous drawings of human anatomy. His drawings and comments, when collected in one massive volume, present a complete course of anatomical study. This was a major breakthrough because before this time and for some time after, physicians had little knowledge of the human body. They were dependent on the writings of the Greek physician Galen whose propositions on human physiology were in large measure drawn from animals like dogs and monkeys. Leonardo's anatomical observations led him to question the belief that air passed from the lungs to the heart. He used a pump to test this hypothesis and found it was impossible to force air into the heart from the lungs.Lest anyone think Leonardo's scientific theories and drawings of the human anatomy were divorced from his religious convictions, it's well to recall his other activities. His paintings—The Baptism of Christ, The Last Supper, and The Resurrection of Christ—are enduring reminders of his Christian beliefs.The anatomical work of Leonardo was not forgotten. The man who followed in his footsteps was Andreas Vesalius, who lived from 1514 to 64. At 22, he began teaching at the University of Padua. In 1543 he published his famous work, Fabric of the Human Body. The book mentions over 200 errors in Galen's physiology. The errors were found as a result of his dissecting cadavers he obtained illegally.When Vesalius exposed Galen's errors, he received no praise or commendation. His contemporaries, like his former teacher Sylvius, still wedded to Greek medicine, called him a "madman." Others saw him as "a clever, dangerous free-thinker of medicine." There's little doubt of his faith in God. On one occasion he said, "We are driven to wonder at the handiwork of the Almighty." He was never condemned as a heretic, as some anti-church critics have implied, for at the time of his death he had an offer waiting for him to teach at the University of Padua, where he first began his career. Today he's known as the father of human anatomy.Where would the study of genetics be today had the world not been blessed with the birth of the Augustinian monk Gregor Johann Mendel? As often stated in science textbooks, it was his working on cross-pollinating garden peas that led to the concept of genes and the discovery of his 3 laws: the law of segregation, the law of independent assortment, and the law of dominance. Mendel spent most of his adult life in the monastery at Bruno, Moravia. Though Mendel is used by secularists to explain genetics & evolution, he rejected Darwin's theory.4 names loom large in the textbooks of astronomy: Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, & Galileo. The undeniable fact is, these men were devout Christians. Their faith influenced their scientific work, though this fact is conspicuously omitted in most science texts.Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland, in 1473. While still a child, his father died, and he was sent to his mother's brother, a Catholic priest, who reared him. He earned a doctor's degree and was trained as a physician. His uncle had him study theology, which resulted in his becoming a canon at Frauenburg Cathedral in East Prussia. History knows him best for having introduced the heliocentric theory that says the Earth orbits the sun, not the other way around. During the Middle Ages it was suggested the Earth might be in motion, but nobody had worked out the details. Copernicus did, and therein lies his greatness.Copernicus received a printed copy of his masterwork Concerning the Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies on his deathbed in 1543. He'd hesitated to publish his work earlier, not because he feared the charge of heresy, as has often been asserted without any documentation, but because he wanted to avoid the ridicule of other scientists, who were strongly tied to Aristotle and Ptolemy. It was Copernicus' Christian friends, especially Georg Rheticus and Andreas Osiander, 2 Lutherans, who persuaded him to publish.Although Copernicus remained a moderately loyal son of the Roman Catholic Church, it was his Lutheran friends that made his publication possible. That information is surprising to many people, including university students, because most only hear that Christian theologians condemned Copernicus's work. For instance, critics like to cite Luther, who supposedly called Copernicus a fool. John W. Montgomery has shown this frequently cited remark lacks support.When Tycho Brahe died in 1601, Johannes Kepler succeeded him in Prague under an imperial appointment by Emperor Rudolph II. Kepler, who'd studied for 3 years to become a Lutheran pastor, turned to astronomy after he was assigned to teach mathematics in Graz, Austria, in 1594. Unlike Brahe, who never accepted the heliocentric theory, Kepler did. In fact Kepler, not Copernicus, deserves the real credit for the helio-centric theory. Copernicus thought the sun was the center of the universe. Kepler realized & proved the sun was merely the center of our solar system.Kepler's mathematical calculations proved wrong the old Aristotelian theory that said the planets orbited in perfect circles, an assumption Copernicus continued to hold. This led Kepler to hypothesize and empirically verify that planets had elliptical paths around the sun.Kepler was the first to define weight as the mutual attraction between 2 bodies, an insight Isaac Newton used later in formulating the law of gravity. Kepler was the first to explain that tides were caused by the moon.Many of Kepler's achievements came while enduring great personal suffering. Some of his hardships were a direct result of his Lutheran convictions, which cost him his position in Graz, where the Catholic Archduke of Hapsburg expelled him in 1598. Another time he was fined for burying his 2nd child according to Lutheran funeral rites. His salary was often in arrears, even in Prague, where he had an imperial appointment. He lost his position there in 1612 when his benefactor the Emperor was forced to abdicate. He was plagued with digestive problems, gall bladder ailments, skin rashes, piles, and sores on his feet that healed badly because of his hemophilia. Childhood smallpox left him with defective eyesight and crippled hands. Even death was no stranger to him. His first wife died, as well as several of his children. A number of times he was forced to move from one city to another, sometimes even from one country to another. Often he had no money to support his family because those who contracted him failed to pay.Whether in fame or pain, Kepler's faith remained unshaken. In his first publication he showed his Christian conviction at the book's conclusion where he gave all honor and praise to God. Stressed and overworked as he often was, he would sometimes fall asleep without having said his evening prayers. When this happened, it bothered him so much that the first thing he'd do next morning was to repent. Moments before he died, an attending Lutheran pastor asked him where he placed his faith. Calmly, he replied, "Solely and alone in the work of our redeemer Jesus Christ." Those were the final words of the man who earlier in his life had written that he only tried "thinking God's thoughts after him." He was still in that mindset when, four months before he died, he penned his own epitaph: “I used to measure the heavens, Now I must measure the earth. Though sky-bound was my spirit, My earthly body rests here."We'll end this podcast with a brief review of the 17th C, scientist Galileo. Like Kepler, a contemporary of his, Galileo searched and described the heavenly bodies. He was the first to use the telescope to study the skies, although he didn't invent it. That credit goes to Johann Lippershey, who first revealed his invention in 1608 at a fair in Frankfurt. With the telescope, Galileo discovered that the moon's surface had valleys and mountains, that the moon had no light of its own but merely reflected it from the sun, that the Milky Way was composed of millions of stars, that Jupiter had 4 bright satellites, and that the sun had spots. Galileo also determined, contrary to Aristotelian belief, that heavy objects did not fall faster than light ones.Unfortunately, Galileo's observations were not well received by his Roman Catholic superiors, who considered Aristotle's view—not that of the Bible—as the final word of truth. Even letting Pope Paul V look through the telescope at his discoveries did not help his cause. His masterpiece, A Dialogue on the Two Principal Systems of the World, resulted in a summons before the Inquisition, where he was compelled to deny his belief in the Copernican theory and sentenced to an indefinite prison term. For some reason the sentence was never carried out. In fact, 4 years later he published Dialogues on the Two New Sciences. This work helped Isaac Newton formulate his 3 laws of motion.Galileo was less pro-Copernican than Kepler, with whom he often disagreed. He largely ignored Kepler's discoveries because he was still interested in keeping the Ptolemaic theory alive. He also criticized Kepler's idea of the moon affecting tides.The mystery is - If he was less pro-Copernican than Kepler—why did he get into trouble with the theologians who placed his books on the Index of forbidden books? The answer was because he was Roman Catholic, while Kepler was Lutheran.When modern critics condemn the Church & Christianity for its resistance to the Copernican theory, it must be noted and underscored that it was not the entire church that did so. Both Lutherans & Calvinists supported the Copernican theory.And it needs to be stated clearly that the reason the Roman Church proscribed Galileo's work was precisely because they adhered to the scientific ideas of the day which were dominated by the Aristotelianism. Their opposition to Galileo wasn't out of a strict adherence to the Bible – but to the current scientific thought. I say it again - It was errant science, or what we might call scientism that opposed Galileo. This is the mistake the Church can make today – when it allows itself to adopt the politically correct line of contemporary thought; the majority opinion – what the so-called experts hold to – today; but history has shown, is exchanged for something else tomorrow.Listen: History proves that while scientific theories come and go, God's Word prevails.And that brings us to the end of The Change series. Next week we'll return to our narrative timeline of church history.