I am Somewhat for the Trees: Tolkien and Christian Conservation

Last updated on: April 22, 2015 at 1:45 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

I am Somewhat for the Trees: Tolkien and Christian Conservation 2015-04-22T13:45:17-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings sums up my view about rampant industrialization and the despoiling of nature. Unfettered technological development is the sin of Saruman and only the bad hobbits like the Sackville-Baggins want to progress for the sake of progress. Like many Christians, Tolkien captures my imagination when it comes to conservation this Wednesday of the second week of Pascha.

Some call today “Earth Day” . . . though the Day itself strikes me as contrived and dominated by Wormtongue self-loathing. And yet Christians are commanded by God to conserve the Earth and be good stewards of what He has put in our charge. We do not “rule the earth” but are mere stewards waiting the return of the King. God help us if we forget that we will have to answer for what we done with our charge! So using any excuse to think about an important issue, Christians can turn to creation care.

Everyday is earth day since every day we all wake up on Earth, under the Earth, or over the Earth.

We can be thankful the delusions of interwar scientism advanced in films like Things To Come mostly have been purged from the Church. They were a hostile infection from secularism and we can be thankful that writers like Chesterton, Lewis, and Tolkien helped the English speaking Christian world see the danger. Scientism of the period advanced a vision of the future where “science” would tame and sterilize the planet turning nature into a giant art deco structure, full of factories, Ikea style furniture, and a great deal of white shiny stuff.

We believe God created nature and though human evil has scarred the beauty, the goodness is still there. We do not pretend to know why there are polar bears or particular microscopic organisms, but they exist. Thoughtful Christians need powerful reasons to destroy them. We did not create life and so must hesitate to take it and so further disturb the cycle of life created by the Almighty.

One of Tolkien’s best characters, the tree shepherd Treebeard says of the War of Rings:

I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you understand me, nobody cares for the woods as I care for them. . . “

Christians are not Ents . .. we are not on the side of the trees altogether, but we are somewhat. This mixed view also seems about right in terms of Christianity’s relationship to industrialization: nobody is quite on our side. We don’t divinize nature or refuse many of the good things brought by development, but we also do not think nature has no value. We do not think it is “ours” to do with as we please.

We refuse to worship or demonize development and so nobody is quite on our side because we must be on the side of the trees, but not only on the side of the trees. We value trees less than people but more than some of our wants. Most Americans can own and drive a car and nobody that is reasonable favors making that illegal. Cars bring great good. But should I own a car? When should I use it? When shouldn’t I?

Just now I am using an Apple product to produce this document that may carry a planetary price greater than I should be willing to risk and yet the ability to rapidly communicate and get information is also good. I am told there are massive toxic waste lakes produced by the manufacture of this product. That is bad. Yet this very technology might be the means to find a technology to clean up that lake! Obviously, giving all power to the government has not produced good environmental goals . . . since the Chinese government is hardly free. What should I do?

This must be considered. It is my Christian duty.

And so Christians find themselves needing to root out consumerism pumped into our heads. I can buy used items instead of demanding new. I can consume less and do so without losing my liberty to a nanny state if I choose morality before it must be mandated. Those who cannot use their environmental liberty well are doomed to lose it. As to the humbug that industrialization is always good, a factory on every corner, no Christian longs to see a green and pleasant land despoiled with dark Satanic mills.

But as a Christian I also reject the foolish idea that “nature” cannot be improved at all. We are called to be gardeners, tending the Earth with care. While preserving some wild space, we need not despoil every place, we can make our space beautiful and work with nature instead of against it. Is it a good idea to make materials that cannot naturally decompose? Is American industrial civilization sustainable if universalized? Maybe and maybe not. Technology makes many things that seem unlikely doable.

Despising human ingenuity, science, and development is equally contrary to Christianity. We are called to live humbly but reason, consider, grow. These are not easy tasks but Christians are for the trees . . . though not altogether. We are called to be Sam Gamgee, gentle gardeners, who would prune, but not destroy nature.

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