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Understanding Our Spiritual Responsibility To The Earth

Understanding Our Spiritual Responsibility To The Earth

Last updated on: December 17, 2025 at 3:01 am by Henry Karlson

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Understanding Our Spiritual Responsibility To The Earth 2025-12-17T03:01:26-05:00 Henry Karlson

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African Hope: Mother Earth / Wikimedia Commons

Materially speaking, Scripture says we come from the dust of the earth. Our bodies, our being, is connected to the earth and what happens to it. Indeed, it is possible to suggest that, in a way, the earth is our mother:

The earth is table, homeland, nourisher and mother of all alike, and city and cemetery for all alike: our bodies come from it, nourishment for our bodies come from that source, our dwelling and daily life is in it, and in due course after death we shall return to it. [1]

The earth nurtures us, gives us our material being, and the earth will receive us when we die. From the dust of the earth we come, and to the dust of the earth we go. Our belief, our hope, is that in the resurrection, we will emerge from the dust of the earth once again emerge (this time, in a new mode of being, one which affects not only us, but all material being).

If we are to take care of and show respect to our parents, we must also take care of and show respect to mother earth. The earth is our cosmic mother, but it is not our creator, just as our biological mother is not our creator. We come from the earth, just as we come from our biological mother, and we should respect them both. In relation to the earth, this means that we should be its proper stewards, taking care of it the best we God. If we do not, Scripture warns us we will face God’s wrath (cf. Rev. 11:18).

This is why those who reject environmentalism, claiming environmentalism has become a religion which opposes God, are wrong. The opposite is true. If an artist showed us a wonderful work of art which they created, and, as a response, we defiled or destroyed it, our action would serve as an affront against the artist who made it. Likewise, the way we destroy the world around us is an affront to God. This is why it can be said that the willingness to defile and destroy the earth represents a revolt against God:

The spiritual revolt of man against heaven has polluted the earth, and no attempt to rectify the situation on earth can ever be successful without the revolt against heaven coming to an end. For it is only the light of heaven cast upon the earth through the presence of seers and contemplatives living within the framework of the authentic religious traditions of humanity that preserves the harmony and beauty of nature and in fact maintains the cosmic equilibrium. Until this truth is understood all attempts to re-establish peace with nature will end in failure, although they can have partial success in preventing a particular tragedy from occurring here or there.[2]

Certainly, our actions, and the harm they cause to the earth, represents an underlying spiritual problem. We must fix the harm we have caused to the earth, and we need to have it as our primary focus until it is healed, because, if we don’t, we risk losing everything. Then, we can deal with the reasons why we acted as we did, that is, the spiritual errors that led us astray (just as if we were poisoned, we would want to be given the antidote before we look for the one who poisoned us and try to find out why they did so).

Certainly, when it does not interfere with fixing the damage we have cause, we must examine what caused us to go astray, and find a way to prevent us from doing so again. We will learn that over-consumption, especially the kind which emerges in a society that follows a capitalistic mentality which only looks to profit and nothing else, is a major factor. But that is not the only issue. We would not have given in to this ideology if we thought material being mattered. A major part of the spiritual crisis in today’s world comes from the way Gnostic ideologies have infiltrated Christianity, making Christians think what happens to the world is not important. From the Christian perspective, the incarnation should do away with such a thought, for God took on human flesh, showing us what happens in the world matters. It might be surprising, as we often think God is interested only in our soul. It was something which, as St. Chromatius of Aquileia hinted, an attitude that even angels might have had, as they were taken back by Christ’s bodily ascension:

For the powers on high also marveled at the ascension of Christ to the heavens, when they said, “Who is this who comes from Edom? The redness of his clothing is from Bosor. Beautiful is his robe, beautiful as a pool full of the winepress.” For the powers on high saw a new thing: the Son of God ascending to heaven with flesh. And therefore they said, “Who is this who comes from Edom?” It was a marvel to the angels, a marvel to the powers on high, that flesh of which it was said to Adam, “You are earth and to the earth you will go” [Gen 3:19], was no longer on earth but was flesh ascending to heaven.[3]

The Christian message, the authentic Christian message shown in the resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven, is that our body is a part of who we are and has its share in eternity. To be sure, it will be transfigured in our resurrection from the dead, but that does not discount its value. We are expected to take care of it, and with it, all material being. We are not meant to think it, or material being, is worthless. Christ shows us in his ascension they will all be brought into the eschatological kingdom of God. God deems all creation has value, not just its spiritual dimension. Too many Christians have lost sight of this. They deny, again and again, the value of the earth, and with it, the good which God created. They follow the way of evil with evil’s corruption and destruction of that which is good, and in doing so, show they are a part of the spiritual revolt against God, one which, as long as it lasts, will manifest itself in the pain and suffering which comes when the earth and its proper good is ignored.

[1] St. John Chrysostom, Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis. Trans. Robert Charles Hill (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2004), 35 [Sermon One].

[2] Seyyed Hosein Nasr, Sufi Essays (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1972), 161-2 [The Ecological Problem in the Light of Sufism: The Conquest of Nature and the Teachings of Eastern Science].

[3] St. Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermons and Tractates on Matthew. Trans. Thomas P. Scheck (New York: Newman Press, 2018), 37 [Sermon 8].

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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

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