On Knowledge of Creation through Work

As we discussed last week, the Christian view of nature involves a commandment for humans to work the land and to utilize its resources. But does this vision collide with the ability to truly respect nature? Are human work and environmental protection inevitably at odds with each other? The historian Richard White addressed this question in his 1995 essay, 'Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?": Work and Nature. "How is it that environmentalism seems opposed to work?" he asks. "And how is it that work has come to play such a small role in American environmentalism?"

To begin with, White makes clear that "virtually no place is without evidence of its alteration by human labor." The idyllic image of a pristine and virgin land is a myth. If we are to think of human beings as the enemies of nature, then we must resign ourselves to the fact that hardly a place on the face of the earth has remained unconquered by the work of human hands. The good news is that the fate of the environment is not doomed by the ubiquity of human influence. The social doctrine of the Catholic Church tells us that "in the Creator's plan, created realities, which are good in themselves, exist for man's use" (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 255). Furthermore, rather than viewing human beings as nature's enemies, we may instead view ourselves as part and parcel of the earth itself. We are dirt and to dirt we will return (Genesis 3:19). Ultimately, human work that is rightly ordered encourages rather than undermines our appreciation for nature.