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Christians' Natural Bond to the Environment (Transcript)

by Stacey Smith

NARRATION

If Isaac Newton owes his theories on gravity to an apple, Dr. Holmes Rolston III owes his philosophies to a whorled pagonia.

ROLSTON

It's a kind of rare wildflower in the Southern Apalachians, back in the woods, oh, far away off the trail

NARRATION

While on a hike in his childhood home of Virginia, the philosopher began to contemplate the yellow and white orchid and to formulate the ideas that would come to define his career.

ROLSTON

Sort of sitting down and thinking to myself this bit of beauty hidden away in the wild. It's a good thing that it be here, even if there were no human beings around.

NARRATION

From this encounter, Rolston began to ponder the intrinic value of nature and man's spiriual and ethical obligation to preserve it. It is for this idea that Rolston was recently awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. But the pagaonia can't take all the credit. Rolston began thinking about issues of spirituality and science as an undergraduate at Davidson college. There, the physics major took issue with the professors' claim that nature was value-free and existed to be a resource for human beings.

ROLSTON

And that's what I was beginning to question. Because what I've been known for is claiming that there are intrinsic values in nature, claiming that we ought to respect creation for what it is in itself and as God' creation.

NARRATION

Rolston went on to earn a PhD in theology and religious studies and a Masters in the Philosophy of Science. In 1968 he joined the philosophy department at Colorado State University, where he has authored numerous books on, what he calls, the lover's quarrel between science and religion.

Though most scientists and environmentalists would hesitate to plant trees for God and most religious leaders would not call deforestation a sin, Rolston insists the two are undeniably connected. Rolston says the earth is the Promised Land of milk and honey referred to in the Bible and that man has a duty to protect it. He wrote of this concept in his first article, "Is There an Ecological Ethic?" (1975). Since then, some of Rolston's ideas have stirred enormous controversy in the scientific and religious communities. One such idea, "cruciform naturalism," was described in his 1987 book, "Science and Religion: A Critical Survey."

ROLSTON

What I call life persisting in the midst of its perpetual perishing. If you remember the 23rd psalm, you have green pastures in the valley of the shadow of death, a table prepared in the midst of mine enemies. And I think in a way that's pretty good biology. The idea that life is perpetually regenerated in the valley of the shadow of death. I sometimes call this a cruciform concept of nature.

NARR

As the recipient of this year's Templeton Prize, Rolston will be awarded over $1,000,000 from the prize's foundation, which was started by Sir John Templeton, an American businessman who made a fortune in the stock market. Former recipients of the award include Mother Theresa, Billy Graham and Charles Colson. One of this year's judges, Ramanath Cowsik, says that Rolston's first article still represents a milestone and that Rolston name is and the field of environmental ethics are inseperable.

COWSIK

It has taken great intellectual courage and erudition to express this ideas in the modern world. The impact of his work has been great and very positive.

NARRATION

On a practical leve, the movement has gained ground. John Pearson, president of the Sierra Club's New York chapter, says he has noticed more and more people motivated to take environmental action by religion.

PEARSON

It certainly is a growing movement. It isn't a mass movement, but it certainly is significant.

NARRATION

When asked about the future and the direction in which the world is headed, Rolston describes himself as a cautious optimist. He worries about global warming, but points to the Endangered Species Act, the Wilderness Act and cleaner air and water as real progress. In encouraging the continuation of this progress and of his ideas, Rolston is donating all of the prize money to Davidson College to endow a chair for a scholar in religion and science.

ROLSTON

That's where I got started 50 years ago and I'd like to see students 50 years from now still thinking about science an dnature, so I'm going to endow a chair there.

NARRATION

That's tough luck for Rolston's original muse... the whorled pagonia.

Stacey Vanek Smith, Columbia Radio News