WITH three named storms that swung into the UK during the past week, nature has reminded us that the warming climate, and the consequent increase in moisture in the atmosphere, has not gone away.
Since the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow (News, 19 November 2021), very little seems to have developed practically and locally in addressing the overwhelming crisis that humankind is facing. Science can convince and unite, but it fails in the practical politics of turning facts and evidence into social action. The realm of vision, commitment, and consequent action is, perhaps, more of a right-brain mindset than the garnering and analysis of physical and intellectual material.
The synthesis that leads to meaning and the moral and ethical imperatives in averting global disaster suggests that self-interest must, at some stage, give way to universal well-being. This will involve discipline, sacrifice, altruism — the hallmarks of love and of the religious understanding and experience of the divine.
What should Christians learn and do? They must speak out beyond a sense of the Church as a club or lobby group: the Church is a society formed by Spirit and morality. There is something distinctive to Christianity’s contribution. Within the concept of love, and in particular divine love, are two qualities — humility and reverence — that are critical to the crisis with which the world is wrestling.
SINCE its own incorporation as a state institution, Christianity has been an engine for growth, gain, enterprise, and empire — often packaged as mission and the spread of civilisation. At its gospel heart, though, lie simplicity, respect, compassion, and forgiveness, all flowing from God in the life of Jesus. It is this that needs to be regained as the social gospel for a beleaguered world, in which division and mistrust beset the concert of nations — something beyond the “conference of the parties” and the practical limitations of the United Nations.
Self-interest alone cannot solve the survival of human life on earth. Humanity needs more; its health, continuity, and flourishing are to be found in a morally more sophisticated way of life in which authority is found beyond our invention and possession. This is what religious dimension has to offer anew to a world that is struggling to comprehend and effect a radical recalibration of human living for the future. Politicians are going to struggle to “sell” the very real sacrifices necessary for the developed world to make in its response to the universal crisis posed by global warming and climate change.
All that we value and respect in terms of individual freedom and choices must be challenged and changed: we do not have a right to a material standard of living that is realised only at the expense of others, future generations, and the balance and ecosystems of the planet. Few people in power talk of simple living as a new and costly imperative for the future; but less will have to be more.
Humans are not the “masters” of creation, but, biblically, they have been given a responsibility to exercise freedom and creativity in relationship with the Creator. As the world struggles to find an authority with which to respond to climate change, religion can offer much more than the material objectivity of science and economics, which place authority in an anthropocentric rather than a divine vision. The transcendent, which takes people out of themselves and their self-preoccupations, can enable the radical changes that are necessary in the developed world, and that will affect so many of the privileged and the powerful.
ASH WEDNESDAY and the 40-day observance of Lent can be a springboard to show the people of our country that “simple living” is a joyful and fulfilling alternative lifestyle to the consumer-led acquisitiveness that has become the habit of the rich — and, even, the relatively less well off.
Parish communities need to learn how to live a happy and less demanding life in terms of material consumption, and to share the approach, means, and support widely into the communities in which they are set. Reducing the Church’s carbon footprint and people’s escalating appetites is, perhaps, the greatest mission for the Church.
Politicians, too, need to hear this call to simple living that is formed by the humility and reverence of God’s love. Christianity needs to be heard through the presentation of intellectual and imaginative conviction and through the example set by Christians. Its authority lies in the recognition of the equal worth of all people, and the vision and friendship of God in covenant living, whereby people find satisfaction and fulfilment, not principally in material consumption but in belonging, loving, and in being loved. Here lies the heart of the gospel. This world is a gift to all, and we need to learn how to appreciate it and one another. It is a challenge for every parish and Christian community.
The Revd Neil Thompson is a retired priest living in the diocese of Rochester, and a former Canon Precentor of Rochester Cathedral.