The notion of the earth as our mother has been around for ages. The earliest references reach back to Greek transcripts that date from the 12th-13th century BCE. These texts refer to earth as “maga” or “mother gaia.” The roots began with pre-Socratic philosophers and were strengthened by Aristotle.
Many cultures embrace the notion that “nature” has its own spirit and power separate from God. In Native American traditions earth mother is a feminine expression of the divine, a womb from which all of life emerges. This image holds great attraction for many as concern about the increasing degradation of the environment threatens the stability of the planet.
In the environmental movement sayings like, “care for your mother” are common. Mother earth or mother nature is seen as a reference to the environment as a whole. In typing this blog the auto correct prompted me to capitalize both mother and nature as if they had some divine status. Listening to the weather the other night, the meteorologist described a pattern of unsettled weather stretching into the following day as mother nature’s “moods.” The long history of likening the created order and its weather patterns to mother nature conjures an image of a housewife with PMS. It’s another way to make negative inferences about women and indirectly place blame for increasingly erratic weather patterns.
More importantly, however, it is really bad theology. The earth is NOT our mother. In the Judeo Christian tradition the earth is completely the generative activity of God. In Genesis 1, the world is created by the Word of God. It’s important to say that the creation narratives were never meant to be taken literally. Throughout the stories of the First Testament, it is clear the Hebrews borrowed stories from the cultures around them and added their unique theological perspective. Most importantly, that meant one God and one God alone who is the author and creator of all that is. To suggest that the earth has an identity separate from God comes dangerously close to a kind of polytheism that assigns the earth divine status separate from God. It is blasphemous.
Pantheism is a kind of polytheism that says everything is God. Panentheism is a monotheistic perspective that maintains that God is in everything because God is the creator of everything. All the created order bears the fingerprints of the Creator.
The earth is not a being alongside God that has its own generative power. In every way, the earth is subservient to God as a creation of God. It means that the earth is our sister. We stand on similar ground both literally and figuratively as creatures of the Creator.
Shifting our language to speak of the created order as God’s creation is an important first step. Creation is not an overtired, overworked, grumpy mother and housewife with a bad migraine and a case of PMS. The earth is our sister. We are made of the same stuff, dirt and stardust, water and light. Like every other living creature, we are planted and nurtured in the rhythms of life and take our place in the created order as stewards and caretakers.
This rich created order is the gift of God for the people of God. We are to be its stewards: holy gardeners who care for the earth. Biblically, to be a steward means to consciously use and manage all the resources God provides for the Glory of God and the betterment of creation. The central essence of the biblical world view of stewardship is managing everything God brings into the purview of humans in a manner that honors the Divine.
The Irreverent Reverend 