Francis Schaeffer Speaks to the Problem of Ecology

The following review of Francis Schaeffer's book Pollution and the Death of Man will be published in an upcoming Areopagus Journal called "Three Scholars Every Christian Should Know." The journal issue will focus on the lives and teachings of C.S. Lewis, Alvin Plantinga, and Francis Schaeffer. At only $25 per year, Areopagus Journal is a key way you can absorb important apologetic information for the enrichment of your Christian life and it is a wonderful way to support the Apologetics Resource Center at the same time. Subscribe Today!

Pollution and the Death of Man: The Christian View of Ecology
By Francis Schaeffer

When the man Francis Schaeffer is thought about, his great books that detail how true biblical Christianity answers the problem of man usually also come to mind. The God Who is There, Escape From Reason, He is There and He is Not Silent, and later on, How Should We Then Live are some of his dominant and most influential writings. But tucked away in an obscure corner of any complete Schaeffer library is his thinking on ecology, a topic most Christians rather enjoying ignoring, perhaps because we have a taste for beef and chicken, and we find little time for recycling or protecting endangered species. In fact, environmentalism is often associated with left wing liberal types and organizations such as PETA, thus to protect the environment, oddly enough, has a non-Christian flavor to it in our modern day.

Schaeffer, in his wisdom, begs to differ. In this short treatise, he offers the only lasting solution to the current ecological crisis, namely, a solid stance on the Christian worldview. He points out in the first chapter, however, that not all agree that this is so. He refers to an article written by Lynn White Jr., who emphatically declares that the problem is Christianity itself, with its belief that man has “dominion” over the earth, and thus deduces that he can treat it any old way that he pleases; that is, he has the right to “despoil nature.” Of course, this is a terrible interpretation of the dominion mandate given in the first chapters of Genesis, and Schaeffer goes on to show White’s error.

A major part of Pollution and the Death of Man is spent demonstrating that other worldviews are insufficient in providing an intellectual base for protecting the environment. Chapter 2 is a lengthy presentation revealing the inadequacies of pantheism to provide the needed foundation for keeping the planet clean. Schaeffer summarizes the problem:

“What I am saying is that a pantheistic answer is not just a theoretically weak answer, but it is also a weak answer in practice. A man who begins to take a pantheistic view of nature has no answer for the fact that nature has two faces: it has a benevolent face, but it may also be an enemy. The pantheist views nature as normal. There is no place for abnormality in nature, in this view…If we accept this romantic and non-Christian mysticism, the difficulty is that we have no solution for the fact that nature is often not benevolent.”

The Christian, on the other hand, has a sufficient base, the authority of the Word of God, in order to see both aspects of nature, both its benevolent and brutal sides. For example, the pantheist has no ground for seeing death or plague as evil. It must be treated as all nature is treated. However, the Christian rightly sees both sides.

After detailing a few other inadequate answers to the ecology problem, Schaeffer, in chapter 4, begins detailing the Christian view, which not surprisingly finds its basis in the act of God to create. Creation is not equal with God nor is it an extension of God, but “created things have an existence in themselves. They are really there.” As such nature has value in itself since God made it. Schaeffer deduces therefore, that God “treats his creation with integrity: each thing in its own order, each thing the way He made it.”

This view leads to a “substantial healing” among created things, as Schaeffer details in chapter 5. Because God created all things and treats them with integrity, so should we. This is not pantheism, but rather a way of honoring the creator. Thus, as a human, I recognize that I am more valuable than an ant, but the ant is a fellow creature, both of us made by the same God. I have the right to kill him, but only under certain conditions. Schaeffer explains, “We have the right to rid our houses of ants; but what we have no right to do is to forget to honor the ant as God made it, out in the place where God made the ant to be. When we meet the ant on the sidewalk, we step over him.”

Schaeffer builds this Christian view of ecology not in spite of the dominion mandate given to man, but squarely upon it. He points out that man is fallen and has used his dominion to exploit and destroy rather than to rule and build. No wonder many think that Christians are to blame for the crisis! But certainly of all people, those who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, should attempt to possess dominion over the earth in the way that God originally intended, treating each created object, living and non-living, with integrity, in its own order, each thing the way God made it.

Pollution and the Death of Man offers powerful insight into how the Christian should approach modern environmental issues. My critique of the book is it's date. At the current crossroads, more Christians must step up to the plate in order to communicate clearly the truth Schaeffer so eloquently conveys in this book, namely, that the Christian worldview is the only lasting answer to modern man’s ecological crisis.