(Ir)religiosity

There has been a recent surge in publication of various “special-interest” bibles.  For the comic book and graphic novel geeks there is the Manga Bible, for the hipsters the Bible Illuminated, and for the Methodists the Wesley Bible. Don’t fit into one of those groups?  No problem. There’s always the all-purpose People’s Bible

It just not cool anymore to have plain Jane NRSV or NIV.

The Green Bible is another of these new, hip bibles.  I have mixed feelings about it.  Now, to be sure, all of these new bibles can be useful.  Each of them takes seriously the need to speak in contemporary language with contemporary images and metaphors.  The Green Bible goes a step further, understanding the need, if we are to be faithful bearers of the good news, of taking seriously contemporary problems and providing alternatives.  Many Christian, especially younger ones, are tired of the old ways of “doing” church and “living” theology.  They wonder if their bible has anything serious to say about contemporary issues and if their God cares about what is happening in the world.  And these new bibles communicate that much more effectively than King Jimmy.

According to its website, “The Green Bible will equip and encourage people to see God’s vision for creation and help them engage in the work of healing and sustaining it.”  Which is wonderful; that is indeed part of our task — to understand and take seriously God’s dream for the entire world, the entire cosmos even, and participate in the actualization of that dream in our own peculiar way and in our own particular contexts.  That is good.  That is important  I get that.

But I also understand that our current ecological crisis is inextricably linked to our addiction to consumption.  And true eco-justice depends upon our willingness to make serious personal and collective sacrifices over and against the “suicide narrative,” as Brian McLaren (who is incidentally a contributor to the Green Bible’s commentary) would put it, of greed, consumption, and affluenza.  Purchasing another new gimmick or product will not solve the problem, it will only perpetuate it.  We can’t being to talk about sustainability until we understand that the act of purchasing and the deep-seated need to consume more and more are themselves part of the problem.  And no new bible will fix that for us.  That’s something we have to commit to do ourselves.  We have to commit to make the drastic change in lifestyle and mindset that is needed to really be ‘green,’ and to reflect the true Imago dei that lies upon our being.

So, I wonder — just how green is the Green Bible?  Of course it is made from 100% recycled material and it is full of commentary from all the big names, Desmond Tutu, Matthew Sleeth, Wendell Berry, N.T. Wright, and so on.  It even has every verse that is related to creation and ecology highlighted in green for easy identification.  These aren’t bad things.  Not at all.  On the contrary, they go a long way toward raising people’s awareness to the fact that God has a vision for creation, that creation is inherently good, and that persons seeking to respond to God have the paramount responsibility of ensuring that that vision is made a reality.  Friend and fellow MethoBlogger Jeremy Smith, who blogs over at HackingChristianity.net, points this out in his review, “[The Green Bible] is meant to add to the conversation to answer the questions of “what did Jesus have to say about recycling” and traces biblical themes in response.”  These are important things.  Creation care is a biblical mandate and as Peter Illyn, founder of Restoring Eden, points out,  the Green Bible “helps rectify the misperception that [environmental stewardship] is not a biblical issue.”

But here’s the thing.  When and where to do we decide to move past merely raising public awareness about environmental stewardship and ecological sustainability and starting actually making the tangible sacrifices required to make God’s vision for creation something real instead of a political punchline or a cheap gimmick to make more money and seduce more people into the trap of consumption?

Raising awareness is fine.  It is wonderful.  But if we are serious about eco-justice and sustainability; if we are serious about rightly bearing the image of God and rightly participating in the divine commonwealth, then simply raising awareness is not enough.  It is only the beginning, springboard from which a new way of living must arise. As Albert Einstein has said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” If we really are serious about all this — and I sincerely hope that we are — then what is required is not a new snazzy bible or a hip product, but a radical change of lifestyle and radical shift in our collective consciousness.  We have to learn to consume less, to live simply, and yes, to even be content with our old tattered NIV we got at the end of confirmation class.

In the meantime, I’d like to see a really Green Bible.  One that doesn’t need to be printed on recycleable material because it doesn’t need to be printed at all.  It exists online — for free.  It saves the energy required to produce a print version, and it completely bypasses the temptation to feed our addiction to consumption.  It probably wouldn’t be very appealing to HarperOne or any other publishing company, but that’s not the point.

Or is it?

I think the Green Bible helps people understand the problem and what God has in mind and I hope it of raises people’s awareness to the problem, but the best step that I can take toward beginning to make the lifestyle change required reverse the current status quo is by refusing to buy one.

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