thoughts on Christianity and Sustainability

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May 30, 2013 by Caity Stuart

This past semester I learned that I think better if I write on the wall. Literally.

I first took a liking to white boards.

But then I realized that, as much as I flourished at hiding in a classroom at school letting my thoughts flow before me with dry-erase markers, the school would inevitably close by 9pm. Somehow administrators haven’t realized that that closing time just does not work with many grad students’ schedules…

So I switched to large 3M pads that I then stuck all over the walls in my room. I would have think-tank sessions where I would clear a wall of everything but blank sheets of paper, stick head phones in my ears, get my collection of markers ready, and start letting the ideas flow in front of me like an artist before a canvas.

While most of these sessions would begin deliberately, many of them would not end that way. In fact, most of these posters would remain hanging on the walls simply to allow my thoughts to continue as days, and even weeks, continued.

In comes the contents of one of the longest lasting posters this past semester: Christianity and Sustainability.

For those of you who don’t know me, I grew up in a moderately conservative Christian home and community. I myself was fairly evangelical up through high school. While my college years changed a lot of that, I still align myself with the Christian faith however have difficulty with a lot of what the mainline evangelicals have to say. (more on my faith journey for a later post)

What is key in this bit of my biography is that I grew up learning a specific language. One of the reasons why I have continued to ascribe myself to the Christian faith is because, if you weed through a lot of the loud declarations of “rules,” Christianity at its core is about loving others well. This is the language I learned and this is the language I (hope) continue to speak today.

Although I’m noticing that something is changing….

This past year at graduate school, I began to hear a very similar language spoken to what I grew up on, only this time the words were under the topic of Sustainability. My favorite definition of Sustainability comes from my professor Tom Wessels as such: “Sustainability is about being in right relationship: with yourself, your family, your community, your environment, your government, etc.” See where this is going?

So I decided to started jotting down the words and phrases that I was hearing at school that I had heard once before under the auspices of Christianity. As the months continued, so too did the list grow.

I know for a fact that this list is not finished. In fact, if there is a phrase/word that I have left off, please share with me what it is! I hope to not only continue this list but also continue research these next few years about the relationship between Christianity and Sustainability. I think there are many correlations between the two for a reason. I only wish more people in both parties realized that. Perhaps that is why I am so eager to find a way to   help make that happen.

So first things first, the beginnings of my list of words I have heard used for both the topics of Sustainability and Christianity, in no particular order:

• Celebration
• listen
• contemplative
• spirituality
• healing
• resiliency
• caring for creation
• live within your means
• inspiration
• conviction
• humble
• community
• conservation
• rebirth
• transformation
• creative
• thanksgiving
• together
• relationship
• sacred
• resourcefulness
• compassion
• fairness
• equality
• mission
• life
• advocacy
• equity
• equality
• responsibility
• action
• peace
• empathy
• service
• hope
• patience
• justice
• faith
• education
• caring for humanity
• meaning
• revival
• love
• redemption
• family
• activism
• “the good news”
• mystery
• renewal
• “change the world”

Got any more? Share away!