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Pollution and the Death of Man

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This book was originally written in the early 1970's, as an early response to the rapid spread of anti-Christian environmental books. Now I say "anti-Christian" not in the sense that environmentalism is anti-Christian, but in the sense that Christianity has been getting the blame for the world's environmental ills. In other words, Schaeffer is warning the church to start paying attention to its duties to the earth and environment, because we are getting the blame for pollution and etc...

He rightly points out that Christianity is somewhat responsible for environmental problems, but shows that Bible-practicing churches and members should wake up and see what the Bible really says on the issues. By shuffling the environmental issue back into the corner and ignoring it, we push environmentally concerned people into the Eastern religions and away from Christianity. Since John Passmore's famous book, which blames Christianity's view of dominion (Genesis/Eden) for Western Civilization, and Puritanism for the demise of American ecosystems, the environmental movement has begun rejecting Christianity as a cure. Furthermore, dispensational theology which sees the world as collapsing and being annihilated by Jesus after the Millennium, in favor of building a new Earth, quite strongly implies that we needn't bother with such earthly issues, since the earth will "pass away" no matter how nicely we tend it (rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic). So Passmore and others are somewhat correct, that Christianity has fallen flat on its face in regard to environmental issues. Schaeffer in this book prophetically warns about it, and turns out to be correct.

It is not full of statistics and charts, this is a philosophical book with deep insights by a great Christian thinker. It is interesting that only in recent years, thirty years later, do people finally decide to read it! It should be required reading in seminaries, and attended to by anyone in Christianity who believes in Christian stewardship of the world.

This masterpiece of logical thinking is unequaled in the realm of Christian literature for its conciseness of content and expressiveness of thought.

In this book, Schaeffer discusses the Christian approach to the environment and deals with the all-too-common misconceptions peddled by those Christians who are either ignorant of Biblical truth in this area, or are so intent on distancing themselves from the pantheistic, bleeding-heart, tree-hugging left that they come across as uncaring and abusive.

Nature does play a part in God's plan, and far from being entrusted with it as a no-strings-attached gift - a common misconception of the use of "dominion" in the Genesis account - we have been given the moral responsibility of keeping our surroundings while at the same time utilizing them conscientiously to meet our needs. In ridiculing and minimizing man's God-given duty of stewardship, modern Christianity has severely impaired its testimony and driven many conscientious individuals into the arms of equally erroneous sects - many of them pantheistic. This tendency is as wrong as it is regrettable.

Schaeffer further points out that having been created by the same God, any attempt by man to look down on and misuse his physical surroundings is to pass judgement on the God Who created those surroundings  and us.

Overall well-balanced and thought-provoking, Schaeffer answers the excesses of extreme Christianity on the one hand and raving nature-worship on the other with a treatise that is as elucidative as it is highly readable. This is required reading for anyone who wants to be convicted and informed of the necessity to appreciate and respect nature within the God-oriented context of Biblical truth.

- Benjamin Gene Gardner

In the past weeks I have spent some time wrestling with issues related to the environment and creation care. I have been seeking distinctly Christian wisdom on this issue, seeking to learn how we, as Christians, are to understand this world and our role in its care and protection. Last week I turned to Francis Schaeffer's Pollution and the Death of Man hoping and even expecting that it would answer some of my deepest questions.

Schaeffer acknowledges from the beginning of this book what our society's secular humanists cannot--that mankind has been called by God to exercise dominion over the earth. But like everything else in this world, man's ability to exercise such dominion has been affected by the Fall. No longer do we tend the world always in love, but instead we ravage and pillage it. Though we may not believe in all of the dire claims being made about the world today, we must at least acknowledge that we have not cared for the world as God has called us to.

The answers to this crisis lie not in our own efforts and not in the dictums of former Vice Presidents. Rather, if we are to understand the crisis, its roots, and its solutions, we must turn to Scripture. And this is precisely what Schaeffer does in Pollution and the Death of Man. Originally published in 1970, the book reads as if it was written yesterday (if the reader is willing to replace the ecological crises of thirty years ago with those of today, perhaps substituting global warming for DDT). Schaeffer looks at the spirit of the day and sees how men are dealing with ecological issues. Perceptively, he sees that ecology, bereft of any firm, biblical foundation and without any consistent basis for morality, is breeding a kind of pantheism. Men deal with the environment by making themselves one with it and it one with them. He launches into what I'd consider classic Schaefferian thought: "Pantheism," he says, "will be pressed as the only answer to ecological problems and will be one more influence in the West's becoming increasingly Eastern in its thinking." Almost forty years later, his words are proving true. "The only reason we are called upon to treat nature well is because of its effects on man and our children and the generations to come. So in reality...man is left with a completely egoistic position in regard to nature." "Having no absolutes, modern man has no categories. One cannot have real answers without categories, and these men can have no categories beyond pragmatic, technological ones." "A pantheistic stand always brings man to an impersonal and low place rather than elevating him." In the end, pantheism pushes both man and nature into a kind of bog, leaving us unable to make any kind of necessary and rational distinctions.

After looking at a few alternative inadequate answers to pantheism, Schaeffer turns to the Bible to give the Christian view of creation care. He affirms that our understanding must begin with the world's creation when God created things that have an objective existence in themselves. Despite the claims of pantheism, creation is not an extension of God's essence. It is only the biblical view that gives worth to man and to all that God has created. Nature begins to look different when I understand that, though I am separate from it, I am related to it as something God has created. "So the Christian treats `things' with integrity because we do not believe they are autonomous. Modern man has fallen into a dilemma because he has made things autonomous from God." As we love the Creator, we love the creation.

Schaeffer next looks to "a substantial healing," saying, "we should be looking now, on the basis of the work of Christ, for substantial healing in every area affected by the Fall." As Christians we should be ones who are treated creation now as it will be treated in eternity. The problem, of course, is that "by creation man has dominion, but as a fallen creature he has used that dominion wrongly. Because he is fallen, he exploits created things as thought they were nothing in themselves, and as though he has an autonomous right to them."

The book's final chapter brings a few points of application, though they are more high level than practical. Still, they are insightful. "We must confess that we missed our opportunity. We have spoken loudly against materialistic science, but we have done little to show that in practice we ourselves as Christians are not dominated by a technological orientation in regard either to man or nature." "If we treat nature as having no intrinsic value, our own value is diminished." Ultimately, we treat nature well because we are all products of the loving Creator; we are all creatures together.

While Pollution and the Death of Man is one of Schaeffer's lesser-known works, it is one Christians would do well to read and study even today. In this book Schaeffer does what he does best, providing a logical, consistent, biblical response to a matter that really matters.

This is really what I've come to expect from Schaeffer. Piercing analysis. Balanced approach. Faithfulness to the Scriptures. Lucid and colloquial style. Imaginative approach. In this particular work, Schaeffer presents a fantastic case for concern for the environment. He puts forward a balanced view of ecology and shows how it is not contrary to Biblical Christianity, but the natural conclusion of it. The book is a bit dated, but as relevant as it has ever been.

I would love to see every Christian invest the short amount of time required to read this book.

Pollution and the Death of Man is Schaeffer's response to two 1967 articles on environmentalism and religion. One is "Why Worry About Nature?" by Richard Means and the other is the well-known "Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" by Lynn White. Both articles are reprinted in this book along with an extended essay by Schaeffer. The whole is a short read.

Schaeffer begins by observing Darwin's self-reported loss of joy in both the arts and in the natural world. From there he builds an essentially aesthetic ecological theology. He affirms man's place as the pinnacle and rightful user of the natural world. But as in other categories of action, man should use self-restraint in dealing with nature so that it is not debased.

Schaeffer is opposed to "plastic culture," strip mining, and other processes of uglification and mechanistic alienation. These are commendable, but they are essentially the concerns of several decades ago. There is no direction here for our current problems with overfishing, land and water use, energy scarcity, etc. For example, Schaeffer criticizes sport fishing as against subsistence fishing, but overfishing is essentially a problem of subsistence fishing.

This was a ho-hum book of low current applicability. If the principles could be used as a guide for a Christian ecology, they needed much more expansion and investigation than what is presented here.

Pollution and the Death of Man is one of Francis Schaeffer's seminal works. It is a profound treatise of a biblical perspective on the environment - insightful, convicting, instructive, reasonable. The book is definitely worth the read.

Although this book was written about 40 years ago, it is still very relevant in light of todays's problems. A must read for all Christians, and very good read for anyone.

This discussion is on ecology---mans' relationship with nature. I think there is little dispute, that man does have some impact on the earth. But what should drive us to be good stewards? Will the belief that we are just one substance with nature (pantheism), give us that determination? Where, or from whom, do our morals come from? There are dangers of putting human feelings into nature. There are those that certainly believe we have an obligation because of an oneness with nature; but where does that lead us? We end up lowering man. Though there are forms of corrupted Christianity that do not have the answers to ecology either; Schaeffer shows how the genuine biblical view does. If one believes something is there only by chance what value can it hold, but if one believes it was created by God it deserves respect.

Schaeffer also discusses the division and corruption between man and man, man and nature, and nature and nature since the fall. As Christians, we have the hope and certainty this will be healed, but we can have a "substantial" healing while we are here. The appendix's by Lynn White Jr. and Richard L. Means lend more for us ponder.

There is no doubt that the guy knows what he is talking about. I think it brings to light why Christians in particular have reason to care for the environment. The book often becomes pretty dull but it's still worth the read for certain.