Is classical education the answer?
Recently, Bishop Robert Barron spoke at the annual convention of the G.K. Chesterton Society, where the theme was St. Francis, in honor of Chesterton’s beautiful biography of the great saint. In First Things, Bishop Barron published a brief reflection on Dale Ahlquist’s remarks regarding Chesterton’s (and Francis’) view that we should view nature as our sister, not as our mother, for we are both children of the same Father.
Barron points out the dangers of seeing nature as our mother: it doesn’t end there, but ultimately ends in paganism. When we deny the reality of the Father Creator, we (as inherently religious beings) seek other things to worship - and the most instinctive place for us to turn to as an object of veneration is nature. When we make nature our mother, it is the first step towards making nature our god. This is a foolish idolatry that Scripture consistently warns against (see, for instance, Deuteronomy 4:19), for why would you worship the creature and not the Creator?
As with all types of idolatry, the needed correction comes in the form of a proper intellectual and spiritual formation. An authentically Catholic education - such as the one provided by the Chesterton Schools - reveals to students the true hierarchy of creation: God as Creator, human beings as made in His image to cultivate creation, and creatures as made for the good of man and the glory of God. Of course, this vision does not mean that human beings can exploit nature (although, ironically, it is the people who claim to venerate nature as “Mother” who are also most eager to do violence to the nature of the human person through medical technologies and interventions that destroy the natural functioning of the human body). The proper ordering of creation, a logocentric understanding of creation, reveals that we are meant to be stewards of creation, caring for creation on God's behalf - and giving an account of our stewardship to Him in turn.
By studying science classically, and by studying it in tandem with their studies in history, philosophy, and theology, students learning the Chesterton curriculum come to know first their place in the natural order as God created it. They will then, on the one hand, avoid the temptation to worship nature as a mother/goddess, but also avoid the false belief that they can manipulate nature to disordered ends. They will understand that as human beings we, too, exist within the order of creation, and therefore have a moral responsibility as stewards (not dominators) of creation - which includes both our own bodies and the natural world around us. We are called to cherish creation as God’s handiwork, while also transforming it through our loving labor into something that serves the common good of humanity and gives glory to God in its beauty.
It is human beings formed in this way who will solve the “environmental crisis” - human beings who understand God as the true object of our worship, and nature as our sister who asks not for our worship but for our loving care as we steward her and ourselves towards the ends to which our Father has made us.
Cover Image:
Photo by Lukasz Szmigiel on Unsplash
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