Renewing the face of the earth, then, is an enterprise not of imposing some private human vision on a passive nature but of living in such a way as to bring more clearly to light the interconnectedness of all things and their dependence on what we cannot finally master or understand. This certainly involves a creative engagement with nature, seeking to work with those natural powers whose working gives us joy, as St Augustine says, in order to enhance human liberty and well-being. But that creative work will always be done in consciousness of costs, seen and unseen, and will not be dominated by fantasies about unconditional domination. It is a vision that, in the Christian context, is founded on the idea of humanity as having a ‘priestly’ relationship with the natural order: the human agent is created with the capacity to make sense of the environment and to move it into a closer relation with its creator by drawing out of it its capacity to become a sign of love and generosity. This entails so using the things of the earth that they promote justice between human beings ”“ making sense so as to make peace, equity and so on, using the skills of negotiating the environment in order to alleviate suffering and spread resources. Used in this way, the raw material of the environment is seen as serving human need ”“ but only by being used in awareness of its own integrity and its own constraints. It remains itself, but in its use for the sake of healing or justice becomes ‘sacramental’ of the infinite gift from which it originates. The ‘face’ of the earth becomes an aspect of the face of God. And a good many theologians have started from here in explaining what the actual sacraments of the Church mean ”“ especially the Eucharist ”“ as the firstfruits of a world of material things that has been given meaning in the context of communicating divine generosity.
All this echoes what St Paul touches on in Romans 8: creation is in some sense frustrated so long as humanity is ‘unredeemed’. The world is less than it might be so long as human beings are less than they might be, since the capacity of human beings to shape the material environment into a sign of justice and generosity is blocked by human selfishness.
“The ‘face’ of the earth becomes an aspect of the face of God.”
This is a disturbing statement because it blurs the distinction between the eternal and the finite. The more I read from Dr. Williams, the more I question his orthodoxy.