Reflections on the ‘Red Book’: Unity of creation
Marian Hussenbux considers Quaker faith & practice 25.04
All species and the Earth itself have interdependent roles within Creation. Humankind is not the species to whom all others are subservient, but one among many. All parts, all issues, are inextricably intertwined. Indeed, the web of creation could be described as of three-ply thread: wherever we touch it we affect justice and peace and the health of all everywhere. So all our testimonies, all our Quaker work, all our Quaker lives are part of one process, of striving towards a flourishing, just and peaceful Creation – the Kingdom of God.
Audrey Urry, 1994
Quaker faith & practice 25.04
These words encapsulate all the radical possibilities to which our Quaker way could aspire, especially in these times when the whole of Creation has been brought under the control of one species.
Many faiths share the view that everything is connected. The seventh Principle of Universalist Unitarians is ‘respect for the interdependent web of all existence’.
Islam makes many requirements on how we view and treat our fellow creatures and has prohibitions on certain practices. This beautiful hadith merits consideration: ‘There is not an animal on earth, nor a bird that flies on its wings – but they are communities like you’ (Quran 6:38).
Hindus and Jains believe that the five elements – space, air, fire, water, and earth – are the foundation of an interconnected web of life and that dharma – often translated as ‘duty’ – can be reinterpreted to include our responsibility to care for the earth.
Ahimsa – harmlessness – is the greatest dharma.
Bhagwan Mahavira, the Jain saint who gave Jainism its present form, said: ‘My most important teaching is nonviolence. Do not hurt or kill any living being by thought, word or deed. Do not go to war. Do not kill animals. Do not hunt or fish. Never kill even the smallest creature. Do not step on a worm. Even the worm has a soul.’
The antithesis to this potential harmony with all created beings is the ‘dominion’ spoken of in Genesis. This is a word we are reluctant to use these days, preferring the translation ‘stewardship’. But are we really righteous stewards of all the life forms trying to inhabit the planet we should be sharing with them?
More than 23,000 species of plants and animals are now threatened with extinction. The rapid loss of species we are seeing today attributable to climate change, most probably anthropogenic, is estimated by experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate – that is, if humans were not present.
The only species that are truly abundant are those we can farm, and in this sphere too humankind is no good steward. The unending demand for cheap food means that sentient beings, who have done us no harm, are frequently subjected to a cruel dominion exercised because it suits our interests to do so.
However, our fellow sentient beings, emotional creatures much like us, could enhance our own existence if we were to accord them what is their due – to be recognised as significant parts of the all-encompassing web of life, communities, not underlings, our brothers and sisters, not our possessions.
Comments
Please login to add a comment
