Maximus the Confessor once speculated that everything in all of creation is a "little word" from God, full of meaning and spoken with intentionality. Maybe even words that the angels get to say. Or perhaps sing. What if the hills and oak trees and gray foxes are lyrics to a song that the angels sing, and all these things take shape and grow and discover the world as that singing occurs?
Well, for one thing, that would challenge the ways that we relate to creation around us. Faith in the God of the Bible would entail a respect and a searching care for all these "little words" that God and the angels call into being. It would, in fact, challenge the things we think we know about creation, the things we do within it, and the way we are as participants in the life of the world: our knowing, our being, and our doing. For this reason, the seminary faculty is increasingly attending to the place of ecology within our theological curriculum. Where and how do ministers of the gospels hear these challenges today? What resources do we have to help us respond?
- Dr. Anthony D. Baker, Clinton S. Quin Professor of Systematic Theology at Seminary of the Southwest
