WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL SPIRITUALITY? Environmental spirituality, as I define it, consists of three principles all derived from the Christian worldview. First,God is the creator of all things; second that God is revealed in the natural world; and third, human beings are stewards of creation. The first principle is that God is the creator of the entire universe. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That basic belief is repeated many places in both the Old and New Testaments: for example, Psalms 24, 95, 104; Proverbs 8:1-5; Job 38; John 1:1-3; Romans 1:20; Colossians 1:15. This belief that God is the creator of all things is the first statement in both the Apostles and Nicene Creeds and the writings of early Church leaders abound with references to this article of faith. The second principle of environmental spirituality derives from the first. God the creator is revealed in the creation.Here again this idea has its roots in the Bible, especially Psalms 19 and 24. There is a clear strand of Christian tradition which expresses this concept, beginning with Irenaeus, Basil of Cesarea and John Chrysostom. The Celtic Christians of early Britain are renowned for this aspect of their spirituality. This strand of tradition had its followers in the Middle Ages especially especially around the stories about Francis of Assissi; but also in Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Traherne, an English clergyman of the 17th Century was another advocate of this idea. In our own time, the Lambeth Conference of 1998 said, "The divine Spirit is sacramentally present in creation." The third principle of environmental spirituality is that human beings are stewards of the natural world. This principle rests on two biblical ideas. First, in Genesis chapter one, God gives human beings "dominion" over creation. But dominion does not mean domination or destruction. Humanity's dominion includes the responsibility to care for creation in such a way that we can pass it on to future generations. The second biblical idea is the concept of stewardship found in the New Testament. The steward is not the owner of the property but rather the one who is responsible for its care and protection. This concept of stewardship is much like the modern legal notion of a trustee. The steward or the trustee must protect and manage the property for it owner. These three principles woven together are what I seek to teach through the concept of environmental spirituality. I believe that if we emphasize the idea that God, who created all things, is revealed in the natural world, it will lead us to a greater appreciation of the environment and a strong sense of why we need to protect it. John F. Crist, February, 2002