Michael J. Nilon, another third-year HDS student and an Eco-Div member, said that he foresees the eco-theology movement eventually evolving into something that could “potentially redefine the field of theology.”

After graduation. Crossen hopes to continue to bring an ecological perspective to bear on religious life. In addition to joining the month-long camp-out on the Common, Crossen has looked at potential future employers, such as Groundwork Somerville, an organization that strives to bring sustainable living to the community.

SETTING THE STAGE

One HDS student, Christopher J. Ashley, synthesized environmental and religious concerns in his own life after participating in the annual corn harvest in Kenya. For the fourth year in a row, the harvest was blighted with disease.

“Four straight years is not a famine. It’s climate change,” Ashley said.

Ashley’s experience emphasized the far-reaching and indiscriminate effects of environmental degradation, and underscored the importance of global solidarity in combating it.

“The effects of climate change are borne most of all by the most vulnerable people and Christians are called to stand with them in solidarity to protect them,” he said. “I’ve seen people starving and I have a stake in that.”

Ashley also participates in a weekly discussion at Christ Church Cambridge, led by Harvard Reverend Robert M. Tobin.

Tobin’s sermon two weeks ago tail-ended International Day of Climate Action, during which Christ Church rang their bells 350 times as part of a worldwide movement to draw political attention to climate change.

“We have to accept responsibility for not having done more in creating a culture where the natural world is respected,” said Tobin. “We have to repent.”

However, most of the sermon and the subsequent discussion was optimistic. It emphasized the unique ability Christians have to help overcome climate change.

“The language about belonging to something larger, voluntary relinquishment of privilege, and understanding resources and materials in terms of something other than the individual have long been there in the Christian faith,” Tobin said.

A GREENER RELIGION

Traditionally, Evangelical Christians have differed in their interpretation of the Creation Psalm, believing that instead of mandating human stewardship for the environment, Genesis grants human beings ‘dominion’ over it.

But, for one reverend of Harvard’s Memorial Church, Jonathan C. Page ’02, environmental theology isn’t as grounded in eco-stewardship as in morality.