Environmental Thought - Robin Attfield

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included), and supplies one of few ancient examples of belief in progress. Coates (1998: 27) aligns this passage with the widespread ancient belief in a cosmic purpose to be found in all creatures, and even with belief in a purposive great chain of being, with each creature serving a higher stage in the chain, and with humanity as its apex. However, these were not remotely the views of the Epicureans, but rather those of their rival philosophical school, the Stoics. Lucretius, by contrast, rejected belief in cosmic purpose, holding that the gods were exemplars of tranquil indifference, which human beings should imitate. It is important to avoid stereotyping ancient attitudes, which were as varied as those of the modern world.

      Yet Lucretius also had an eye for natural beauty, whether in landscape, streams or clouds, and presents many similes drawn from nature to illustrate his message about atoms and molecules. This part of his message (his atomism, that is) remained influential when, after his works were rediscovered during the Renaissance, many seventeenth-century scientists adopted his atomism, albeit adjusted to fit their belief in divine creation. Later still, the poet Thomas Gray (1716–71) composed a poem in Latin hexameters extolling the empirical philosophy of John Locke (1632–1704), imitating the verse and the similes of Lucretius, and echoing his love of landscape, estuaries and seas. Indeed, Lucretius’ influence lives on as much in pastoral poetry and its appreciation of nature as in modern science.

       Roman circuses and related protests

      Greek hunting was inhibited by the expectation that hunters would respect the sanctity of sanctuaries such as groves sacred to deities (Coates 1998: 37). But leading Roman public figures introduced so-called ‘hunts’ (venationes) to public arenas as popular entertainment, with contests between, for example, bulls and rhinoceroses, or between spearsmen and elephants. These spectacles attained such proportions that the procurement of larger wild animals, both from Roman territories and from dependent states, may have been responsible for the complete disappearance of these species from North Africa and the Near East (Coates 1998: 38). The Romans were so unconcerned about biodiversity that they did not even notice that they were curtailing it.

      The best-known protest against these displays was expressed by Marcus Tullius Cicero, in one of his letters to his friends (Epistulae ad familiares VII, 1, 3). Cicero relates, in Torill Christine Lindstrøm’s paraphrase: ‘When the elephants tried to escape by starting to break down the iron bars that held them in place, people were terrified and, finally, when the elephants simultaneously started to trumpet in desperation, the spectators rose to their feet and, weeping, cursed Pompey for his cruelty’ (2010: 319). Although this was an untypical reaction, Cicero found in it ‘misericordia’ or compassion, and a sense that there was after all some common bond between people and beasts. Later, a more general protest about the maltreatment of animals in the arena was expressed by Plutarch, the celebrated Platonist writer (46–120 CE) (Hughes 1994: 111).

      Ancient Greek and Roman perspectives on nature thus prove to have been extremely diverse, while many have had lasting impacts on later history (Schliephake 2016). But understanding later history also involves grasping the largely distinct history of Judaism and Christianity at that time. To this history we now turn.

      The Old Testament (also known as the Hebrew Bible) enshrines the history, poetry, prophecy and laws of the Jewish people, and was composed over at least a thousand-year period. The New Testament, by contrast, was written during the century following the death of Jesus. Christianity, however, became the religion of the Roman Empire, which may be held to have lasted until 1453 (with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks). This section outlines aspects of Christian thought only up to Augustine, who wrote around the fall of the Western Empire (early fifth century CE), and selects significant attitudes to the land and to nature among Jews and Christians. While attitudes are again diverse, their diversity has a focus in the common belief of Jews and Christians in God, God’s creative purposes, and his message for humanity transmitted through both Judaism and Christianity. Many of the attitudes of Europe and its worldwide diaspora were strongly influenced by Judaism, Christianity and the Bible, of which some of the more significant strands are highlighted here.

      In the course of the thousand years over which the Old Testament was written, beliefs about God, humanity and nature underwent change and development. Different documents from different periods have often been spliced together, such as the two creation narratives in the early chapters of Genesis. Hence, total consistency cannot be expected. Yet central overall themes can be elicited, and were among those widely taught when first Judaism and then Christianity spread across the Roman world and beyond.

      One of these themes is the creation by God both of humanity and of the rest of the universe. Everything in creation is continually dependent on God, and nothing but God is to be worshipped. The world of nature consists of his or her creatures, and has its own value as such; yet to worship creatures rather than the creator is idolatrous. These themes are prominent both in Genesis and also in part of the book of Isaiah (chapters 40–55) composed in the sixth century BCE, after the exile in Babylon.

      They also appear in the book of Job, which challenges Job to describe and explain the creatures of land, sea and air, and makes it clear that they all have their appointed places, and that God cares for them as well as for humanity (see Job 38–41.) A similar message about God’s care for wild creatures is expressed in the book of Psalms (particularly Psalm 104); psalms were regularly sung in at least the period of the last five centuries BCE.

      Relatedly, the Psalms recognize God’s presence in the world; thus Psalm 139 conveys the impossibility of escaping God’s presence. This theme re-emerges in the New Testament, in Paul’s speech in Athens, where he speaks of God ‘in whom we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28).

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