Newsletter

Winter 2000: From the Director

Stewardship at Windsor Castle
By Dr. Calvin DeWitt

The Institute Director, Cal DeWitt, participated in a consultation held at Windsor Castle in September. Organized by the John Ray Initiative (JRI), this evangelical environmental organization in the U.K., held this consultation to "explore the value and robustness of stewardship as a theological, philosophical, scientific and pragmatic concept" and "to investigate the biblical and traditional roots of stewardship...and enquire whether these provide an adequate description for general use in the secular as well as religious context."

Under the leadership of Sir John Houghton, the leading evangelical scientist in global change, and Prof. Sam Berry, the evangelical geneticist from the University College London, four papers were presented. In addition to Cal's, papers were given by Prof. Robin Attfield, a philosopher researching stewardship at the Cardiff University (Wales), Rev. Dr. Murray Rae, a systematic theologian, and Dr. James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia hypothesis and a strong critic of stewardship.

The conclusion of the conference was that stewardship was the best concept for the "urgent practical matter" of establishing a proper relationship between humanity and its changing environment." In defining stewardship, the abstract of Cal's paper states, "Stewardship is environmentally responsible behavior that involves an interactive relationship of human beings with their dynamic environment. Stewardship integrates science, ethics, and praxis; recognizes a dynamic and changing Earth, maintains biospheric systems that are working well; works to restore degraded systems to previous levels of performance; compensates for altered systems and system behavior to restore sustainability; tests the responses of systems by experiment and praxis, applies the results in the direction of system sustainability, and learns from others' experiential behavior. Overall, stewardship shapes and reshapes human behavior in the direction of maintaining individual, community, and biospheric sustainability. It is practiced in behalf of future generations, in behalf of the biosphere and its component systems, in behalf of the processes and persons that sustain the biosphere, and in behalf of their Creator."

A reprint of a draft of Cal's paper can be obtained by writing or calling the Institute's Outreach Office at 731 State Street, Madison WI 53703 (608 255-0950). There are plans being developed for publishing the presentations and findings of the consultation in book form.

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