As members of the new Adam, Christians are in a position to perceive the deeper theological significance of the plight of honeybees. Rehabilitating honeybee populations is the theological equivalent of recruiting new timpani for the orchestra; it is a partial effort toward enabling our fellow-creatures to worship. Urban beekeeping is a grace given us to better worship God in creaturely interdependence against the obscuring of these relationships in our modern technological society. Participating in and facilitating scientific research into safer pesticides is akin to Adam’s tilling and irrigating Eden, investigating how best to encourage the mutual flourishing of creatures who share in a common Creator. In view of the freedom God has given to his creation, and looking forward to the final reconciliation of all things to the Creator that has begun in the resurrected Christ, the church should do what she can to facilitate and encourage attempts to rehabilitate honeybees. This would be rightly considered an act of proper praise and worship to our Creator.
The extract above comes from the article "The Worship of Honeybees: Colony Collapse Disorder and the Purpose of Creation by Richard R. Glover (BA, M Political Economy) whose interests lie in reflecting theologically on social, political, economic, and cultural issues. He blogs sporadically at richardrglover.wordpress.com. It was published in Ethos.
JOHN SCHELLNHUBER, CLIMATE SCIENTIST