WHITE,LYNN, ECOTHEOLOGY, AND HISTORY - DISCUSSION

Controversy about Lynn White's thesis that medieval Christianity is to blame for our current environmental crisis has done little to challen ge the basic structure of White's argument and has taken little accoun t of recent work done by medieval scholars. White's ecotheological cri tics, in particular, have often failed to come to grips with White's p osition. In this paper, I question White's reading of history on both interpretative and factual grounds and argue that religious values can not be treated independently of the political, economic, and social co nditions that sustain them. I conclude that medieval religious values were more complex than White suggests: rather than causing technologic al innovation, they more likely provided a justification for other act ivity taking place for other reasons.