Doing Church Diaconal Service in the Context of Ecological Crisis in Indonesia

This study analysed the relationship between creation theology and environmental responsibility, with a focus on Imago Dei as the basis for Christian ethics in the context of the ecological crisis in Indonesia. The introduction outlines the ecological crisis, which includes worsening issues such as deforestation, pollution and climate change. The aim of this study was to investigate how the concept of Imago Dei can be utilised as a foundation for Christian ethics in environmental management. The methods employed include a theological approach and document analysis to assess the impact of creation theology on Christian environmental practices. The findings indicate that applying Imago Dei reinforces human responsibility as stewards of God’s creation and encourages more sustainable conservation efforts. The discussion highlights the importance of integrating creation theology into Christian environmental ethics to effectively support environmental preservation efforts. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study has intradisciplinary implications within the fields of systematic theology, moral theology and ecotheology by enriching the understanding of the Imago Dei as an ethical basis for Christian involvement in environmental stewardship. Interdisciplinarily, this research opens dialogue between Christian theology and environmental science, social ecology and public policy. Emphasising ecological responsibility grounded in the Imago Dei can support ecotheological education in churches and encourage church engagement in environmental policy advocacy, thus offering practical contributions to addressing the ecological crisis through a cross-disciplinary approach.

Indonesia is currently embroiled in social and ecological crisis as a result of the exploitation of natural resources redundant as a consequence of the dominance of the global capitalist system. As a country with a Muslim majority deemed the need for religious organizations to resolve the issue. In 2013, Front Nahdliyin for Sovereignty of Natural Resources (FN-KSDA) was established as a response to the social-ecological crisis in Indonesia. Among NU members (Nahdliyin), the existence of organizations such as FN-KSDA is something new. In the middle of NU's attention to the agrarian conflict and natural resources that are considered quite minimal, until now FN-KSDA moving outside the formal structure of the NU. This study also examines how the perspective of FN-KSDA against the sovereignty of natural resources. This article reviews the importance of the agrarian reform carried FN-KSDA by relying on sources of Islamic law that the Qur'an and Hadith, as well as the results of the NU congress. The agrarian reform and upholding the sovereignty of natural resources made FN-KSDA are already have a legitimacy whether from the main sources of Islamic law, the Qoran and the hadith as well as internal decisions of organizations such as Nahdlatul Ulama. Copyright (c) 2017 by KARSA. All right reserved DOI: 10.19105/karsa.v25i1.1160

This library research descriptively explains the causes of the ecological crisis in Indonesia by using the ecotheological approach in the construction of Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s thought. This research shows that the ecological crisis is correlated with a perspective that is not in favor of nature (anthrophocentrism), modern humans lose their existence-spiritual and understanding of nature that is desacralized. Ecotheology is then used as a strategic basis for solving the ecological crisis in the midst of Indonesian religious society by mainstreaming ecotheology through religious leaders, pesantren, educational institutions, and NGOs.

This study aims to determine the representation of the ecological crisis found in the Rawa Gambut drama script written by Conie Sema. This qualitative descriptive research used an ecocritical approach. The data are in the form of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that contain information on ecological conditions. Textual analysis was used to examine the data. Data were collected through reading and note-taking techniques with heuristic and hermeneutic reading. The results showed the themes within the drama script as an ecological crisis in Indonesia due to unfriendly environmental development policies. The representation of the ecological crisis are: 1) ideal ecological conditions are maintained if the utilization pattern is wise and responsible, 2) the ecological crisis is closely related to human intervention, 3) humans are the main cause of ecological disasters, 4) there is a disregard for environmental wisdom principles in the use of sustainable living space, 5) the moral message is the importance of awareness to maintain environmental sustainability, and finally, 6) the author offers an ecocentric paradigm to oppose the ideology of anthropocentrism, which is still the dominant perspective in the natural resource management. This study has implications, along with the importance of educational efforts, to raise awareness of environmental sustainability through drama scripts.

Abstract. While Indonesian novels have been explored for their depiction of ecological crises, there has yet to be a detailed examination of how these narratives reflect the ensuing socio-ecological systems. This study investigates the portrayal of socio-ecological systems within Indonesian novels in the context of ecological crises. Employing qualitative methods and content analysis, this research utilizes the updated socio-ecological systems framework proposed by McGinnis and Ostrom (2014). The findings reveal various aspects of the crises represented, including forest destruction, forest fires, air pollution, animal extinction, and the degradation of natural reserves. Furthermore, the ecological crisis that has occurred actually gives rise to a socio-ecological system that represents the internal relationships among the resource system, government system, resource unit, and actors, and is influenced by external factors such as the social, economic, and political settings, and related ecosystems. Additionally, this representation of the socio-ecological system provides insights into the conditions of the ecological crisis in Indonesia, particularly in palm oil plantations and nature reserves.Keywords: Ecological Crisis, Social-Ecological System, Indonesian Novels, Ecocriticism

Given the ecological crisis in Indonesia, the churches must implement an ecclesiological reconstruction based on the church as an ecological community and on the understanding that the churches are an inseparable part of Indonesian society and cultures which emphasise respect for nature, while at the same time reconstructing their identity in the Christian faith tradition rooted in the Triune God, faith in Christ as Saviour, and an eschatological dimension. Ecclesial praxis will promote ecological awareness among church members, involvement in conservation efforts and in making public policies related to ecological issues.

Globally, policy-makers increasingly shift value from economic towards social and environmental outcomes of the economy. Successfully achieving economic, social and environmental goals jointly inevitably leads to trade-offs at multiple stages of agricultural value chains. Agricultural commodity markets provide manifold opportunities for policy makers to mitigate such trade-offs by creating environmental and societal values. Both real world applications and advancement of empirical methodology to evaluate those are essential to an exhaustive evidence-base for economic policy that aims at mitigating trade-offs. This dissertation aims at extending two distinct scientific frontiers of research on agri-environmental-social policy trade-offs. The first focus is placed on socio-environmental trade-offs faced at the producer stage. The palm oil boom and related ecological crisis in Indonesia provides a resourceful case to empirically explore the role of smallholder agricultural production within the conflicting aims. The second focus lies on the advancement of data-driven identification techniques in structural time series analysis and its application to commodity market analysis. The first two essays (chapters two and three) analyse the technical and environmental performance of smallholder oil palm producers in Jambi, Indonesia. We focus on policy implications regarding the production technology, shortcomings in performance compared with best-practice and biodiversity, and deforestation as environmental aspects. The first essay asks whether technical efficiency reduces or accelerates oil palm area expansion. The findings indicate that while the land sparing potential of increased smallholder efficiency is remarkable, higher returns to palm oil production also increase demand for land by a factor of one third. Thus, successful rural development and conservationist policy need to reconcile both effects by connecting smallholder support with more formalized land markets and stringent land policy. The second essay models the trade-off between oil palm output and biodiversity loss and estimates the performance of smallholders. It derives respective shadow prices and simulates several payments for ecosystem services (PES) scenarios. The findings suggest presence of substantial environmental inefficiency in smallholder oil palm production which is in part explained by both chemical and manual weeding practices. Payments for ecosystem services schemes could be a viable policy response to conserve meaningful levels of biodiversity while at the same time allowing smallholders to increase palm oil output. Addressing drivers of environmental performance in PES designs could amplify the effect thereof without reducing production levels. The third essay (chapter four) evaluates the policy efficacy of the tripartite rubber council (TRC) to detach the international rubber price from synthetic rubber and crude oil prices. The findings indicate that restricting supply did not impact international markets as expected and increasing domestic consumption might even have backfired and contributed to further decreases in international prices. The last two essays (chapters five and six) are concerned with data-driven identification methods in multivariate time series models. The fourth essay provides a software implementation of novel structural identification techniques making use of heteroskedasticty-based and independence-based assumptions. The fifth essay applies independent component analysis (ICA) to identify structural crude oil shocks on food markets in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings indicate that SSA food markets respond more strongly to oil-supply shocks and less pronounced to oil-specific demand end aggregate-demand shocks than global markets. As transportation costs continue to be very important components of the cost of food production in SSA, inefficient fuel distribution systems and absence of strategic energy reserves lead to vulnerability of food prices to oil-supply shocks. Food prices in Sub-Sahara Africa respond fundamentally different to oil shocks than world market prices or those in developed countries. In addition, SSA food markets are also not alike in their response to global oil shocks but very heterogeneous. This is likely to be also the case for other developing countries' food markets.

This study aims to explore the relationship between religious teachings and ecological awareness in responding to the environmental crisis in Indonesia. Specifically, the study focuses on Islam and Catholicism, examining the thoughts of Ibn Arabi and the concept of ecospirituality in Laudato Si. This research arises from the phenomenon of natural resource exploitation and the involvement of religious organizations in the management of mining areas. It questions the role of religion in limiting destructive behavior toward the environment. The study uses a qualitative method with data collection techniques through literature review on ecology, religion, and environmental policies. The findings reveal that the ecospirituality of Islam (Ibn Arabi) and Catholicism (Laudato Si) promote a triadic relationship: human, nature, and God. Human actions impact the understanding of nature and divinity. The process of humans honoring nature is akin to honoring the love and blessings of life from God. Nature can be seen as a mother who nurtures and cares for her children (humankind). Religion plays a key role here, particularly through its categorical imperatives. For example, the concept of ‘Insan Kamil,’ emphasized continuously by Muslims, or the ecospiritual encyclical Laudato Si, which stimulates ecological awareness in contemporary humans. This study offers a new interdisciplinary contribution to understanding the ecological crisis, especially in Indonesia, by integrating the religious dimension as a potential solution for environmental sustainability.