Missiology Meets Ecotheology: Creation Faith in an Intercultural Perspective

Abstract

Indigenous religions around the world have brought forth functional attitudes towards their natural environment that have – until recently – proved successful. Thus, it can be assumed that a culture's creation spirituality and ethos must be rooted in a specific natural setting to be ecologically effective. The Christian creation faith with its universal truth claim, on the other hand, is globally inclusive, but tends to remain abstract, unless it is appropriately contextualised. To counter the ecological crisis, Christian principles and values need to be transferred to particular contexts to generate ecologically effective creation spiritualities, whereas indigenous beliefs ought to be adapted to meet the challenges of fast-changing environments in order to keep their relevance. This challenge reflects the general dialectic of the universality and the particularity of Christianity in the field of creation theology. The latter has not been a focus of systematic missiological considerations yet. Drawing on postcolonial theory, specifically Homi Bhabha's concept of hybridity, which enables a new perspective on syncretism, this essay attempts to outline the specific requirements of an intercultural theology of creation. Referring to case studies from Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa presented in a series of intercontinental conferences on creation spirituality, the article will explore modes of synergetic cooperation between religious traditions. It will show how ecologically valuable Christian principles have been successfully integrated with indigenous religious beliefs in selected natural and cultural environments and point out how inculturation works both ways.