Pentecostal Environmentalism: A Symbiosis for Eco-Theology and Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

Pentecostal Movements are those Christian religious movements founded in the 1950s and 1960s to date. Pentecostal environmentalism focuses attention on the need to maintain the environment according to the dictate of the Christian religious injunctions. This practice is achieved through the practice of sacred place, which is a designation of some earth surface as holy ground, and is retained for religious and spiritual purposes. These places include mountains, hills, rivers, streams, valley etc. and are deemed to possess religious mysteries and potent spiritual qualities. This practice is also observed in the Old Testament and is also part of the practice of the African traditional religions. In similar fashion, the Pentecostal movement shares many elements of traditional practices and the Old Testament, and as such sacred place has found its way into the practices of the Pentecostal movement. Environmental degradation, pollution, climate change, deforestation are all major global challenges today. Hence, the practice of sacred places and environmental ethics are among several efforts that can be used to tackle the problem of biodiversity loss arising from a range of environmental challenges. Furthermore, Pentecostal environmentalism further engages in the debate on eco-theology. This paper, therefore, serves as a platform to showcase the efforts of the Pentecostal movement towards ecological preservation, biodiversity conservation and the debate among scholars of eco-theology through environmental ethics and sacred places within the purview of Pentecostal religious spirituality. The paper employed a literary descriptive method since the research is qualitative in nature.