Ecological Theology Research Articles

A two-armed embrace: The panentheistic trinitarianism of Rahner and Edwards

Denis Edwards relies heavily on Karl Rahner’s conception of the Trinity in his own construction of an ecological Trinitarian theology. However, he breaks from Rahner in the specific roles of each person of the Trinity. For Edwards, the Spirit is the immanent presence of God, while the Son is the exemplar for the unique identity of each creature. Conversely, for Rahner, the Son is categorical revelation and the Spirit is transcendental revelation. Thus, Rahner’s thought allows for an immanent Christ in a way that Edwards does not. Edwards’ ecological theology is weakened by this shift. By removing the imminent presence of Christ, he weakens the ability of the Trinitarian God to communicate about the here and now of creation.

생명나무로 본 생태 신학

21 세기에 우리가 직면한 심각한 도전들 가운데 하나는 생태계 파괴 문제이다. 린 화이트는 기독교의 인간 중심적 신학이 자연 환경 파괴의 원인이 있었다고 주장했다. 하지만 그녀의 주장은 기독교의 창조 신학에 대한 오해에서 유발되었다. 따라서 본 소고는 고대 근동의 문화 속에 나타나는 생명나무의 이미지를 살핀 후 창세기, 에스겔, 요한 계시록에서 소개하는 생명나무의 신학적 의미를 통해 성경적 생태 신학의 원리를 제시한다. 창세기에서 소개하는 생명나무는 하나님께서 모든 창조 세계의 생명의 근원이시며 소유주라는 사실을 알린다 생명나무는 하나님의 창조 세계 안에서 하나님과 인간과 생태계 사이의 조화로운 상호 관계를 상징적으로 알려주는 나무이다. 하지만 인간의 죄로 조화로운 상호 관계는 파괴되었고 하나님의 심판 때문에 받은 저주와 생태계 파괴는 장차 종말론적인 구속과 회복을 바라보게 한다 하나님의 종말론적 회복과 구원은 새 창조와 그 안의 새 질서로 나타난다. 에스겔서과 요한 계시록은 생명나무의 이미지로 종말론적인 하나님의 축복과 회복을 소개한다. 계시록에서 소개된 생명나무는 예수 그리스도 안에 있는 종말론적인 생명뿐만 아니라 새 창조의 세계 안에서 하나님의 새 질서와 회복을 상징한다. 종말론적인 생명나무는 우리가 현재 누리고 있는 창조 세계가 없어질 장소가 아니며 우리의 영원한 거처가 될 것임을 제시한다. 이와 같은 종말론적 소망은 생태계에 대한 인간의 책임 있는 자세를 요구한다.<BR><BR>

Book Review: David Horrell, The Bible and the Environment: Towards a Critical Ecological Biblical Theology

Book Review: David Horrell, <i>The Bible and the Environment: Towards a Critical Ecological Biblical Theology</i>

Public Theological Remarks on Time Discounting and Intergenerational Justice

Abstract This article inhabits an interdisciplinary space between ecological economics and public theology. After the publication of the 2007 Stern report a debate ensued about the way the economic tool of time discounting is applied as a means to assess the cost of climate change. In this article, the debate is reviewed and the notions of intergenerational justice, sacrifice, stewardship and servant leadership in the Christian tradition are subsequently identified as valuable resources that are recognized by a growing number of philosophers, economists and business leaders, as being of benefit to the conversation on the present generation’s responsibilities to future generations. Time discounting is regarded in this article as a morally questionable economic method to weigh the costs of climate change.

Book Review: The Bible and the Environment: Towards a Critical Ecological Biblical Theology

Book Review: The Bible and the Environment: Towards a Critical Ecological Biblical Theology

ECOTHEE: Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics by Lucas Andrianos, Konstamtinos Kenanidis and Alexandros Papaderos, editors

ECOTHEE: Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics by Lucas Andrianos, Konstamtinos Kenanidis and Alexandros Papaderos, editors

A New Perspective on Paul? Rereading Paul in a Time of Ecological Crisis

Contemporary contexts, crises, and moral values shape the interpretation of Paul, even in rigorously ‘historical’ scholarship, and the new perspective on Paul well illustrates this point. Our current ecological crisis provides a new and urgent context for interpretation, yet one that has scarcely yet registered on the agenda of recent Pauline studies. Beginning with the obvious eco-texts (Rom. 8.19-23; Col. 1.15-20), but insisting on the need to move beyond these, this essay explores the potential for a broader ecological engagement with Paul, arguing that Paul offers resources for an ecological theology and ethics at the heart of which stands the vision of God’s incorporative transformation of the whole creation in Christ and the associated imperative to embody that transformation in human action shaped by the paradigm of Christ’s self-giving for others.

Trinitarian Cosmology in God’s Liberating Movement: Exploring some Signature Tunes in the Opera of Ecologic Salvation

Reflections about liberation are embedded in contexts of suffering, both among human and other creatures. Opposite to the cynical postmodern who regards and dismantles every postulate about liberation as an ideological attempt to rule over others, salvation matters because there are those who are in the need of it. The essay presents, to begin with, two conceptual tools—the three-step-scheme of soteriology, and Gustaf Aulen’s view of salvation as a drama. These flow into an exploration of the classical Eastern Trinitarian view of creation’s liberation and a discussion about what this means for a contemporary ecumenical approach to an ecological theology of liberation in late modernity. Trinitarian soteriology understands the space of creation within time from the perspective of a movement from the old to the new creation. The drama of salvation takes place as a transfigurating drama of space and place and also of and within time. An ecologic re-reading of Gregory of Nazianz helps us to understand the liberation of creation such that nature, instead of moving from itself toward God, moves together with God in the Spirit toward its consummation in time. In Trinitarian terms: the triune God— Spirit, Son, and Father—moves in qualitatively different but integrated and complementary ways in, through , and with creation. An ecological pneumatology of liberation thus focuses on God’s movement within creation as expressed in the formula In the Spirit through the Son to the Father at the place where creatures are set free . Through the lens of soteriology the synergy of God and his/her creation appears as a plastic process in space and time, which involves space and time in itself as a subject of the Spirit’s versatile synergy in order to set Creation free.

Teaching &amp; Learning Guide for: Religious Environmentalism in the West

Teaching &amp; Learning Guide for: Religious Environmentalism in the West

Orthodox ecological theology: Bartholomew I and Orthodox contributions to the ecological debate

This article presents the potential of the Orthodox tradition to contribute to the contemporary conversation about how Christianity might respond to the environmental crisis. It especially examines the prominent ecological vision of the ‘green’ Patriarch Bartholomew I, supplementing it with the arguments of other Orthodox authors. It argues that Orthodox theological contributions to the ecological debate stress four different dimensions, evident not only in Bartholomew's writings and speeches, but also characterising most other Orthodox writings on this topic. While they initially seem to focus primarily on the importance of concrete ethical action (1), they also include more explicit theological reflections. Ethical action, for Orthodox thinking, flows out of (2) an ascetic attitude to the world. Such an attitude itself is grounded in a (3) eucharistic and thus ultimately a (4) liturgical ethos. Thus, Orthodox contributions to the current debate go beyond ‘environmental ethics’ to a fully fledged theological response.

A Love Stronger than Death: The Persistence of Saint Elisabeth in Western Europe

The 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Elisabeth, widely celebrated in Germany in 2007, occasioned numerous publications and generated broad interest across and outside denominations. Many of those books reveal how this saint’s cult has changed over time, and how Elisabeth has (been) adapted to the modern religious experience. In particular, Elisabeth’s charity toward the poor, while continuing to appeal to today’s believers, has also been reinterpreted to support an ecological theology resonating broadly in Germany and abroad. Today’s cult of St. Elisabeth, surprisingly vibrant but stripped of many historical and religious elements, proves the enduring adaptability of saints.

Nature as a Light of Transcendence: The Ecological Theology of S. McFague Based on the Incarnational Spirituality

Nature as a Light of Transcendence: The Ecological Theology of S. McFague Based on the Incarnational Spirituality

Is Humanity King to Creation? The Thought of Vladimir Solov'ev in the Light of Ecological Crisis

The Russian philosopher, poet and mystic Vladimir Solov'ev (1853-1900), the father of the sophiological movement in Russian thought, remains a little known figure in the West. This article considers Solov'ev’s credentials as an environmentalist before his time and develops a number of strands of his biblical theology from an ecological perspective. It goes on to explore his envisioning of the ‘kingship’ of humanity in God’s creation, which he understood as the ideal relationship between humanity and the world, and to unravel the complexities of his thought on the ‘coming’ of the Kingdom of God. The article suggests that Solov'ev has much to offer theologians and religious people in the articulation, and application, of an ecological theology of creation.

Espírito e Natureza na Teologia de Jürgen Moltmann

This article points out the importance and the chal­lenge that pneumatology and ecology have for the theology of Jurgen Moltmann. The goals here are to think of an ecological theology, to point out the cen­tral role of the Spirit and to propose a new herme­neutic axis.

An Environmental Mantra? Ecological Interest in Romans 8:19-23 and a Modest Proposal for its Narrative Interpretation

Romans 8:19-23 has become a favourite text for ecotheologians seeking biblical grounds for promoting a positive approach towards non-human creation. However, there has been little work that both engages with the passage in detail and critically considers its possible contribution to an ecological theology and ethics. This essay begins by tracing the development of ecological interest In this text, and then proposes a narrative analysis as a strategy by which the meaning and contribution of the text may fruitfully be explored. The various elements of the story of ktisis are then discussed. Finally, the essay offers some preliminary indications as to the ways in which this story might inform a contemporary theological response to the 'groaning' of creation. This entails an acknowledgment of the difficulties the text poses for an eco-ethical appropriation-its theocentric, aschatological, and cosmological presuppositions-as well as a consideration of its positive potential. It is inescapably anthropocentric but by no means 'anthropomonist'. As such, it can offer pointers towards the kind of ethical responsability that humans might bear in the eschatological phase of creation's redemption.

Ecology and Mary: An Ecological Theology of Mary as the New Eve in Response to the Church’s Challenge for a Faith-Based Education in Ecological Responsibility

The Church’s interpretation of the current ecological crisis as a moral crisis is the catalyst for this essay, which proposes a newly constructed faith-based model for ecological dialogue and education. The exploration and reinterpretation of the traditional Church doctrine of the Virgin Mary as the new Eve provides a theme from which an ecological theology of Mary is constructed. Papal and Episcopal statements that call for a moral concern and response to the growing urgency of the ecological crisis are discussed in order to promote awareness of the involvement of the Church’s leadership in the issue. Analyses and interpretations by scholars in the second century Church on the doctrine of Mary as the new Eve are presented and reinterpreted to create a viable model with the potential to nurture ecological awareness and responsibility in the contemporary Church. The construction of an ecological Marian theology is approached through review and analysis of the 1974 visionary pastoral letter of Pope Paul VI, Marialis Cultus (To Honor Mary), the writings of Catholic feminist theologian and Sister of St. Joseph Elizabeth Johnson, Catholic Ecuadorian-American theologian Jeanette Rodriguez, and those of other major feminist, womanist, and liberationist theologians.

Leonardo Boff's Ecological Theology and Christian Tradition

The growing recognition of humanity's pervasive destruction of the earth has not yet issued in significant reforms in practice or in the mindset that allows such destruction to continue. Theological interaction with ecological ideas has grown substantially in the last decade, but the degree of its impact on the practices of churches is still open to question. One means by which ecological sensitivity might be received Into the practices of churches is provided by contextual theologies, theologies able to articulate clearly the link between theological beliefs . and the life of church communities. Leonardo Boff, a leading Latin American theologian, has produced two books, as well as several articles and essays, on the relationship between ecology and theology in which he attempts to establish such a link between Christian beliefs about the world and the practices of churches. His method for establishing a dialogue between theology and ecology provides a helpful way to articulate the challenges that ecological destruction poses for churches and how those challenges can be a basis for transformative practices within churches. At the same time, his attempts to work out an ecological theology also reveal limitations in the use he makes of biblical thought and theological tradition for accomplishing this task. The primary task in this essay will be to explore the promise of his theological method for incorporating ecology into theological thought, as well as the limitations that result from his lack of nuance in the use of scriptural and theological traditions.

Christianity and Ecological Theology: Resources for Further Resources

Christianity and Ecological Theology: Resources for Further Resources

Evolving Environmentalism: The Role of Ecotheology in Creation/Evolution Controversies

AbstractThe impact on ecological theology of green and postmodern critiques of science has led to disturbing parallels between the work of some Christian environmentalists and process theologians on the one hand, and the arguments of Intelligent Design (ID) proponents on the other. At the heart of these critiques is a rejection of mechanistic science and "neo-Darwinism". Both ID proponents and ecotheologians critique the disenchanted and reductionist worldview assumed to be central to neo-Darwinism. Both groups also redefine the traditional boundaries of scientific naturalism, presenting a form of biology that shows matter to be active and valuable, rather than dead and inert. This paper examines these parallels and argues for the possibility of enchanted and theistic interpretations of modern Darwinism without redefining naturalism.

Lisa H. Sideris, Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology and Natural Selection

Lisa H. Sideris, Environmental Ethics, Ecological Theology and Natural Selection (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), pp. x + 311. $26.00, ISBN 0-2311-2661-1.