Ecotheology

Ernst Conradie

This article offers a broad overview of Christian ecotheology, a theological movement reflecting on Christian responses to ecological destruction. Any such an overview can hardly cover its spread in different geographical contexts, confessional traditions, theological schools, and languages. With these limitations in mind, this entry offers a first approximation of Christian ecotheology on the basis of the Greek roots oikos, theos, and logos, and identifies four core tasks (a dual critical and a dual constructive task) for any form of ecotheology. It then explores various prompts, precursors, and subsequent developments in global Christian ecotheology. The article lists a myriad of current discourses within ecotheology before identifying and outlining a number of ongoing contestations in the field. On this basis, some perspectives on current paths and emerging horizons in the field are offered.

Table of contents

• 1 Christian ecotheology: a first approximation

• 2 Prompts for the emergence of Christian ecotheology

• 3 Precursors and early exponents of Christian ecotheology

• 4 Ecotheology taking root across the globe

  • 4.1 Ecumenical theology

  • 4.2 Denominational perspectives

    • 4.2.1 Orthodox theologies

    • 4.2.2 Western Catholicism

    • 4.2.3 Anglican theologies

    • 4.2.4 Lutheran and Reformed theology

    • 4.2.5 Methodist theology

    • 4.2.6 Pentecostal theologies

  • 4.3 Regional perspectives

    • 4.3.1 Indigenous scholarship

    • 4.3.2 Africa

    • 4.3.3 India

    • 4.3.4 Nordic countries

    • 4.3.5 Pasifika

  • 4.4 Theological and other discourses

    • 4.4.1 Process theology

    • 4.4.2 Ecofeminist theology

    • 4.4.3 Minjung theology

    • 4.4.4 Latin American liberation theology

    • 4.4.5 North American Black theology

  • 4.5 Religion and ecology

• 5 A myriad of discourses in the fields of Christian ecotheology

• 6 Contestations within ecotheology

  • 6.1 On Western versus ‘Restern’ ecotheologies

  • 6.2 On sustainable development versus ‘radical’ critiques of capitalism

  • 6.3 On the green versus the brown agenda

  • 6.4 On apologetic versus revisionist approaches

  • 6.5 On the role of doctrine versus other theological subdisciplines

  • 6.6 On ‘Ecclesiology’ versus ‘Ethics’

  • 6.7 On a christological focus versus a Pneumatological width

  • 6.8 On longitudinal versus latitudinal emphases

  • 6.9 On contemporary science versus Indigenous worldviews

  • 6.10 On religion and ecology versus ecotheology

  • 6.11 On the identity and character of the theos in ecotheology

• 7 From current paths to emerging horizons in Christian ecotheology

1 Christian ecotheology: a first approximation

Although the roots of ‘ecotheology’ go much deeper, the term as such gained currency only in the 1990s. This was signalled by an important World Council of Churches volume entitled Ecotheology: Voices from South and North (1994), edited by David Hallman, and by the name change of the journal Theology in Green (1992–1996) to Ecotheology (1996–2006). The journal Ecotheology was then subsumed under the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture that started publishing in 2007, indicating another symbolic shift.

The abbreviated term ‘ecotheology’, instead of ‘ecological theology’, must be understood against the background of the term ‘ecojustice’. Ecojustice is used in ecumenical discourse to capture the need for a comprehensive sense of justice that can respond to economic injustice, ecological degradation, and the interplay between them. This term was coined by William Gibson and popularized by Dieter Hessel (see 1985: 12). It builds upon the recognition that the English words 'ecology', 'economy', and 'ecumenical' share the same etymological root in the Greek oikos (household). Accordingly, ecology describes the underlying logic (logos) of the household, economy circumscribes the rules (nomoi) for the management of the household, while the ‘whole inhabited world’ (oikoumene) refers to the (human) inhabitation of the household (see e.g. Rasmussen 1996). In ecclesial terms one may also speak of ‘ecodomy’ as the upbuilding of the household (see Müller-Fahrenholz 1995).

One may therefore say that ecotheology is the English translation of the Greek oikos and theos and logos. Indeed, the ‘whole household of God’ has become a dominant root metaphor in many strands of ecotheology, following the early contributions by general secretaries such as Philip Potter (see 2013) and Konrad Raiser (see 1991). It is now found in contexts as far apart as the Pacific islands, South Africa, and South Korea (see Tofaeono 2000; Ayre and Conradie 2016; and the critique by Zachariah 2021). It needs to be added that if the Earth is indeed the only ‘house’ for humans (as the metaphor suggests), it does not provide a sense of home for everyone yet, while the habitat of many other forms of life is being destroyed. This suggests the need for a distinction between a house and a home, a sense of belonging and an eschatological longing (see Conradie 2005); indeed between a house, a home, and a warm hearth (see Kanyoro and Njoroge 1996).

One may also find forms of ecotheology in other theistic traditions. It is therefore best to add the qualifier ‘Christian’ to speak of Christian ecotheology. As an aside one may note that the English term is sometimes spelled with a hyphen (eco-theology) and sometimes without the hyphen (ecotheology). There seems to be no linguistic reason other than familiarity to use or not to use the hyphen so that publishers adopt different style guides in this regard. Given the global spread of ecotheology it is suggested that the hyphen best be dropped.

Christian ecotheology is arguably characterized by a dual critique, namely both a Christian critique of ecological destruction and an ecological critique of Christian complicity in such destruction. The first critique tends to be dominant in prophetic forms of theology, discerning the signs of the time and a moment of truth (kairos). In multireligious and also multidisciplinary conversations it is the second critique that tends to dominate. One may say that the genius of ecotheology is to hold these two critiques together. Without a critique of Christianity, it can easily become an apologetic exercise that overlooks the need for a radical ecological reformation of Christianity and merely reiterates human responsibility towards the environment through notions of stewardship or priesthood. Without a Christian critique of ecological destruction, ecotheology loses its ability to offer any distinct contribution to wider debates. Ecotheology, then, becomes nothing more than one branch of ‘religion and ecology’ and cannot avoid the traps of self-secularization.

Recently, it has been argued that this dual critique is often complemented by a constructive contribution that is also of a dual nature, namely a constructive contribution to the common good (the global commons) and to Christian authenticity (see Conradie 2020b).

On the one hand Christians have to work with many others in addressing the full range of ecological challenges (see the argument in Conradie and Koster 2019). This has to be a multidisciplinary effort in which civil society is only one role player, alongside government, business and industry, trade unions, science and the like. Working with others implies having shared (penultimate) goals and shared agendas, even if the ultimate vision may remain distinct. However, at some point the question will emerge whether Christians have a specific contribution to offer. Some would suggest that the most significant contribution would be for Christianity to get its own house in order (following White 1967), given the deep ecumenical divides between those concerned with, for example climate justice and climate denialism that thrives in some Christian sectors.

The need for nothing short of an ongoing ecological reformation of the entire Christian tradition from within suggests a second constructive task for Christian ecotheology, namely to contribute to Christian authenticity. It would not do to merely apply external criteria to Christianity without doing justice to the core of the Christian gospel. Arguably, the constructive task in society can only come to fruition if it is indeed based on the ongoing renewal of Christianity from within and on the basis of a retrieval of its own core beliefs. This entails multiple tasks such as re-reading the Bible, revisiting the history of the Christian tradition, exploring its deepest convictions, symbols, moral visions, and forms of praxis (including liturgy, preaching, pastoral care, ministry, and missions). A core aspect of this fourth task is to reflect on the identity and character of God in order to address the question of what this (Triune) God may be doing in a time of unprecedented ecological destruction (see Conradie and Lai 2021). Clearly, all the traditional subdisciplines of Christian theology are involved in these critical and constructive tasks.

2 Prompts for the emergence of Christian ecotheology

In the Western academy, Christian ecotheology arguably emerged as an ecumenical scholarly discourse in 1970. This is marked by Frederick Elder’s Crisis in Eden, Hugh Montefiore’s Can Man Survive?, Paul Santmire’s Brother Earth and Joseph Sittler’s The Ecology of Faith, all published in that year. This was soon followed by John Cobb’s Is it Too Late? (1972), Francis Schaeffer’s Pollution and the Death of Man (1972), and Sittler’s Essays on Nature and Grace (also in 1972). Notably, each of these early books was written in English and mostly by American men. This would change significantly in decades to come.

One may identify various secular prompts, theological precursors, and subsequent developments in the emergence of Christian ecotheology. Reconstructing the secular prompts may be facile, while the precursors are contested and the subsequent developments by now virtually impossible to survey.

One obvious prompt was the devastation wreaked by the nuclear bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 8 August 1945, subsequent nuclear tests, the nuclear arms race, and the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962. The threat of a nuclear winter will remain as long as humans know how to make such bombs. A second prompt is the recognition of the impact of chemical pollution following Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, first published in September 1962. A perhaps less obvious prompt may be associated with the messy process of decolonization after 1945 – in India and the East Indies, throughout Africa, and around the world. The extraction and control over natural resources and the impact of such extraction remain contested ever since. In close proximity to 1970 one may mention the UN Conference on the Environment held in Stockholm in June 1972, the Limits to Growth Report to the Club of Rome (1972), and the oil crisis of 1973. In hindsight one may also mention the early work of climate scientists, symbolized by Charles Keeling’s work at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii since 1958.

A more direct prompt for ecotheology was the (in)famous essay by the American historian (and Presbyterian layperson) Lynn White on ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’ (1967), in which he traced such roots with the medieval influence of the Jewish-Christian tradition. White maintains that ‘Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen’ and concludes that ‘Christianity bears a huge burden of guilt’ (1967: 1205, 1207). In a similar critique of Christianity, German scholar Carl Amery (1971) describes the ‘gnadenlose Folgen des Christentums’ (merciless consequences of Christianity). He highlights the impact of the history of interpretation of biblical motifs, such as humanity being created in the image of God, the command to have dominion over the earth, the notion of original sin and the history of human salvation. Likewise, the Australian Roderick Nash (1989: 91) contends that Christianity’s anthropocentrism, dualism, otherworldliness and hierarchical worldview lie at the root of the environmental crisis and leaves nature as ‘other’ and thus fully exposed to human greed. The Californian philosopher John Passmore (1980: 12) complains that ‘Christianity has encouraged man to think of himself as nature’s absolute master, for whom everything that exists was designed’. One may argue that, at least in the Western academy, the early flourishing of ecotheology may be regarded as diverging responses to such critiques. Some offered an apology for Christianity (arguing that ‘God is green’), while others apologized on behalf of Christianity for the ecological destruction it has wreaked.

However, the prompts for the emergence of ecotheology go much deeper in Western history. White’s thesis may be regarded as an ecological reformulation of Max Weber’s even more famous and contested thesis on the influence of the spirit of Calvinism on the rise of capitalism. The critique of Christianity reveals an uneasy relationship between Christianity and modernity. Modernity may itself be understood as a critique of Christianity even though it emerged precisely within the context of Christendom. If Christianity did not always embrace the rise of modernity, at least Western Christianity found itself in collusion with four interrelated pillars of modernity.

The first pillar is the voyages of exploration and exploitation, partially based on Eurocentrism, white supremacy, and the slave trade. Such voyages enabled successive waves of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, French, British, Belgian, and German colonialism, followed by neo-colonial quests for American, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese supremacy. The second pillar is the intellectual movements associated with the Renaissance, the European reformations, the rise of empirical science from Galileo onwards, Cartesian rationalism, German idealism, and attempts to come to terms with positivism. The third pillar is the political movements associated especially with the French and American revolutions, the rise of democracy, the abolition of slavery, voting rights for women and other excluded groups, the emphasis on human dignity and subsequently on human rights and human responsibilities.

The fourth pillar is the industrial revolution based on technological innovation, extended from Germany and Britain to Silicon Valley and sweatshops in Asia with at least four phases that are widely recognized in the literature. The industrial revolution itself became deeply intertwined with the rise of various forms of capitalism that spurred on the process of industrialization through the mantra of sustained economic growth. Indeed, ecological impact may be closely associated with the rise of industrialized capitalism (including the correctives of industrialized socialism). Despite shifts in the global economy from a focus on agriculture to mining and industry and then to services and the knowledge industry, there has been no actual decrease in such biophysical throughput (through dematerialization), or in the use of energy. A report from the Global Carbon Project indicates that the carbon emissions for 2022 will be the highest recorded as yet, surpassing the pre-Covid-19 peak of 2019 (see https://www.globalcarbonproject.org). Environmental impact can be closely correlated with such biophysical throughput and the use of fossilized energy.

Globally, ecotheology may undoubtedly be understood as a response to modernity, more specifically to modernity’s long-term environmental impact and Christian complicity in the systems and mechanisms of modernity. Put differently, the root causes of ecological destruction can be located squarely in modernity itself, prompting critiques of capitalism, feminist critiques, and more recently postcolonial and decolonial critiques.

Ecotheology could therefore be said to be ‘antimodern’ in the sense of being a resistance movement against modernity. However, that would underestimate the lasting legacy of modernity, and the ways in which the intellectual and technological tools of modernity are employed in ecotheology. It would also not suffice to suggest that ecotheology is postmodern – at least insofar as the ecological impact of late modernity remains undeniable. Some forms of ecotheology may be premodern by retrieving the ecological wisdom from early Christian traditions or indigenous ecological wisdom, but none can escape the impact of globalized threats associated with climate change, ocean acidification, the rapid loss of biodiversity, the emergence of zoonotic diseases (of which Covid-19 is but one), or ozone depletion. One may also identify ‘submodern’ forms of ecotheology, referring to the subdued and subjugated victims of modernity, including other forms of life, and the articulation of such concerns, for example in subaltern movements (Moltmann 1999: 11). In one way or another, ecotheology therefore cannot be separated from the legacy of modernity. One may also argue that a focus on ecotheology under conditions of modernity may be regarded as an appropriate form of contextual theology within the Global North, namely to challenge such impact of modernity from within – without assumptions of the universal validity of such theological reflections.

3 Precursors and early exponents of Christian ecotheology

One may identify some ecological sensitivities and wisdom in the biblical roots and subsequent history of the Christian tradition long before ecotheology emerged as a scholarly discipline. Although an ecological biblical hermeneutics is discussed in the literature only in the last three decades or so, the biblical texts are of course much older. The ecological wisdom embedded in premodern examples such as the desert fathers and mothers, apophatic forms of spirituality, Benedictine monasteries, Celtic Christianity, Franciscan spirituality, medieval mystics, including notable female mystics, the Protestant and Catholic reformations, the agrarian rootedness of Anabaptists, Puritans and Amish – and many more – are retrieved and widely discussed in Christian literature.

The precursors and early exponents of ecotheology are more difficult to reconstruct and may be readily contested. The Finnish theologian Panu Pihkala (2017) has written extensively on ‘early ecotheology’. His focus is on British and American exponents with specific reference to the American Lutheran scholar Joseph Sittler and the influences on him from the social gospel movement, process theology, the Life and Work conference in Oxford (1937), and the retrieval of a theology of nature in the work of, for example, William Temple and Paul Tillich. Sittler is undoubtedly a significant exponent of early ecotheology (see Bakken and Bouma-Prediger 2000), especially given his retrieval of the cosmic Christ in his keynote speech ‘Called to Unity’ at the New Delhi Assembly of the World Council of Churches (1961; see Sittler 1962). Yet, such a one-sided focus on him can create a Western stereotype that would fail to recognize why ecotheology has become a global theological movement.

In two volumes both entitled Creation and Salvation a large group of scholars from six continents associated with the Christian Faith and the Earth project explored A Mosaic of Selected Classic Christian Theologies (Conradie 2011b) and then offered A Companion on Recent Theological Movements (Conradie 2012). The latter volume included chapters on ‘Eastern Christian thought’, ‘Roman Catholic theologies’, ‘North Atlantic Lutheran theologies’, ‘West-European Reformed theologies’, ‘Nordic theologies’, ‘Science and Theology discourse’, ‘Process and relational theisms’, ‘Western Ecofeminist theologies’, ‘North American perspectives from the margins’, ‘Latin American theologies’, ‘African theological perspectives’, ‘Asian theological perspectives’, ‘Oceanic readings’, and ‘Global ecumenical theology’. The short essays on individual theologians and theological movements cover a wide array of early precursors from around the world, well before 1970.

In a recent essay George Zachariah (2021) observed that this does not provide a full picture yet. He notes that Indian theologians and lay economists such as M. M. Thomas, Paulose Mar Gregorios, S. L. Parmar, J. C. Kumarappa and C. T. Kurien were instrumental in initiating an ecumenical engagement with economics, development, technology, and sustainability in the 1960s and 1970s.

This does suggest the need to recognize four factors in reconstructing subsequent developments in ecotheology. The first is to recognize the role of theological developments from the margins of former colonial powers in order to gain anything coming even close to a global perspective. This requires attention to geographic context, the full spectrum of confessional traditions, cultures, and languages.

The second is to recognize the role of the laity and forms of a Christian ethos, praxis, and spirituality from which any second-order theological reflection necessarily stems. Indeed, in theological reflection on ecological concerns the laity have often and appropriately taken the lead. This requires an emphasis on ‘doing theology’ as a form of praxis, i.e. ongoing critical reflection on the Christian faith as embedded in Christian praxis. It may be added that the term ‘doing theology’ deliberately and explicitly includes the theological reflection of the laity. It also includes whatever is taught in sermons, Christian education, pastoral care, and counselling, and so forth, and the popular literature that may be produced in the process. It does not exclude formal theological education or the scholarly production of research in the field of ecotheology, but this is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Even so, ecotheology is often reduced to scholarly output – which may well be understood as ‘producing’ theology, rather than ‘teaching’, ‘studying’, or ‘doing’ theology.

The third is to widen the lens of themes that are recognized as relevant for ecotheology. It simply cannot be reduced to the doctrine of creation, understanding the relationship between the (now outmoded) ‘man and nature’, or an environmental ethics. It has to cover the full spectrum of Christian doctrine and the full range of theological subdisciplines.

A fourth factor is the dominance of the English language in ecotheology. English is opted for as the preferred medium of communication not only in the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia but also by many scholars from elsewhere in Europe, Africa and India. Moreover, the other languages in which ecotheology is regularly published cannot be disassociated from the legacy of colonialism, including Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Either way, some vigilance is clearly required for any attempt to offer an overview of the emergence and flourishing of contemporary Christian ecotheology (see especially Deane-Drummond 2017; also Conradie 2006).

4 Ecotheology taking root across the globe

Given the dominance of the Western academy, limitations of language, geographical context, and ecumenical contacts, it is far from easy to do justice to the flourishing of ecotheology since the early 1970s. In a recent and as yet unpublished editors’ introduction entitled ‘Telling the Story en route: On this Road (hodos) and its Logic (logos)’, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda and Ernst Conradie focused on the early exponents in various schools of theology and parts of the world. This article draws on that overview here.

5 A myriad of discourses in the fields of Christian ecotheology

Even though the term ecotheology is widely used, there is little or no consensus on what doing ecotheology entails or what could be included or excluded under ‘ecotheology’ as an umbrella term. This is shaped by a variety of geographical contexts, languages of communication, confessional traditions, theological schools, subdisciplines, conversation partners, and so forth. As such, it is helpful to list some of the rubrics on which contributions to ecotheology tend to focus.

Consider the following rubrics, in randomized order, each with a vast literature from around the world, considerable internal contestation and partial overlaps with other such discourses. References could easily be multiplied. In each case, only a few significant references were therefore selected for the sake of illustration and to provoke readers to find other examples.

• Christian discourse on environmental stewardship (see Berry 2006), earthkeeping (see Conradie 2011a), or ‘creation care’ (e.g. McDonagh 1986), typically with reference to nature conservation, wilderness preservation, the loss of biodiversity and with attention to greening the church or forming eco-congregations, also on Christian mission (see Keum 2013; DeWitt and Prance 1992), seeing creation as being at the heart of God’s mission (Conradie 2010) and therefore also the missions of the church;
• Christian discourse on climate change mitigation and adaptation and associated issues around climate debt, climate justice, climate racism, technology transfer and the threats of geo-engineering (e.g. Clingerman and O’Brien 2016), and weather patterns (Bergmann 2020; Chitando and Conradie 2017; see also numerous WCC publications as well as Chitando, Conradie, and Kilonzo 2022; Conradie and Koster 2019; Kim 2016; Keller 2021; Northcott 2007; 2013; Northcott and Scott 2014);
• Christian discourse on a ‘Season of Creation’ (with internet based material from around the world), greening the liturgy and preaching (Hessel 1985), seeking appropriate rituals amid environmental disasters, seeing pastoral care as ecotherapy (Clinebell 1996);
• Christian discourse on the rights of Indigenous peoples (e.g. Weaver 1996), the rights of future generations and the rights of nature/Mother Nature (see Vischer 1990);
• Christian discourse on ecotheology as a form of political theology, situating nature within contestations over the political economy (see Keller 2021; Northcott 2013; Scharper 1997; Scott 2003);
• Christian discourse on ‘animal theology’ (Linzey 1995) and human relationships with other animals, e.g. regarding multiple issues around animal wellbeing, animal liberation and animal rights amid the impact of industrialized agriculture (e.g. Clough 2012; 2019; Deane-Drummond 2020; Janowski and Riede 1999; Liedke 1985);
• Christian discourse on embodiment, the bodily senses, sensuality and intimacy, typically with reference to issues of gender, sexual orientation, reproductive health and family life and the multiple ways in which issues of gender intersect with food, agriculture and the home economy (Bauman 2018; Kaoma 2013; Moyo 2011; Spencer 1996), also leading to a wealth of theoretical literature on ecofeminism and ecofeminist theology in particular;
• Christian discourse on an ecological biblical hermeneutics retrieving the biblical texts (with both a hermeneutics of suspicion and trust) amid vast ecological challenges (see especially the five volumes of the Earth Bible series as well as the subsequent Earth Bible commentary series under the leadership of Norman Habel, e.g. Habel 2000; also Horrell et al. 2010);
• Christian discourse on the environmental dimension of racism and the racial dimension of environmental issues, for example with reference to toxic waste management and the disproportionate impact of climate change on people of colour around the world, often coupled with a critique of white supremacy, class and caste differentiation, and of the lasting impact of colonialism (e.g. Cone 2001; Mendoza and Zachariah 2021; Moe-Lobeda 2013);
• Christian discourse on cosmology, the epic of cosmic, biological and human evolution, and the ecological moral of the story of the universe (e.g. Berry 1988; Berry and Swimme 1992; Swimme and Tucker 2011);
• Christian discourse addressing macro-economic concerns over poverty, unemployment and inequality, and multiple linkages between globalization, economic injustices, and ecological destruction (e.g. Diakonia Council of Churches 2006; Grau 2004; Moe-Lobeda 2003; Mshana 2012; Nürnberger 1999; Peralta and Mshana 2016; Rieger 2009; World Council of Churches 2005);
• Christian discourse on the multiple linkages between ecological degradation, violent conflict, the need for reconciliation, the role of peace, peace-making, peacebuilding and peacekeeping and the quest for a participatory (democratic) society (see numerous publications on the Conciliar Process towards Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation; also Douglas 2019).
• Christian discourse on food and eating (Ayres 2013; Carter 2021; Grumett and Muers 2012; Wirzba 2011), sustenance, food security, sustainable livelihoods (De Gruchy 2015), sustainable agriculture, an agrarian lifestyle and spirituality (see Wirzba 2003; 2015), the plight of farmed animals, the use of biotechnology and genetic engineering in farming;
• Christian discourse on moral theories and moral traditions (e.g. Rasmussen 2013) from around the world, the interpretation of moral codes, ecological virtues (e.g. Bouma-Prediger 2019; Nash 1991) and the full spectrum of moral categories such as justice, peace and sustainability (e.g. Jenkins 2013; Martin-Schramm and Stivers 2003; Scott 2003), typically in conversation with (Western) moral philosophy;
• Christian discourse on a wide range of classic and emerging forms of spirituality: Aboriginal, African, Anglican, animist (Wallace 2019), Celtic, ecofeminist, evangelical, Franciscan, Ignatian, Indigenous, Lutheran, Mennonite (Redekop 2000), New Age, Pentecostal, Quaker, Reformed, Wesleyan, etc.
• Christian participation in multireligious and multidisciplinary dialogue on each of the above.
• Christian discourse on the critique of and reinterpretation of classic symbols, doctrines, and the full range of aspects of the Christian faith – including themes such as creation, and humanity, but also sin, providence, election, covenant, salvation, church, the sacraments, eschatology and the Triune God as Father/Mother, Son/Wisdom/Sophia, and Spirit.

Some elaboration may be warranted on this rubric since the volume of literature in this category is truly overwhelming, and hard to capture across confessional traditions and geographical contexts. An Australian volume of essays entitled Earth Revealing – Earth Healing (see Edwards 2001) accompanied the Earth Bible project and marks an early emphasis on the full spectrum of doctrinal loci. The project on Christian Faith and the Earth (see Edwards 2014) brought many perspectives together, as will the envisaged series on An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the Anthropocene (starting with Conradie and Lai 2021). Earlier contributions tended to focus on an adequate creation theology and identified the relationship between human beings and nature (better revised to read: the place of humanity in the earth community) as the heart of the matter (e.g. contributions by James Gustafson, Sallie McFague, Jürgen Moltmann, and Paul Santmire).

Understandably, the sense of environmental crisis also elicited interest in eschatology, with notable contributions by Sigurd Bergmann, Ernst Conradie, John Haught, Catherine Keller, Anne Primavesi, Rosemary Ruether, Stefan Skrimshire and others. The tension between creation, salvation and consummation therefore elicits considerable interest (see the volumes edited by Conradie 2011b; 2012; also Conradie 2013b; 2015).

As ecotheology matured as a field it became doctrinally comprehensive, covering all aspects of the Christian faith – as is evident in the oeuvres of scholars such as Sigurd Bergmann, Leonardo Boff, Steven Bouma-Prediger, David Glough, Ernst Conradie, Celia Deane-Drummond, Denis Edwards, Ivone Gebara, Elizabeth Johnson, Catherine Keller, Sallie McFague, James Nash, Michael Northcott, Rosemary Ruether, Peter Scott, Christopher Southgate, Mark Wallace, and Norman Wirzba, to name a few mainly Western scholars. Profiling such contributions inevitably distorts the picture given the use of English as medium for publication and predominantly Western conversation partners. Such a Western orientation will undoubtedly change with the shift in the centre of gravity in global Christianity southwards and eastwards. Holding the various aspects of the Christian faith together with a Trinitarian intuition will become increasingly more challenging.

Given this diverging array of ecotheologies, it comes as no surprise that there are several attempts – typically by Western scholars – to identify models of doing ecotheology. One may mention the typologies offered by Sigurd Bergmann, Ernst Conradie, Celia Deane-Drummond, Heather Eaton, James Gustafson, John Haught, Michael Northcott, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Paul Santmire, Peter Scott, and many more. The line of demarcation of each typology is different so that one may even be tempted to explore a typology of typologies (for a critical survey of such typologies see Conradie 2011a).

6 Contestations within ecotheology

It may be helpful to discern and circumscribe some of the contestations within contemporary ecotheology. This is not to deny some overwhelming consensus that have emerged over the last five decades. Such consensus arguably includes the following: (1) prophetic resistance against ecological destruction; (2) a commitment to diagnose the economic, cultural, intellectual, and religious roots of the problem (on Christian sin-talk as a form of social diagnostics, see Conradie 2017; 2020a), (3) a willingness to engage in a response to the critique of Christianity in this regard; (4) concern over consumerist lifestyles in church and in society, not only in highly industrialized countries; (5) a critique of the prosperity gospel; (6) resistance against any escapist eschatology that relativises the importance of this earthly life by longing for a heavenly hereafter; (7) an emphasis on the ecological significance of God’s immanence (see McFague 1993), especially through the incarnation of Christ and the inhabitation of the Spirit; (8) a critique of understanding the place of humanity in God’s creation in terms of domination; (9) an emphasis on the responsibility of the church to care for creation, to include ecological concerns in the churches’ understanding of mission; and (10) a recognition that an ecological theology needs to be coupled with an ecological praxis, ethos and spirituality.

Nevertheless, there is little or no consensus on what doing ecotheology entails. Ecotheology is characterized by global divides – along confessional lines, between the North and the South, the West and the East, between academics and church practitioners, the clergy and the laity, on nature conservation versus ecojustice, on issues of gender and sexual orientation and, especially, by reference to contemporary science (especially in the Global North) and/or traditional, indigenous wisdom (widespread in the Global South). Worldviews clearly play an important role, although this category is itself contested and open to confusion (see Conradie 2014).

Another crucial factor, prompting both a rich plurality of voices and considerable confusion, is the role of interlocutors and implied readers. These are found in the academy (with the full range of disciplines), the church (the laity or church leaders and decision making bodies), and various sectors of society (including politics, agriculture, business and industry, jurisprudence, the media and activist movements in civil society). Often particular discourses in ecotheology remain isolated from others in ‘special interest’ lobby groups characterized by the divides mentioned above.

In this section, a series of partially overlapping dualities that lead to tensions that are not necessarily creative will be identified. In some cases, fruitless binaries can be avoided – but how to do that is not always clear.

7 From current paths to emerging horizons in Christian ecotheology

The phrases ‘current paths’ and ‘emerging horizons’ were used in the subtitle of a volume on Christian Faith and the Earth that concluded an international project that focused on the contribution of systematic theology to ecotheology (see Conradie et al. 2014). However, ecotheology of course also touches on all the other traditional subdisciplines of Christian theology, on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary attempts to overcome narrow specialization, on comparative theology in conversation with other religious traditions and on multidisciplinary discourse on specific ecological challenges. It would, therefore, be presumptuous and probably vacuous to identify such current paths and emerging horizons. A few personal impressions will therefore have to suffice here.

A first impression is that ecotheology is becoming increasingly fluid precisely due to its spread across confessional traditions, geographical contexts, and theological schools. As a result, it can easily become insular again with so many scholars, topics, and approaches that one cannot maintain a conversation with all others. Moreover, an ecological awareness is now found as a transversal in most forms of theological reflection so that it is hard to demarcate what counts as ecotheology and what not. The same would apply to transversals around race, class, and gender and so forth. This tendency towards increasing diversity cannot be avoided and may even be a sign of its impact, but it does leave any attempt to offer an overview (as the one that is offered here) in danger of creating hegemony.

A second impression is that, precisely given this diversifying tendency, global ecumenical dialogue across the divides mentioned above remains vital but it is much harder than is often assumed. That applies especially to North-South and East-West dialogues where issues of language, worldviews, manifestations of religious plurality, and socio-economic power inhibit respectful but also mutually critical conversation. This is my experience in working on multiple edited volumes in the field given the impact of the language of communication, publishers, countries of origin, current location, and dominant conversation partners. How a project is conceptualized, who is to be invited, and within what institutional framework that is done is always tricky.

Even where there is North-South dialogue, it is often between like-minded scholars who agree to collaborate so that the harder conversations do not actually take place. For example, ecumenical critics of Bretton Woods institutions and representatives from such institutions rarely share the same platform. The same applies to tensions between pro-life and pro-choice lobbyists, between creationists and proponents of the epic of evolution, between climate denialists and climate change activists who all profess to share the same Christian faith. Within ecotheology itself, it is often the case that evangelical proponents of responsible stewardship in the consumer classes or Orthodox proponents of priesthood, for example, seldom talk to climate change activists in subaltern movements. There are diverging positions on how to address religious plurality theologically but these are seldom addressed. The edited volumes by Ruether (1997), Kim and Koster (2017) and Dube (2021), gathering together women’s voices from around the world, are exemplary in this regard.

A third impression is that confessional divides are often underplayed or trivialized for the sake of ecumenical collaboration. The same applies sometimes to religious divides. That is hardly helpful as different theological assumptions typically re-emerge and are then harder to address than if they were acknowledged upfront. The classic theological debates on nature and grace, general revelation and special revelation, natural theology or a theology of nature, creation and redemption, orthodox or liberal, Thomists or Scotists, a focus on Christ or on the Spirit, diverging views on the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper and infant or adult baptism, episcopal versus presbyterian church structures, and so on and so forth, are never fully left behind because the real differences do come to the fore through sustained conversations.

Such divides do not necessarily inhibit global ecotheology. In fact, it may be precisely an encounter of such differences that energises further reflection. The danger, though, is that when times get rough churches and individual theologians would give preference to purely local concerns without addressing issues that are indeed of global concern. That would deflate the core intuition of ecotheology, namely that there are indeed concerns that have to be addressed by the whole household of God.

Attributions

Copyright Ernst Conradie  (CC BY-NC)

This article draws on the overview of the early exponents of ecotheology and the myriad of discourses in the fields of Christian ecotheology offered by Ernst Conradie and Cynthia Moe-Lobeda in an editors' introduction entitled 'Telling the Story en route: On this Road (hodos) and its Logic (logos)' in the volume How Would We Know what God is up to? (Durbanville: Aosis/Eugene: Cascade, forthcoming).

Bibliography

• Further reading

  • Andrianos, Louk, Michael Biehl, Ruth Gütter, Jochen Motte, Andar Parlindungan, Thomas Sandner, Juliane Stork, and Dietrich Werner (eds). 2019. Kairos for Creation: Confessing Hope for the Earth. Solingen: Foedus-Verlag.
  • Boff, Leonardo. 1997. Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. Maryknoll: Orbis.
  • Conradie, Ernst M., and Hilda P. Koster (eds). 2019. The T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change. London: T&T Clark.
  • Conradie, Ernst M., Sigurd Bergmann, Celia Deane-Drummond, and Denis Edwards (eds). 2014. Christian Faith and the Earth: Current Paths and Emerging Horizons in Ecotheology. London: T&T Clark.
  • Deane-Drummond, Celia E. 2017. A Primer in Ecotheology: Theology for a Fragile Earth. Eugene: Cascade.
  • Edwards, Denis. 2006. Ecology at the Heart of Faith. Maryknoll: Orbis.
  • Gebara, Ivone. 1999. Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis: Fortress.
  • Mendoza, S. Lily, and George Zachariah (eds). 2021. Decolonizing Ecotheology: Indigenous and Subaltern Challenges. Eugene: Wipf & Stock.
  • Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia D. 2013. Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  • Rasmussen, Larry. 2013. Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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