Eco-Reformation

Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril

Dahill, Martin-Schramm

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498225472
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In 2017 Christians around the world will mark the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. In the midst of many appeals for reformation today, a growing number of theologians, scholars, and activists around the world believe Reformation celebrations in 2017 and beyond need to focus now on the urgent need for an Eco-Reformation. The rise of industrial, fossil fuel-driven capitalism and the explosive growth in human population endanger the fundamental planetary life-support systems on which life as we know it has evolved. The collective impact of human production, consumption, and reproduction is undermining the ecological systems that support human life on Earth. If human beings do not reform their relationship with God's creation, unspeakable suffering will befall many--especially the weakest and most vulnerable among all species.The conviction at the heart of this collection of essays is that a gospel call for ecological justice belongs at the heart of the five hundredth anniversary observance of the Reformation in 2017 and as a--if not the--central dimension of Christian conversion, faith, and practice into the foreseeable future. Like Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, this volume brings together critical biblical, pastoral, theological, historical, and ethical perspectives that constructively advance the vision of a socially and ecologically flourishing Earth.

1

A Theology of Creation

Foundations for an Eco-Reformation

—David M. Rhoads

An Eco-Reformation Proposal

Lutherans have always considered “perpetual reformation” to be an important dimension of our ecclesial tradition.1 It has been one of our great strengths that we have been able to re-form ourselves in times of great challenges through the centuries. The ongoing reformation we need now is something quite radical. We are facing unprecedented changes in our life on Earth. To address the ecological crises, a foundational transformation of the church needs to take place. Two decades ago, the ELCA social statement, “Caring for Creation,” issued a warning for the church to respond to the looming ecological crises and the social justice issues related to them. Now it is time to meet the challenges presented by that document.2 This is a clarion call for a new re-formation—an Eco-Reformation.

The Ecozoic Age and the Great Work of Our Time

In the first Reformation, the critical issue of the time was human salvation. Today, the critical issue of our time is the fate of the planet, including humankind. The list of crises we are facing as a planet is long and substantive. Global climate change is the most threatening, already resulting in unpredictable weather patterns, an increase in frequency and intensity of storms, drought, rampant wildfires, shifting agricultural conditions, and the rise of sea levels. In addition, we are experiencing the rapid destruction of rain forests, the loss of arable land to desert, deterioration in air quality, and the pollution of freshwater sources and oceans. All of these are causing an alarming loss of the species diversity that is so critical for adaptation and survival. In addition, human population growth along with the lifestyle demands of first world societies is putting stress on every eco-system. All of these are interrelated. And all of them are having horrific impacts on human life, particularly the most vulnerable people and societies.

Thomas Berry has said humanity is entering an Ecozoic Age—an Earth age in which ecological issues will dominate our society and our global life together. He argued that creating a sustainable life on the planet is the great work of our time.3 It is a work in which all people and institutions can and must participate. It will involve systemic changes in our shared assumptions, in our laws and policies, and in our commitments to the common good. It will also involve transformations in our personal lifestyles, priorities, and daily habits. The environment is not a fad, not one more issue alongside others, not just for those who happen to be interested in this cause. Earth is our common home. The crises impact all living things. The great work involves everyone and all societies.

The Transformation of Society

In response to this situation, societies need to act now at national and global levels to address the challenges posed by these environmental crises. We desperately need a rapid transition to clean and renewable energy as well as massive reforestation projects with the replanting of native species everywhere. We will benefit from limitations on the use of pesticides and herbicides, prohibitions against clear-cutting of forests and strip-mining of land, protections of our parks and nature preserves from commercial development, and the preservation of wetlands and wilderness. We will need to become much more efficient and conservative in our use of energy and water. We will need to eat less meat and more local foods. The development and sharing of new technologies is certainly high on the order of importance. In other words, we need to rethink fundamentally how we manage the land and use the resources of nature. In so doing, we need an economic system that settles in and sustains life for everyone instead of an economy that depends on the fantasy of unlimited resources and unlimited growth.

Whether or not governments and corporations are making systemic changes, we as individuals, organizations, and local communities must begin to address these issues now on a voluntary and unilateral basis. Many actions and changes are already taking place, but we need a pervasive grassroots groundswell of action.

The institutions of the church can take leadership in these societal changes. In order to do that, the church will need to go through its own transformation. As humans, as Christians, as Lutherans, we need to rise to this great work and embrace personal and systemic changes for the sake of all Earth community—and for the sake of the God we confess to be the creator, redeemer, and preserver of Earth and the whole universe.

The Eco-Reformation of the Church

The ecclesiastical transformation we need must be radical and comprehensive. Care-for-creation activities, programs, and advocacy are happening in many Lutheran congregations and institutions. However, these actions are often isolated and sporadic. We need a comprehensive and systemic approach featuring collective and collaborative actions that will infuse creation-care and love of creation into our marrow.

All church organizations—denominational leadership, congregational life and mission, synods, educational institutions, social ministry organizations, camps, and individual members—need to be involved if we are to care for creation and contribute to our survival as a species. Lutherans have the traditions and the organizations needed to bring us into this new reformation dedicated to a sustainable world.4 And in order to have the greatest impact, we will continue to learn from and collaborate with other denominations and religions.

The Sixteenth-Century Reformation

What might a Lutheran Eco-Reformation look like? And how might it be similar to and different from the first Reformation? A Methodist historian, Phillip Watson, identified the sixteenth century Reformation as a “Copernican Revolution” in religion. Just as the perspective of the cosmos shifted dramatically from being Earth-centered to being sun-centered, so also the first Reformation shifted the conception of salvation from being human-centered to being God-centered, from human efforts as the source of salvation to God’s actions of grace through Christ.5

This was a shift in basic perception that changed everything in relation to the dominant views and practices of the time. Lutheran churches embraced a theological image of God as a God who justifies people freely by grace. People were liberated from the bondage of needing to please God with religious actions and good works in order to be acceptable. They saw ethics as a grateful response to grace that is characterized as a vocation to love the neighbor, especially the poor and the hungry. They focused on a servant theology of the cross rather than a triumphalist theology of glory. They read the Bible with justification by faith as the internal canon of interpretation. They placed Scripture in the hands of the laity and reinvented church order around a priesthood of all believers. They worshipped in ways that focused on God’s word and action in worship. They affirmed the goodness of creation.

A New Eco-Reformation

Without losing the foundational fruits of that revolutionary Reformation, and building on them to address our current context, we need a new Copernican revolution: from being human-centered to being creation-centered; from focusing on God’s relationship with humans alone to focusing on God’s relationship with all of creation; from fostering the extreme individualism of our culture to fostering the common good of the planet. We humans need to see ourselves embedded in the rest of nature and find our proper place and role in it—both our responsibilities and our limitations. We need to end the self-centeredness by which we are curved in upon ourselves and with which we have treated the rest of nature as an unlimited resource available for our unrestrained use and abuse. We need to find the commitment to care for the rest of nature as if our life depended on it, because it does! For most of us, such an Eco-Reformation is as mind-bending a change in perception as the first Reformation was for people of its time. It will require metanoia (repentance) in the true sense of the word, a mind change and a behavior change—both individually and collectively. To m...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: A Theology of Creation
• Chapter 2: Creation—Not for Sale
• Chapter 3: A Haunting Contradiction, Hope, and Moral-Spiritual Power
• Chapter 4: Out of Brokenness, a New Creation
• Chapter 5: The Two Voices of Nature
• Chapter 6: Joseph Sittler and the Ecological Role of Cultural Critique
• Chapter 7: Bonhoeffer, the Church, and the Climate Question
• Chapter 8: Issues of Interdependence in Matters of Creation
• Chapter 9: The World Is about to Turn
• Chapter 10: The Stream, the Flood, the Spring
• Chapter 11: Rewilding Christian Spirituality
• Chapter 12: Liberal Arts for Sustainability
• Chapter 13: Religion, Forestry, and Democracy in Rwanda after Genocide
• Chapter 14: Living Advent and Lent
• Chapter 15: Grace and Climate Change
• Chapter 16: Ninety-Five Eco-Theses