LWF - God Creation and Climate Change

8/6/2019 LWF - God Creation and Climate Change

1/52

God, Creationand ClimateChangeA resource or refection and discussion

The Lutheran World Federation A Communion o Churches

Geneva, 2009


2/52


3/52

God, Creationand Climate Change

A resource or refection and discussion

Karen L. Bloomquistwith Rolita Machila

on behal o

The Lutheran World Federation

-- A Communion o Churches

Department or Theology and Studies

Geneva, 2009


4/52

TheLutheranWorldFederation

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reect the ofcial position

o the Lutheran World Federation

Cover, design and layout: LWF/OCS

Cover image: Magnus Aronson/IKON

Editorial assistance: LWF/DTS


A Communion o Churches

150 route de Ferney

P.O Box 21001211 Geneva 2 Switzerland

Tel. + 41/22-791 61 11

Fax +41/22-791 66 30

For additional copies, please contact [email protected]

2009, The Lutheran World Federation

Printed in France by SADAG

ISBN 978-3-905676-69-3


5/52

God,CreationandClimateChange

Contents

I. What is going on? ....................................................................7

II. God and climate change? .................................................... 11

III. The Triune God is intimately related

with all o creation ................................................................... 17

IV. So what about human beings? ............................................27

V. The redemption o all creation ............................................35

Notes .......................................................................................... 41

Appendix ...................................................................................43


6/52


Crashing waves at Spoon Bay, New South Wales,Australia. ickr/brentbat / Brent Pearson


7/52


This resource is part o the Lutheran World Federations overall

strategy on the challenges posed by what today is reerred to as

climate change.

Many LWF member churches are deeply aected by and increas-

ingly active in addressing this concern and there is a growingpublic awareness o the ethical challenges posed by climate

change. Ecumenical, interaith and civil society collaboration is

crucial in the eorts being made to seek changes in local, national

and global practices.

Yet, climate change is more than just a secular environmental

issue; it is an urgent challenge that goes to the core o our aith

and spirituality and how this is reected in the ways we view the

world and in what we do. Climate change is moving us to recon-

sider and revise what we have previously assumed or believed. In

that sense, it is changing theologyhow we have thought about

God and the rest o creation especially in the modern era.

In 2008, a survey was sent out asking people in dierent local set-

tings what they see, eel and believe in the ace o changes that,at least in part, are due to climate change (see appendix). This

resource was written in light o responses to the survey, some

o which are quoted here. The changes people are experiencing

oten raise questions or assumptions that are deeply theological

and need to be addressed in these terms. This is the main purpose

o this resource.

A book o more in-depth biblical, theological and ethical articles,will be published to accompany and examine more extensively

Preace


8/52


what is set orth here in an only summary ashion. God, Creation

and Climate Change, vol. 5 in the Theology in the Lie o the Church

series will be published later in 2009. To order this book, please

contact [email protected].

The LWF is also addressing this challenge through concrete actions in

its feld programs in many o the most vulnerable parts o the world.

Climate change has been a ocus o LWF youth (seeA Toolkit on Cli-

mate Change, rom [email protected]) and in advocacy

based on positions adopted, e.g., by the LWF council. Other events

ocusing on this will also take place prior to and culminate at the 2010

LWF Assembly in Stuttgart.

We look orward to your responses.

Karen L. Bloomquist at [email protected]

or Rolita Machila at [email protected]

This publication can also be downloaded and printed from the De-

partment for Theology and Studies Church and Social Issues web

pages on www.lutheranworld.org. Translation in other languages

will also be posted there.


9/52


Around the world we are experienc-

ing the eects o climate change:

water and air temperatures are rising

at alarming rates, adversely aecting

the habitats that sustain lie or fsh,

animals, plants and human beings.Devastation caused by more severe

droughts and oods is increasing.

Storms and hurricanes are becoming

more requent and intense. New dis-

eases are appearing and old ones are

spreading. For example, because o

warmer temperatures the breeding

o malaria-carrying mosquitoes has

increased. In overly industrialized

areas, the air quality is deteriorating.

Climate conditions are aecting peo-

ples health and in some areas heat-

related deaths are on the increase.1

Hunger is predicted to escalate as

the climate changes.

The predictable, dependable order

o things is changing: when winter

or summer begins, or when the rainy

season comes, i at all, is becoming

ever more unpredictable. The avail-

ability o clean water to sustain lie is

jeopardized, especially as much o itis being privatized. Houses built on

What are local people notic-

ing? Rainalls are erratic and

there is less rain each year.

Streams and rivers are drying

up, and many areas lack water.

Lower crop yields have led

to higher ood prices and,

consequently, malnutrition.

Malaria and other diseases

are increasing. People ght

over ertile lands where there

is water, resulting in conficts.

(Zambia)

What are some

o the eects o

climate change in

your context?

I. What is going on?

There is either too much sun

or too much rain. The land,

the plants, the air, the ani-

mals and human beings are

suering. Animals do not pro-

create as they did in the past.

Skin diseases have become

more prevalent. (Tanzania)


10/52


what seemed to be solid ground are

suddenly swept into raging waters.

Growing seasons or crops are chang-

ing signifcantly, as is the yield ocrops related to soil quality, moisture

and erosion. In some places, winters

are becoming colder, and in others,

warmer. Where the ood needed or

daily lie will come rom, and when, is

becoming more unpredictable, mak-

ing the right to ood more precarious,

especially or the most vulnerable.

Some are wondering whether they

can still rely on Gods promise to

Noah: As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter, day and night,

shall not cease (Gen 8:22).

As the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change (IPCC) concluded

in 2007:

Human beings are exposed to climate

change through changing weather

patterns (or example, more intenseand requent extreme events) and

indirectly through changes in water,

air, ood quality and quantity, eco-

systems, agriculture, and economy

Increased requency o heat stress,

droughts and oods negatively aect

crop yields and livestock beyond

the impacts o mean climate change,creating the possibility or surprises,

We used to plow our land

starting in March but now, un-

less it rains, the soil is too hard

to plow. In the past, the seeds

stayed in the soil until the

rain started but now they die

beore the rain comes. We get

less milk rom our cows and

goats because o the scarcity

o odder. We used to get wild

ruits rom the trees but now

the ew trees remaining do

not bear ruit. Our parents

and grandparents used to

consume milk, butter, honey,

dierent ruits and vegetables

but not today. (Eritrea)

In a river system that covers

a large part o Australia, not

one drop o water rom this

system has reached the ocean

in the past ten years, due to

droughts caused in part by

global warming. (Australia)


11/52


with impacts that are larger, and oc-

curring earlier, than predicted using

changes in mean variables alone.

This is especially the case or subsis-tence sectors at low latitudes. Climate

variability and change also modiy

the risks o fres, pest and pathogen

outbreak, negatively aecting ood,

fber and orestry.

In other words, the predictabilities

on which we have depended or lieas human beings have long known

it are changing dramatically. We

wonder on what we can depend or

the uture.

As numerous studies have indicated,

it is especially human activity that

is causing or at least signifcantly

contributing to climate change. Nev-

ertheless, or people in many parts o

the world or whom there is a close

relationship between the divine and

what occurs through nature, the

God questions cannot be ignored.

Our barrier island is erod-

ing and we will be orced to

relocate our Eskimo village i

the trend continues. The local

people depend on traditional

subsistence hunting and

shing, such that a orced

relocation will be very dicult

or them. (Alaska, USA)

Repeated monsoons food the

land or long periods, and the

sea level is rising. In coastal

areas, salt water rom the sea

is intruding into the drinking

water. The over-cultivation

o the land and the use o

pesticides are degrading

the quality o the land. The

topography o the land is

changing dramatically, and

the biodiversity o plants, sh

and animals is threatened.

(Bangladesh)


12/52

10 TheLutheranWorldFederation

Korat, Thailand, 17 March 2005 -- Waters have dried up due to prolonged drought, allowingvillagers to camp inside the dam to catch the remaining fsh. Greenpeace/Sataporn Thongma


13/52

God,CreationandClimateChange 11

Some people view climate change as i

God had disappeared rom the scene,

had been pushed to the margins by

human activity and was no longer ac-

tive in the cosmos. But or persons o

aith, the extensive global and cosmicrealities o climate change need to be

considered in light o how we under-

stand God, creation and humanity.

In many passages o the Bible, natu-

ral occurrences such as those oc-

curring today due to human-induced

climate change, were attributed to

God. People in many parts o the

world still do so today. God has been

considered the agent causing oods,

storms, droughts and other local and

global natural catastrophes. People

view what is occurring as being acts

o God, and ask why.

Throughout the ages and rom di-

erent aith perspectives, weather

related disasters have oten been

considered as acts o God. When

the destructive eects o climate

change occur, some immediately

respond that God must be punishinghuman beingsand this is how they

God has moved away rom

destructive human beings,

leaving them to perish in their

own olly. (A young woman

in Tanzania)

II. God and climate change?

In a world progressively

endangered by deoresta-

tion, desertication, globalwarming, depletion o the

ozone layer, dangerous

carbon emission, greenhouse

gas eect and multiple orms

o ecological degradation,

Arican spiritualityis a spiri-

tuality o balance, harmony,

and wholeness, sustained by

an active aith in creation as

Gods git.


14/52


interpret certain biblical passages.

People are told simply to wait and

endure Gods judgment, rather than

doing anything to change what isconsidered to be God ordained and

thus, inevitable.

As people o aith, we maintain that

somehow God is involved in climate

changeespecially to wake us up to

the urgency o what is occurringbut

we cannot attribute climate changeonly to acts o God. We must also

turn to science, through which we

learn more deeply, and with greater

awe, about what God has created.

Many o the problems associated with

climate change have arisen because o

how human beings have misused that

which God has created or the beneft

o all creatures. The church has long

taught that we are to be good stewards

or caretakers o what God has given,

and must continue to do so. But the

challenge goes deeper than this.

To a large extent, many global acets

o the climate change crisis have

come about because o how inter-

related assumptions about God,

creation and human beings have

prooundly inuenced and shaped

modern societies, institutions and

ways o lie. These have been passedon through centuries o teachings in

One Arican woman ponders,

Where is God in all o this

suering? Are we cursed? Is

God punishing us? Another

responds, I have problems

placing this all on God! We as

human beings are responsible

or disturbing what God has

given in nature.

Its not divine punishment,

but it is the logic o conse-

quences, the act that in

this physical universe that

God has created, with this

wonderul atmosphere,

certain actions cause other

things to happen. Thats the

physics o carbon dioxide and

other greenhouse gases that

trap heat. You cannot keep

increasing carbon without

warming the planet. (USA)


15/52


the church, which or example, sepa-

rated nature rom grace. Western

thinking which tended to separate

human beings rom the rest o cre-ation contributed to the rise o indus-

trialization and capitalism. Develop-

ments such as these, in turn, have

spread throughout the world. Over

the centuries, these assumptions,

and the practices based on them,

have contributed cumulatively and

now disastrously to climate change,which seriously threatens the uture

o lie on the planet as we have known

it. The eect o climate change is like

that o hungerit weakens, gnaws

and although it may not be the sole

cause o death, it pushes you in that

direction.

These assumptions include,

That God is transcendent, un-

changing, all powerul, a heav-

enly monarch or patriarch ruling

above and controlling the world,

untouched by earthly realities

A worldview with God at the top,

then men over women, children,

animals and, at the bottom, the

rest o creation

That as agents o God, human

beings are to use or exert powerover the rest o creation

Why are the changes happen-

ing? Because o human greed,

carelessness and selshness.

(Tanzania)


16/52


That God acts primarily in history

and not also in and through nature

That only human beings, and spe-cifcally Christians, beneft rom

Gods grace or redemption

That spiritual matters are sepa-

rate rom what is embodied or o

this earth.

The inuence and eects o assump-tions such as these have spread over

the entire world through colonization,

conquest, empire building, missionary

movements and economic develop-

ment. This continues today through

accelerated processes o globalization.

These assumptions have undergirded

and urthered habits and practices

around the world that we now realize

have, over time, contributed dramati-

cally to climate change and are threat-

ening lie as we have known it.

Such practices include,

Economic lie based on endless

quests or ever greater growth

and proft driven by greed, which

the global economic crisis is

starkly exposing today

Increasing dependence on ossil

uel extraction to urther thisdevelopment

What language, im-

ages or teachings

have you heard in

church that refectthese assumptions?

We need new ways o think-

ing and behaving, new ways

o perceiving reality. Todays

capitalism does not have a

uture. We must construct a

sustainable economic system.

Maybe it looks like utopia. But

there is no uture without

Gods help. God can do mir-acleseven change human

hearts. (Czech Republic)

For most Aboriginal peoples in

Australia, the Rainbow Spirit

emerges rom the land andreturns to the land where its

power is eternally present.

This Spirit is always as close as

the land, leaving prints on the

land as reminders o its prom-

ise to return rom the land. In

contrast, Christian missionaries

presented God dwelling at

a distance rom the land, in

heaven. (Australia)


17/52


Conquering practices o colo-

nization and empire, especially

in the constant quest or more

resources and markets

Patriarchal ideologies that perpet-

uate control over and oppression

o both women and the earth

Discrimination against all those

seen as other because o their

gender, race, ethnicity, caste,economic or political status

Assuming that some aspects o

creation (such as trees, water or

air) are dispensable, rather than

respecting and valuing all o

creation

An anthropocentrism that tends

to value only that which serves

human ends.

Climate change is provoking the need

or climatic changes in some aith

understandings that have long beentaken or granted. Climate change may

literally be melting icebergs but it also

exposes metaphorical icebergs o

how God, human beings and the rest

o creation have been conceptualized

in ways that contribute to the destruc-

tion and injustices that have escalated

under the currently reigning regimeo climate change.

Assumptions and

practices such as

those cited here

need to be chal-

lenged. Instead, we

need to consider

how God, creationand humanity are

interrelated. How

might we draw

upon what other

aiths and local

traditions have

long assumed andpracticed?

Nature was created to

distribute well-being, not to

be transormed into a mere

source o prot, not to swap

the green o the orest or the

green o the dollar.(Peru)

Traditional Sri Lankan society

has been strongly infuenced

by Buddhism and lived in har-

mony with nature . It wasthe Western materialistic con-

sumerist strategy, considered

the essence o development,

which shattered the ounda-

tion o sustainable living that

is basic to our cultures. (Sri

Lanka)


18/52


Goro ICDP, Dadymus, Ethiopia, March 2008. Nothing but dust. Animal going toand rom the water-point. Magnus Aronson/IKON


19/52


When people think about God they

oten reer to a supreme being who

reigns over and above the world

as an almighty ruler or monarch

(almost always as he). When some-

thing goes wrong in nature, suchas occurs under climate change, it

is then immediately assumed that

this is caused by Godas an

almighty actor standing outside o

and controlling all that occurs on

earth. Throughout the ages, and in

many religious traditions, humans

have prayed and oered sacrifces

so that God would bestow avorable

conditions or growing crops, pro-

tect rom storms and rising waters,

and control the natural orces o the

environment. Ater all, isnt God the

power over all the cosmos, and thus

the One able to control everything,including climate change?

Many biblical reerences seem to

reect such understandings o God.

These are oten interpreted in ways

that make too sharp a separation

between God and nature. In part, this

was to distinguish ancient Israels un-derstanding o God rom some o the

III. The Triune Godis intimately relatedwith all o creation

God, why dont you inter-

vene? Why do you allow such

destructive climate changes

to persist?

God, why dont you care a bit

more about what you have

created?


20/52


nature religions, according to which

the ate o humans was determined

by the gods acting in the cycles

and orces o nature. But, making asharp separation between God and

nature becomes a problem when it

overlooks the intimate relationship

that God has with all o creation,

as described in the beginning o

Genesis and in many other places in

the Bible.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord o hosts,

the whole Earth is ull o his glory

(Isa 6:3) The glory here is the vibrant

presence o God, which was earlier

depicted as the fre cloud o Gods

presence at Sinai. Later it illed

the tabernacle and then the temple

o Solomon. But here Isaiah goes

urther and declares that Gods very

presence flls the whole earth, which

is Gods sanctuary.

The God revealed in the Hebrew Scrip-

tures is not unchanging in the same

way as are some other gods. God isrelated to creation and history not by

being immune to space and time but by

keeping promises. Gods will should

not simply be equated with natural

occurrences, insisting that God is caus-

ing all that occurs. Yet, at the same

time, we may glimpse what God has

created and intends, which contrastswith the breakdown or destruction o

The brokenness o earth is the

brokenness o Gods home.3


21/52


the ragility o creation that is occur-

ring through climate change. Creation

is good because God created all that is,

although not everything that occursin creation is good.

In the Book o Job, when Job reaches

the depths o despair he not only

accuses God o harassing humans

unjustly, but also indicts God or

Gods rough treatment o creation.

Job claims that God uses divine wis-dom to hold back the waters until

they dry up and to unloosen them

so they ood the land (Job 12:15).

In chapters 38-39, God takes Job on

a tour o the various aspects o the

cosmos to enlighten him about the

mysterious ways o the natural

world. It is not or Job to try to rule

nature, but to explore how God has

created all that exists and to discover

how humans ft into this mysteriously

complex design o God.

Here and elsewhere in Scripture,

we begin to catch a new sense owho God isnot an all-controlling

monarch who punishes even the in-

nocent, but God revealed yet hidden

throughout creation. Gods grace and

love are ultimately more crucial than

might and power. God is intimately

related with humans and the rest

o creation, present in the midst ovulnerability and suering.

Then the Lord answered

Job out o the whirlwind:

[W]ho shut in the sea with

doors when it burst out

rom the womb? [Who]

said, Thus ar shall you come,

and no arther, and here

shall your proud waves be

stopped? (Job 38:1, 8, 11).


22/52


Today, a similar shit is called or

in how we imagine or think o God,

standing as we do in the midst o a

creation suering the eects o cli-mate change. Those who have used

little o the earths resources fnd

themselves the most dramatically

aected. Yet, blaming God or this is

not the answer. As Scripture continu-

ally reminds us, human unaithul-

ness to God is the problem. This is

reected in the unjust treatment ohumans and the rest o creation.

The twentieth-century Lutheran

ecological theologian, Joseph Sittler,

insisted that nature comes rom God,

cannot be apart rom God, and is

capable o bearing the glory o God.4

Grace is the undamental reality o

God, as Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.

Grace is the sheer giveness o lie, the

world and ourselves. We are justi-

fed by grace even in our relation

to the things o nature. Condemna-

tion (the opposite o justifcation) is

present in the absence o a graciousregard or nature, such as when we

pollute or use nature as a dump.

This concurs with Martin Luthers

sixteenth-century perspective: all o

creation is the abode o God. Rather

than removed or set over creation,

God is in, with and under all thatis creaturely. Despite all the nega-

Does the snow o Lebanon

leave the crags o Sirion? Do

the mountain waters run dry,

the cold fowing streams? But

my people have orgotten me

(Jer 18:14-15a).

Creation is the theater oGods grace.5


23/52


tivitiessuch as the disruption and

destruction occurring due to climate

changewe still trust that God is

at work in this world, oten hiddenbeneath its opposite.

This is also at the heart o what Lu-

ther meant by a theology o the cross:

God is neither to be seen nor sought

behind creation nor inerred rom it,

but only recognized in and through it.

The cross reveals how radically Godis immanent in creation.

Throughout the history o the church,

there have been many debates as to

what is most central about God. For

some, Gods almighty power has been

key, while or others it is Gods ever-

lasting love. For Lutherans and many

other Christians, what is most impor-

tant is that God is love. God seeks to

be in intimate relation with what God

has created, including human beings:

being withrather than being above

or distant rom creation.

It is the Spirit o God (ruach)who con-

veys this sense o intimacy between

God and creation. God is alive and ac-

tive as the Spirit, giving lie to all that

is. Gods breath expresses Gods lie-

creating, lie-preserving goodness.

The Spirit o God is the inexhaust-ible, ever-creative power o God, the

The awesome secret o cre-

ation is the indwelling o God

within it.6

Through the theology o the

cross the suering in and o

the world is recognized as the

locus o Gods creative work.7

Why have some

sought to separate

God rom creation,

as i God needed to

be protected in this

way?

The Psalmist praises God:

you ride on the wings o the

wind you make springs

gush orth in the valleys ... you

cause the grass to grow or

the cattle when you send

orth your spirit (or breath)

they are created; and you

renew the ace o the ground

(Ps 104:3, 10, 14, 30).


24/52


25/52


that is at stake (Rom 8), not redemp-

tion from creation.

Gods labors o creation, preserva-tion, and redemption are not three

separate or separable works but a

single labor, whose object is precisely

the birthing o the world that God

intends. God is in labor in the world,

or the world, that it might become

what, in its conception, it is.11

In other words, God is the source,

power and goalthe spirit that

enlivens the complex processes o

creation. God is the source o all be-

ing rather than one who intervenes

rom outside. This is how theologians

such as Sallie McFague reer to God:

as the inspirited body o the whole

universe, creating, guiding and sav-

ing all that is. Rather than assum-

ing God to be like a will or intellect

ordering and controlling the world,

God is the breath that enlivens and

energizes the living breathing planet.

God permeates, suers with and en-ergizes the innermost aspect o all

that is created, in ways known and

unknowable, in ways that are both

intimate and transcendent.12 We can

only grateully receive rather than

solve this mystery.

Picturing Gods activity in suchorganic ways is more appropriate

What does this

imply or how we

might address or

reer to God?

Refect on how olk

wisdom or spiritu-

al traditions have

shaped you. Is this

what you heard in

church? Why orwhy not?


26/52


than in machine like ways, which

have compounded the problems we

ace today. The machine model as-

sumes that rational control is what isimportant, with God as the ultimate

fxer. Instead, the ocus shits rom

control to relationshipsinterde-

pendent relationships throughout all

o creation.

This is similar to how many indig-

enous traditions and aiths haveviewed the relationship between God

and creation. The interdependence

o everything has been common

knowledge throughout most o world

historyall the relationships neces-

sary or lie to ourish, including the

predictability o the climate. Many in-

digenous peoples have long assumed

such an ecological vision o lie, in

contrast to perspectives which value

human lie at the expense o other

orms o lie.

Taking creation seriously as Gods

abode means that the physical spaceo creation becomes important. This

spatial dimension has long been cel-

ebrated, or example, in the Psalms:

How lovely is your dwelling place,

O Lord o hosts! even the spar-

row fnds a home at your altars.

(Ps 84:1-3). We dwell in God who

surrounds us, rom beore and be-yond all time: Lord, you have been

In the Circle o Lie o ab-

original peoples o North

America, the circle symbolizesthe undamental harmony

and wholeness that exists

between all created be-

ingsincluding animals and

birds, trees and stoneswith

solidarity, reciprocity, respect

and love. We all belong to

a great community where

everything is interconnected

and interdependent.

What are some

o the interrela-

tionships in cre-

ation that climatechange is making

us more aware o?

In the Tanzanian village o

Ngola, people believe God is

angry because o the cutting

o the traditional orests where

people used to go or prayers

and rituals. (Tanzania)


27/52


our dwelling place in all generations.

Beore the mountains were brought

orth, and ever you have ormed

the earth and the world, rom ever-lasting to everlasting you are God

(Ps 90:1-2).

The incarnationGod becoming ully

human in Jesus o Nazarethis the

clearest testimony to Gods intimate

relationship with what is created. In

him, divinity and humanity, heavenand earth are brought together. The

central estivals o the church year

emphasize this in powerully poetic

and symbolic ways. At Christmas,

heaven and nature sing as a bright

star in the heavens is linked on earth

with a lowly manger. On Good Friday,

God is revealed in the One who su-

ers and dies with all o creation, and

at Easter, heaven and earth exult

with the living God. At Pentecost, the

wind o the Spirit blew rom heaven,

empowering those in the early

church to communicate across their

earth-bound dierences.

In Arica, the philosophy o

ubuntu, which reers especial-

ly to relations human beings

have with each other, rec-

ognizes that the community

also includes animals, plants

and the rest o creationall

contribute to the communitys

well-being.

In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was

with God, and the Word was

God And the Word be-

came fesh and lived among

us (Jn 1:1, 14).


28/52


LWF/D.-M. Grtzsch


29/52


In recent centuries in the West, and

throughout much o the world today,

the above perspectives have been

overshadowed. Some human beings

have acted as i they were demigods

who can order and control, or theirown sel-interests, the land, trees, air,

water and other creatures, including

vulnerable human communities. This

oten occurs in the name o develop-

ment or progress. The air, water,

soil and plants are valued in so ar as

they will urther human development

or progress, rather than because o

their own intrinsic worth. The ac-

cumulation o money and goods has

displaced the liberating economy o

the Creator, based on synergy, coop-

eration and lie-enhancing justice or

all o creation.

Consequently, the delicate interrela-

tionships within creation have been

upset. Creations protest is now being

experienced through climate change.

Being creatures within creation is at

the core o a Christian anthropology.

However, many human beings havelost the sense o being part o a living,

The greatest cause o natures

disintegration is humanitys

seeming inability to under-

stand its essential solidarity

with all other orms o lie,

and to act upon that under-

standing.

IV. So what abouthuman beings?

Because o the incred-

ible progress in technology,

people tend to orget about

the most organic, most basic

things, such as responsibility

or the uture generations,

relationships, and, o course,

God. We used to rely on thewisdom o older people, but

nowadays or the younger

generations who are in

charge, there is less need or

God, or any other transcen-

dent values. People tend to

think they are able to achieve,

learn and discover anything

they want all by themselves.

(A youth rom Poland)


30/52


changing, dynamic cosmos, which

has its being in and through God.

Based on the two creation stories inGenesis 1 and 2, human beings have

oten assumed themselves to be the

crown o creation, or the main purpose

or which God created everything else.

This has been due to misunderstand-

ing the call to have dominion over

(Gen 1:28) in ways that have led to the

exploitation o creation, rather than asense o responsibility and account-

ability or what God has created. In

Genesis 2, in the midst o the plants

and water o the garden, God orms the

frst human being rom the dusty earth

and breathes lie into adam. Tilling

and keeping the gardencultivating

and preserving Gods creationis

the mandate given to humans. Human

beings are to be servants o the rest o

creation, not its rulers. This is similar

to how in Mark 10:41-45, Jesus calls

the disciples to ollow him by serving

rather than ruling over others.

Assuming human beings are separate

rom or above nature can imply a

complete reedom o action toward

creationusing or exploiting it in

ways that serve human ends, or as

raw material or human sustenance

and aggrandizement.15 Instead, cre-

ation has a dignity and purpose thatgoes beyond human purposes.

Living a selsh liestyle and

wasting natural resources

breaks the bond between hu-

manity and God, but also be-

tween humanity and the rest

o Gods creation. (Estonia)

We live in patterns o inter-

connection that are both

personally enlivening, and

in common with all that is

creaturely.1


31/52


Sin and salvation are both spiritual

and earthly matters; they have to do

with how we relate to the orms o

Gods presence we encounter in ourdaily, ordinary lives.16 Sin is our ailure

to live out o the relational matrix we

share with the rest o creation and

with God. It is our reusal to remove

ourselves rom the center o the world.

We attempt to escape our creature-

hood and the relationships and vo-

cation that belong to it. Sin is livingalsely, contrary to the appropriate

relationships that constitute reality.

When relationships are violated, in-

justice, abuse and destruction result.

Sin is reusing to accept the limits and

responsibilities o our place within

the whole o creation.

Environmental exclusion in the

orm o exile is a core theme o the

Old Testament, and it speaks to the

condition o those millions who are

already fnding they are orced to

migrate rom their ancestral lands

because o drought and ood causedby climate change.18

The writings o the Old Testament

Prophets repeatedly remind us that

God will not tolerate injustices in-

icted on other human beings and on

the rest o creation, through dominat-

ing power, control and oppression.However, in many o these passages

Unless we recover a sense o

human beings being a part o

the rest o creation, we shall

only accomplish a sucient

cleaning up o industrial pro-

cedures to secure prots and

a reasonably comortable lie

or one generation or so, and

ail to penetrate the heart o

the problem.1

The earth lies polluted under

its inhabitants; or they have

transgressed laws, violated

the statutes, broken the ever-

lasting covenant (Isa 24:5).


32/52


where God responds to injustice, God

is depicted as an all-controlling male

ruler or warrior who acts in punitive,

violent, destructive ways. The prob-lem is that this legitimizes rather than

transorming patterns o violence

against humanity and creation.

The power to change the injustices

should be consistent with Gods over-

all purpose o restoring and trans-

orming creation. Carol Dempseyindicates how this is conveyed in

especially chapters 42, 49, 52, 53, 61

and 65 o the Book o Isaiah:

(1) The redemption o humankind is

connected to the restoration o cre-

ation; (2) the human community has

a responsibility toward all creation;

(3) the vision o Isaiah 65:17-25 can no

longer remain apocalyptic or escha-

tological but must become a reality

or the planet and lie on the planet;

(4) the divine vision or all creation

is one that speaks o respect or all

o lie and lie lived in balance andrelationship.The ocus must shit

rom the use o power to dominate,

control and oppress to the use o

power to empower onesel and others

and liberate all o creation rom its

groaning and oppression.19

The call to repentance in Mark 1:15can be heard as a call to return to a

I will make or you a covenant

on that day with the wild

animals, the birds o the air,

and the creeping things o the

ground, and I will abolish the

bow, the sword and war rom

the land; and I will make you

lie down in saety (Hos 2:18).

For I am about to create

new heavens and a new

earthno more shall the

sound o weeping be heard

in it, or the cry o distress.

They shall build houses and

inhabit them: they shall plant

vineyards and eat their ruit.

They shall not hurt or destroy

on all my holy mountain

(Isa 65:17; 19; 21; 25).


33/52


proper relationship with the Creator

and creation, a call to be liberated

rom our human perceived need to

be God, and instead to assume ourrightul place in the world as humble

two-leggeds in the circle o creation

with all the other created.20

Given the kairos o climate change

today, there is an urgent need or

repentance or conversion.

We need to shit rom:

Human independence, to human

interdependence with the rest o

creation

Making separations based on

oppositions and dualisms, to em-

phasizing interrelated balances

and connections

Technological control, to respect

or, care and balanced use o cre-

ation and its resources, including

through appropriate technologies

Creation as only the backdrop

or human worship, to creation

pulsating with lie, pathos and

worship o God

An exclusive ocus on God active

in human history, to God activein, with and through the spatial

Suppose we really believed

that the rape o the earth is

blasphemous! 1

Return to the Lord you God,

or God is gracious and

merciul, slow to anger, and

abounding in steadast love,

and relents rom punishing

(Joel 2:13).


34/52


realities o the whole creation, in

which humans participate

A predominantly Christocen-tric ocus on the redemption o

human beings, to Trinitarian

thinking that takes more seri-

ously creation, the Spirit and the

interrelationships throughout the

cosmos, with all o creation as the

scope o redemption

Sin only as a broken relationship

between humans and God, to the

sinul ways relationships with

creation are broken

Gods grace separate rom nature,

to Gods grace known in, with,

through and transormative o

nature

Transcendence that is spiritual-

ized and removed rom the lie and

matter o creation, to a sense o

the divine mysteriously active in,

with and through what is created

An obsession with progress and

development as measured in eco-

nomic terms, to what will result

in more sustainable lie or all o

creation

Allegiance to the global marketsystem, to being inspired by a


35/52


vision o Gods economy or the

sake o the well-being o all, in-

cluding earth itsel

A ocus only on technological or

market-base fxes, to the healing

o creation.


36/52


More than 60,000 people are estimated to have been displaced by the oodin Sunsari district, south-east Nepal, September, 2008. LWF/DWS Nepal


37/52


Gods anger leads not to judgment but

to redemption, not just o human be-

ings, but o all creation: the creation

itsel will be set ree rom its bondage

to decay and will obtain the reedom

o the glory o the children o God

(Rom 8:21). Because o Gods trans-

orming grace, rather than because

o ear, we are empowered to change

our attitudes, liestyles, and prac-

ticesto put things right again. The

way things are now cannot continue

with business as usual. Instead, the

God o grace who is active through,

with and in nature, is revealing how

urgent it is to recover the spiritual

signifcance o valuing our common

good with the rest o creation.22

In the ourth century, St Ambrose

wrote, For the mystery o the Incar-nation o God is the salvation o the

whole o creation.23 Salvation is the

direction o creation, and creation

is the place o salvation.24 In other

words, the health and well-being o

all o creation is what salvation is

about. Christs liberating, healing and

inclusive ministry takes place in andor creation. In Christ, God identifes

V. The redemptiono all creation

For the creation waits with

eager longing or the reveal-

ing o the children o God; or

the creation was subjected to

utility, not o its own will but

by the will o the one whosubjected it, in hope that the

creation itsel will be set ree

rom its bondage to decay

and will obtain the reedom

o the glory o the children o

God (Rom 8:19-21).


38/52


with all suering bodies, including the

suering o creation itsel.

This cosmic scope o Christ is com-municated especially in Colossians 1.

The horizon o salvation or redemp-

tion or reconciliation is widened

signifcantly here. Its ocus is not on

human beings; in act, they are not

even mentioned in this passage. In-

stead, celebrated here is the intimate

relation o Christ and the whole ocreation, rom beore the dawn o

time. The ullness o God comes to

dwell bodily in creation. The powers

o this world are put in their place,

and broken relationships throughout

creation are restored or reconciled.

Similarly in Romans 8, salvation not

only includes human beings but the

whole cosmos. Creation itsel longs or

the revealing o those who, through

the power o the Spirit, will rescue the

whole created order, and bring about

that justice and peace or which the

whole creation yearns. This builds onthe biblical promise o a new heaven

and earth (Isa 65 and 66) and on the

creation story in which human beings

are to be caretakers o creation. The

reedom or which creation longs will

come about through human agents,

transormed by the Spirit, to bring

wise, healing and restorative justiceto the whole creation.25

Is this dierent

rom your under-

standing o salva-

tion? How?

... or in him all things in

heaven and on earth were

created, things visible and

invisible, whether thrones or

dominions or rules or pow-

ersall things have been cre-

ated through him and or him.

He himsel is beore all things

and in him all things hold

together. For in him all the

ullness o God was pleased

to dwell, and through him

God was pleased to reconcile

all things, whether on earthor in heaven, by making

peace through the blood o

his cross (Col 1:16-17; 19-20).


39/52


In the earthly lie o Jesus as recorded

in the Gospels, we see one who was

continually challenging the tradi-

tional dualisms by which people livedtheir lives: male over emale, rich over

poor, humans over nature. His com-

passionate love and justice embraced

all o creation, leading him to cross all

kinds o boundaries o his day.

Similarly, climate change trans-

gresses boundaries, o both naturaland human-defned separations, o

communities, o nation-states, o

lands, o waters, o near and distant

neighbors, o rich and poor, o di-

erent cultures, o the past and the

uture. Many o its eects know no

boundaries. Climate change reminds

us that we are all in this together. It

is the uture o lie on the planet that

is at stake. Yet some bear the brunt

and the consequences ar more than

others, and are ar more vulnerable.

Under climate change, nature has

become the new poor, as vulner-

able and expendable as poor humanbeings and communities have been.

This is where our attention and prior-

ity especially needs to be.

The church is ar more than a just

another actor in civil society or

addressing climate change. It has a

global even cosmic expanse, crossingboundaries o both space and time. It

Refect on exam-

ples in the Gos-

pel where Jesus

crossed boundar-

ies such as these.


40/52


includes those who are contributing

most dramatically to climate change

as well as those rendered most vul-

nerable by it; together they are inter-connected and transormed into each

other, as members o one communion.

The communion o saints crosses all

boundaries o timethose in the past

and in the present as well as uture

generations whose very possibilities

or lie are being jeopardized by cli-

mate change.

Furthermore, through the Sacra-

ments, Gods promises become tan-

gible through common elements o

creationwater, bread, and wine

through which we are redeemed,

nourished and empowered. We are

redeemed by God not apart rom

but through what is created. We

have been washed in the waters o

redemption in baptism and ed with

the bread and wine o Holy Commu-

nion. Through these Sacraments, the

lie-sustaining power o Gods prom-

ises is eected in us, as a oretaste othe east to come. The church bears

witness to the new creation, as a

communion, as the body o Christ in

the world that God has created and

will bring to ulfllment.

Living out o this present and uture

reality, Christians should be at theoreront o redressing the eects

Understanding the intercon-

nections o the carbon cycle

o the planet means that all

actions are interconnected by

their eects on the carbon

cyclethe spiritual solidarity

o the people o God across

space and time.26


41/52


and changing the course o climate

change.

We are challenged to see newpossibilities or reconciliation

and restoration within creation,

in ways that will beneft all rather

than just a ew.

The reality o Gods redemption

is lived out as we pursue greater

justice or all. It does not sufceto address the crises evoked by

climate change through short-

term fxes or solutions that only

reect the same old paths o eco-

nomic and human progress which

have brought us to this point.

We must move beyond narrow

anthropocentric views o lie, and

embrace more interconnected

views in which God, human be-

ings and the rest o creation are

intimately related.

When we do so, the injusticesimposed on other communities or

other realms o creation become

all too apparent, as well as our

capacity or putting things right

again, in communion with the rest

o creation.

The whole will have achieved

the consummation that is in-

tended only when this errant,

pathetic, tragic and much

loved creature nds again

its rightul place among the

creatures.


42/52


43/52


1 At www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/climate/cli_eects.

html&edu=high

2 Agbonkhianimeghe E. Orobator, Theology Brewed in an African Pot(Maryk-

noll: Orbis, 2008), p. 146.

3 Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian Walsh,Beyond Homelessness (Grand Rap-

ids: Eerdmans, 2008), p. 33.

4 Steven Bowman-Prediger and Peter Bakken (eds),Evocations of Grace: The

Writings of Joseph Sittler on Ecology, Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerd-

mans, 2009), p. 104.

5Ibid., p.157.

6 Larry Rasmussen and Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, The Reorm Dynamic, in Karen L.

Bloomquist and John R. Stumme (eds), The Promise of Lutheran Ethics (Minneapolis:

Fortress, 1998), p. 136.

7 Vtor Westhelle, The Scandalous God(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006), p. 104.

8 Hymn 682 in With One Voice: A Lutheran Resource for Worship (Minneapolis:

Augsburg Fortress, 1995).

9 Michael Welker, God the Spirit(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004), p. 334.

10 Catherine Keller The Flesh o God in Darby Kathleen Ray (ed.), Theology

That Matters (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006), p. 96.

11 Douglas John Hall,Professing the Faith (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), p. 167.

12 Sallie McFague, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology(Minneapolis: For-

tress, 1993), esp. pp. 145; 147.

13 Hall, op. cit. (note 11), p. 337.

14 Welker, op. cit. (note 9), p. 160.

15 Hall, op. cit. (note 11), p. 167.

16 McFague, op. cit. (note 12), p. 114.

Notes


44/52


17 Sittler (1970) in Bouman-Prediger and Bakken, in op. cit. (note 4), p. 80.

18 Michael S. Northcott,A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming(Maryk-

noll: Orbis, 2007), p. 161.

19 Carol J. Dempsey, The Prophets: A Liberation-Critical Reading(Minneapolis:

Fortress, 2000), p. 179.

20 George Tinker,Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian

Liberation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004), p. 113.

21 Sittler, op. cit. (note 17), p. 211.

22 Rolita Machila, Why are Earth and God Angry? issue 20 (August 2008) in

the LWF Thinking It Over series; available at

www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/Dts/DTS-Welcome.html

23 Exposition o the Christian Faith, V, VIII, 105b.

24 McFague, op. cit. (note 12), p. 180.

25 N. Thomas Wright, in The New Interpreters Bible, vol. 10(Nashville: Abing-

den 2002), pp. 596-7

26 Northcott, op. cit. (note 18), p. 163.

27

Hall, op. cit. (note 11), p. 322.


45/52


AppendixWhat do you see, eel, believe in the aceo climate change?

An LWF survey (2008)

What is different today?In recent years, what general changes

have you noticed in the climate in your area? How is this aecting

the land, the plants, the air, the animals and the people? What is

dierent rom what your parents or grandparents experienced?

Who?Who or what is especially aected by these changes? Whoespecially bears the burden? Who or what is especially respon-

sible or climate change?

Why? How do people explain these changes? Why are they hap-

pening? (The stories or olk wisdom as well as more scientifc

explanations.)

What has gone wrong?In the relationship between human beings

and the rest o creation? In the relationship between people? In

the relationship with God?

God?How do you eel God is related to or involved in this? What

questions would you pose to God? How is your aith in God a-

ected? What spiritual resources do you draw upon?

The future?How do you view the uture, or your community,

coming generations, and the earth as a whole? What do you ear

or hope or? What spiritual resources do you draw upon?

Solutions?What needs to change in your society? What trade-os

are there? What is being done that can make a dierence? What

local solutions would you propose?


46/52


47/52


48/52


49/52


50/52


51/52


52/52


A Communion o Churches

150 route de Ferney

P.O. Box 2100

1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland

Tel. +41/22-791 61 11

Fax +41/22-791 66 30

[email protected]

Documents

LWF - God Creation and Climate Change