Academic literature on the topic 'Ecological theology'

John B. Cobb Jr., a well-known theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist in the United States, has developed his participatory ecological theology from process philosophy to process theology. Some scholars believe it belongs to a distorted form of anthropocentrism, while others suggest it belongs to biocentrism. This study seeks to explore how participatory ecological theology from the perspective of John B. Cobb, Jr. based on a participatory ecological approach to the discourse of environmental ethical methods, especially from a theological perspective. However, through Cobb’s attention to and exploration of environmental crises and interactions with other environmentalists, his ecological theology is shown to be a new form of participatory ecological theology that recognizes the intrinsic value of all existence and affirms the participatory ecological order of nature. He challenges the traditional Christian doctrine of “dominion”. He points to a more responsible concept for humanity, that is, to serve all parts of the natural world as responsible creations, just as serving God.

Abstract The ecological discourses in China include the government’s political propaganda and the voices based on the traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. Furthermore, there are also public discourses on ecological issues from the environmental scientists and/or activists, who may adhere to neither the political party line nor any traditional Chinese religious/philosophical perspectives. As such, when Chinese Christians attempt to address ecological issues, they have to respond to these divergent voices in the public sphere. This article reviews the Chinese Christian ecological discourses from the perspective of a public theology. It will examine whether, and how, they respond to the non-Christian voices, and analyze how they exhibit different approaches to public theology. It will further explore whether, and how, Chinese Christian ecological discourses could benefit from Christian discourses in other contexts, and may in return contribute to the global development of an ecological theology as a public discourse.

God, for Paul, has so ordered the eco-system that it should provide all the necessities for human life. Creation is the sphere in which God is revealing his beauty, the beauty of Christ in, through and for whom everything was created. Therefore anyone who destroys the environment spoils the beauty of God and hinders his self-communication to humankind. Paul’s major doctrines–creation, redemption, and consummation–show beyond doubt that human beings and nature are intimately linked as one family. In Christ this relationship is clearly affirmed, for in him God chooses and redeems his people. Therefore Christians have a greater responsibility to maintain ecological health on earth. By emphasizing what is called the ‘ecological economy’, Paul condemns the consumer attitude of the rich in churches. Such ecological concerns of Paul prompt today’s Church to combat in her mission the current ecological crisis.

This essay recognizes the fact that human beings are created for a purpose, and this is referred to as the human vocation. The essay examines how the text of Genesis 2-3 presents this vocation and its ecological dimensions with implications for eco-theology in Africa. The aim is to provide a theological contribution to the contemporary ecological problems with particular reference to the African continent. Contemporary Africa is faced with a myriad of problems emanating from the way people treat the environment. The essay argues that eco-theology can provide a contextual theological framework for confronting the ecological challenges of the African continent. The methodology is both descriptive and analytical, and it employs the results of the historical critical method of biblical exegesis.

This thesis aims to determine how Bonaventure’s theology of the created world can be an illuminating eco-theological resource to promote ecological conversion by helping Christians reflect on the meaning and worth of the natural world. In exploring this project, there are two things to be noted: inherent anthropocentric limitations of his theology and today’s ecological context represented by both contemporary scientific views of the evolutionary natural world and recognition of the current ecological crisis. Accordingly, this thesis specifically seeks to retrieve and re-interpret the elements of Bonaventure’s theology that can influence human understanding and action regarding the natural world, employing Francis Schüssler Fiorenza’s theory of a reconstructive hermeneutics. In response to inherent limitations of his thought, Chapter 2 explores whether Bonaventure’s theology of the created world is capable of upholding the value of creatures and awakening a human concern for them while having weak anthropocentric senses. This exploration is based on his Trinitarian theology because it is the underlying principle of his whole theological thought. Bonaventure’s Trinitarian doctrine of creation affirms that the whole of creation is the sacramental expression of the Trinity, is directly related to the Trinity by reason of being patterned on the Word and imprinted with Trinitarian footprints, and is a gift and a receiver of God’s love. These views underpin the value of all creatures. Chapter 3 examines whether such a positive understanding of creation can still be valid in Bonaventure despite his limited view of the fate of non-human creatures. Bonaventure’s Christocentric theology indicates that the whole of creation’s consummation through Christ incarnate involves materiality which non-human creatures hold in common with Christ and humanity. In addition, Bonaventure’s concept of redemptive-completion suggests that humanity should turn to right relationship with other-than-human creatures because the broken relationship with them, caused by human sin, is an impediment to God-intended completion for all creation. These implications can be said to support the significance of other creatures’ existence and a human concern for them. Chapter 4 addresses how Bonaventure’s theology of the created world can be re-interpreted in light of evolutionary scientific views of the natural world. Bonaventure’s theological vision of creation provides theological meaning for the diverse and relational reality of the natural world by seeing that such realities reveal the divine fecundity and spring from the divine relationality. Regarding inherent suffering in the evolutionary natural world, Bonaventure does not fully espouse the view of God’s redemptive co-suffering with creatures, as do contemporary theologians of deep incarnation. However, his theology contains meaningful elements which can be developed for such a view: the concepts of exemplarism, microcosm, medium mathematicum, and Christ as unifying centre. Chapter 5 discusses what theological insights into the natural world the encyclical Laudato Si’ presents, faced with contemporary ecological degradation, and how Bonaventure’s theology of the created world can contribute to the encyclical’s theologies. Laudato Si’ emphasises the intrinsic value of all creatures, their significance as God’s revelation and the call for a sublime communion with them. Elements of Bonaventure’s Trinitarian doctrine of creation and his view of human sin and the restoration of human relationships with creatures have relevance to the encyclical’s insights. In addition, Bonaventure’s theology can supplement the lack of a systematic theology of the incarnation and of theological consideration of evolutionary suffering in Laudato Si’, by means of the concept of Christ as the divine Word and the incarnate One. Chapter 6 summarises how the key arguments of Bonaventure’s theology can bring transformation to human thinking and action with regard to creatures. Humans are called to appreciate the aesthetic and spiritual values of creatures, to be sensitive towards suffering creatures and to be humble before the natural world with a sense of belonging to one creation community. With these attitudes, humans must take action to preserve living species and to uphold this creation community through a sustainable relationship with all species. Through these conclusions, this thesis argues that Bonaventure’s theology of the created world can still be used to guide praxis that leads to ecological conversion and commitment in this time of ecological crisis.

Thesis advisor: Frederick G. Lawrence
Taking as its mandate the expansive vision suggested by the integral ecology of Laudato Si’, in conjunction with the insights of contemporary ecological and evolutionary theologians, this dissertation proposes a framework for an integral, planetary, and cosmic theology of grace. It draws from and builds upon many of the insights of the leading Catholic contributors to ecological and evolutionary theologies, including especially John Haught, Elizabeth Johnson, Denis Edwards, and Celia Deane-Drummond. Through their various approaches, each emphasizes the created, cosmic effects of both the universal invisible mission of Holy Spirit and the visible mission of Christ’s Incarnation, intended from all eternity and culminating in his passion death and resurrection. Noting the strong resonances with traditional accounts of the economy of grace in human redemption, this dissertation seeks to provide a unitive account of God’s healing and elevation of all of creation through a creative and redemptive economy of grace. This project is also carried out in intentional dialogue with both with traditional understandings of grace, especially as articulated in the speculative and systematic synthesis of St. Thomas Aquinas, and with contemporary scientific understandings of world process. To facilitate this larger conversation, this dissertation also explores Bernard Lonergan’s transposition of grace, nature, and sin from the Medieval theoretical framework into a framework based on interiority, and it relies especially on Lonergan’s explanatory account of the dynamic orientation of nature as “upwardly but indeterminately directed,” as laid out in his generalized emergent probability. However, as Lonergan and his students have only attended to grace in relation to human contexts, the constructive part of this dissertation lays out an understanding of grace as “God’s created relationship of transformative love and care for all creatures that opens them up to ever deeper relationships with God and with each other.” This broad definition makes possible the identification of God’s grace throughout all of creation: humans, other animals, plants, and even “inanimate” matter are caught up in the networks of grace that bring them to greater perfection along three axes: According to their absolute finality, all creation may be observed as existing in a state of ontological praise of its Creator and Redeemer and in a state of eschatological expectation. According to their horizontal finality, each creature is empowered to realize its particular, fleshly excellences in line with its dynamically conceived nature, the account of which nature is described by the vast array of modern sciences. According to their vertical finality, each creature exists in networks of interconnection that undergird the possibility and, sometimes, the reality of surprising and irreducible inbreaking of renewal and emergence. At the same time, this framework also recognizes the elevation of human beings to not only these forms of relative supernaturality, but also to the absolute supernaturality of sanctifying grace and the habit of charity in which we are adopted into the intra-trinitarian life of friendship. By situating this theology of grace in relation to Lonergan’s transposition of nature in the form of his account of generalized emergent probability, the specifically theological character of this account of world process is both distinguished from and related to the other explanatory accounts offered by the whole range of the human, social, and natural sciences. To clarify these relationships and the particular role of theology in dialogue with these other sciences, the final chapters explore the hermeneutical and heuristic value of this theology of grace in relation to the larger conversations around emergence, convergence, and cooperation in evolutionary theory
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Theology

This thesis is the articulation of a doctrine of creation centred on the concept of creation’s praise. It aims to make care for the environment a habitual expression of Christian faith by fostering a kinship between human and non-human. The thesis attempts to achieve this by developing the claim that non-humanity and humanity are united in a joint project of praise. This argument is developed through bringing biblical texts into conversation with voices from the Christian tradition and, in so doing, trusting that Scripture might allow us to know the presence of God in our own context. Creation’s praise consists in its ontological relationship to God, the source of all being and sustainer of the cosmos. In the diverse particularity of each thing the glory of God is actively displayed as an offering of praise and there is no created thing in the cosmos which does not participate in this symphonic worship. Yet suffering and death are intrinsic to the character of living things and God actively resists natural evil which God did not will. Creation joins God in this resistance and suffering and death are transfigured into ever-greater flourishing which deepens creation’s praise. Evil, however, remains a painful mystery and its final resolution awaits the Eschaton. Creation’s praise, therefore, looks to a heavenly fulfilment. Such fulfilment will be found in Christ and be characterised by the final unity of all creation, a unity which will not dissolve its particularity. Anticipating this fulfilment, humanity act as priests of creation, summarising and uniting creation’s praise in themselves and presenting it to God. Humanity’s priesthood is a task of service which does not mask but rather highlights the particularity of non-human praise.

Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2011.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The earth and her ecology is in crisis, which impacts upon both human and nonhuman communities. Not only due to the blame for ecological destruction that is attributed to humanity (and specifically also to the Christian religion), but also because of the destruction of species, environments and the natural habitat of living beings theology is asked of to step into its public and prophetic role in order to address the challenges in whichever way it can. David Kelsey’s enormous theological anthropology, Eccentric Existence (2009), probably provides opportunities for this, through its theological inquiry and (re)formulation of Christian traditions’ central doctrines and faith formulations. Kelsey’s main thesis is that God relates to all that is not God to create, draw into eschatological consummation, and reconcile. God relates to create the earth and her ecology. God relates to the earth and her ecology creatively (‘living on borrowed breath’) which entails that God relates “to” the earth and her ecology through the medium of address. The ultimate context of the earth and her ecology is therefore that of being directly and indirectly addressed by the triune God, through which it responds to its being called into being. The call that Kelsey describes, and therefore God’s creation of the earth and her ecology, is public and communal, involving both the radical freedom of otherness and the intimate nearness of sameness. God relates to bless the earth and her ecology creatively in God’s life-giving address, by enabling it to be alive and to bring forth life. The earth and her ecology, as particular instances or forms of life, is dynamic, persistent and frail. Creaturely reality involves being and having living bodies, through being created as dying life. The earth and her ecology not only lives, but is enabled to flourish, on borrowed breath. In this way, the earth and her ecology exists eccentrically, finding its reality and worth and being and value outside of itself, in God’s relating to bless it creatively. God relates to draw the earth and her ecology into eschatological consummation. God relates by drawing the earth and her ecology into eschatological consummation (‘living on borrowed time’) which stipulates that God relates “between” the earth and her ecology through the medium of promise. The ultimate context of the earth and her ecology is therefore that of being drawn into God’s own triune life and being called to participate in the glory of God. The earth and her ecology is defined by the absolute promise of eschatological blessing and the implicit promise of transformation in the present and in the future, which is God’s reaching out to all that is not God (also described as the missio Dei). The earth and her ecology, as particular instances or forms of life, stands under both God’s election (or ‘yes’) and God’s judgment (or ‘no’). The earth and her ecology not only lives, but is enabled to flourish, on borrowed time. In this way, the earth and her ecology exists eccentrically, finding its reality and worth and being and value outside of itself, in God’s relating to bless it eschatologically. God reconciles the earth and her ecology to Godself. God relates by reconciling the earth and her ecology through their multiple estrangements (‘living by another’s death’) and entails that God relates “amongst” the earth and her ecology through the medium of exchange. The ultimate context of the earth and her ecology is therefore that of being reconciled to God through its multiple estrangements and being drawn into the divine life of God Godself. Incarnation and what Kelsey calls ‘exchange’ – God incarnated in Jesus exchanging Godself with the earth and her ecology amidst processes of violence and destruction to transform their living death into true life – defines the earth and her ecology in this mode of relating. The earth and her ecology is reconciled with herself and with living beings and all of life through their reconciliation by and in God. God’s reconciliation is liberation and transformation of the earth and her ecology within particular times and places, within its particular contexts. The life of the earth and her ecology is therefore no longer tied to the fulfillment of certain functions or duties (or even vocations) that it may be subjected to or expected of, but lies solely in the worth and value that it finds in living and existing by the life and death of another, of God incarnate, of Jesus the Son. The earth and her ecology not only lives, but is enabled to flourish, by another’s death. In this way, the earth and her ecology exists eccentrically, finding its reality and worth and being and value outside of itself, in God’s relating to reconcile it through its multiple estrangements. God stands in relationship to the earth and her ecology in three ways that sustains and blesses it to flourish as mysterious living being that reflects the glory of the triune God. The appropriate response to this, respectively, is eccentric faith, eccentric hope and eccentric love. The earth and her ecology, like all living beings and all of life, exists eccentrically, through God that relates to it.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die aarde en haar ekologie is tans in krisis, wat impakteer op beide menslike en nie-menslike gemeenskappe. Nie net weens die skuld vir ekologiese verwoesting wat aan mense (en spesifiek ook aan die Christelike geloof) toegeskryf word nie, maar ook weens die verwoesting van spesies, omgewings en die natuurlike habitat van lewende wesens word daar van teologie gevra om in dié se publieke en profetiese rol in te tree en die uitdagings aan te spreek op welke manier dit ook al kan. David Kelsey se enorme teologiese antropologie, Eccentric Existence (2009), bied waarskynlik geleenthede hiervoor, deur die in-diepte teologiese ondersoek en (her)besinning van Christelike tradisies se sentrale doktrines en geloofstellinge waarmee dit besig is. Kelsey se hooftese is dat God in verhouding tree tot alles wat nie God is om te skep, in eskatologiese vervulling te bring, en te versoen. God tree in verhouding tot die aarde en haar ekologie deur dit te skep (waardeur dit op geleende asem leef), wat behels dat God ‘tot’ die aarde en haar ekologie in verhouding tree deur die medium van aanspraak. Die uiteindelike konteks van die aarde en haar ekologie is daarom dié wat direk en indirek aangespreek word deur die drie-enige God, deurdat dit reageer daarop dat dit geroep is tot bestaan. Die oproep wat Kelsey beskryf, en daarom God se skepping van die aarde en haar ekologie, is publiek en gemeenskaplik, en behels beide die radikale vryheid van andersheid en die intieme nabyheid van eendersheid. God seën die aarde en haar ekologie kreatief in God se lewegewende aanspraak, deur dit in staat te stel om te lewe en om lewe voort te bring. Die aarde en haar ekologie, as spesifieke lewensvorme, is dinamies, voortdurend en weerloos. Geskape realiteit behels beide om lewende liggame te hê en te wees. Die aarde en haar ekologie leef nie alleen nie, maar word in staat gestel om te floreer, op geleende asem. Op hierdie manier bestaan die aarde en haar ekologie eksentries, en vind dit die realiteit en waarde en wese buite ditself, in God wat in verhouding daartoe tree om dit kreatief te seën. God tree in verhouding tot die aarde en haar ekologie om dit in te bring in eskatologiese vervulling. God tree in verhouding tot die aarde en haar ekologie (waardeur dit op geleende tyd leef) wat bepaal dat God in verhouding staan ‘tussen’ die aarde en haar ekologie, deur die medium van belofte. Die uiteindelike konteks van die aarde en haar ekologie is daarom dié wat gebring word in God se eie drie-enige lewe en wat geroep word om deel te neem aan die glorie van God. Die aarde en haar ekologie word gedefinieer deur die absolute belofte van eskatologiese seën en die implisiete belofte van transformasie in die hede en in die toekoms, wat God se uitreiking na alles wat nie God is nie is (ook beskryf deur die missio Dei). Die aarde en haar ekologie, as spesifieke lewensvorme, staan onder beide God se verkiesing (God se ‘ja) en God se oordeel (God se ‘nee’). Die aarde en haar ekologie leef nie net nie, maar word in staat gestel om te floreer, op geleende asem. Op hierdie manier bestaan die aarde en haar ekologie eksentries, en vind dit die realiteit en waarde en wese buite ditself, in God wat in verhouding daartoe tree om dit eskatologies te seën. God versoen die aarde en haar ekologie tot Godself. God tree in verhouding tot die aarde en haar ekologie deur dit te versoen (waardeur dit leef deur ‘n ander se dood) en behels dat God ‘tussen’ die aarde en haar ekologie in verhouding tree deur die medium van vervanging. Die uiteindelike konteks van die aarde en haar ekologie is daarom die wat versoen is tot God deur hul veelvoudige vervreemdinge en wat ingebring word in die goddelike lewe van Godself. Inkarnasie en wat Kelsey noem ‘vervanging’ – God wat mens word in Jesus vervang Godself met die aarde en haar ekologie te midde prosesse van geweld en verwoesting om hul lewende dood te transformeer in ware lewe – definieer die aarde en haar ekologie in hierdie modus van verhouding. Die aarde en haar ekologie word versoen met haarself en met lewende wesens en die hele lewe deur hul versoening deur en in God. God se versoening is bevryding en transformasie van die aarde en haar ekologie binne spesifieke tye en plekke, binne hul spesifieke kontekste. Die lewe van die aarde en haar ekologie is daarom nie meer gebonde tot die vervulling van spesifieke funksies of pligte (of selfs roepinge) wat daarvan verwag word nie, maar lê alleen in die waarde wat dit vind daarin om te leef en bestaan deur die lewe van ‘n ander, van God-wat-mens-geword-het, van Jesus die Seun. Die aarde en haar ekologie leef nie alleen nie, maar word in staat gestel om te floreer, deur ‘n ander se dood. Op hierdie manier bestaan die aarde en haar ekologie eksentries, en vind dit haar realiteit en waarde en wese buite haarself, in God wat dit versoen deur veelvoudige vervreemdinge. God staan in verhouding tot die aarde en haar ekologie op drie maniere wat dit onderhou en dit seën om te floreer as geheimsinnige lewende wese wat die glorie van die drie-enige God reflekteer. Die gepaste reaksie hierop is, respektiewelik, eksentriese geloof, eksentriese hoop en eksentriese liefde. Die aarde en haar ekologie, soos alle lewende wense en die hele lewe, bestaan eksentries deur God wat in verhouding daarmee tree.
jme2012

Thesis (MPhil (Religion and Culture) (Practical Theology and Missiology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Green spirituality as found in popular media such as films can be used to develop an ecological ethic in theological reflection and praxis and serve as a platform in a multi-sectoral and multi-pronged response to the ecological crisis. By examining the films Avatar, Emerald Forest, Dances with Wolves, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki, ecological and spiritual themes can be drawn from the text and applied as contemporary examples of 'green spirituality'. In the first chapter I articulate and describe the research problem, whether green spirituality is found in popular media and if so, could it be used to develop an ecological ethic in theological reflection and praxis. This discussion includes the aims of the study and the description of the research methodology used in the study, as well as the delimitations of the study. In the second chapter I define some of the key terms: spirituality, green spirituality, ecological crisis, ecological ethic, and present a brief overview of the theoretical concepts, ecofeminism, and deep ecology, within whose context this study takes place. This chapter will include the literature survey that informs this study. In the third chapter I present the data, namely the green spirituality found in media such as the films Avatar, Emerald Forest, Dances with Wolves, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and the films of Hayao Miyazaki. The films are summarised and evaluated according to the green spirituality and ecological themes presented. Four signifiers are identified to be present in the films: visual, cognitive, spiritual and communal. In the fourth chapter I present my interpretation of the data, as informed by scholarly sources, and also describe the relevance of the data in the faith traditions and the positions taken by faith traditions with regards to the ecological crisis. I also present some practical suggestions for responses in theological praxis. In chapter five I present my conclusion.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'Groen spiritualiteit', soos gevind in populêre media soos films kan gebruik word om 'n ekologiese etiek in teologiese refleksie en praxis te ontwikkel en kan dien as 'n platform in 'n multi-sektorale en multi-fokus reaksie op die ekologiese krisis. Deur die films Avatar, Emerald Forest, Dances with Wolves, The Day the Earth Stood Still, en die films van Hayao Miyazaki te ondersoek, kan ekologiese en spirituele temas onderskei word en toegepas word as kontemporêre voorbeelde van 'groen spiritualiteit'. In die eerste hoofstuk noem en beskryf ek die navorsingsprobleem, naamlik die moontlikheid om groen spiritualiteit wat te vinde is in die populêre media soos films, te gebruik om 'n ekologiese etiek te ontwikkel in teologiese refleksie en praxis. Hierdie bespreking sluit die doelwitte en beperkings van die studie in en beskryf die navorsingsmetodologie wat gebruik word. In die tweede hoofstuk gee ek 'n paar definisies van sleutel begrippe: spiritualiteit, groen spiritualiteit, ekologiese krisis, ekologiese etiek, sowel as 'n kort oorsig van die teoretiese konsepte soos ekofeminisme en 'deep ecology' waarin die studie omraam. Hier sluit ek in wat ek verstaan onder die sleutel konsepte om die studie te definieër binne die raamwerk van die navorsing. Hierdie hoofstuk sluit die literatuur oorsig in. In die derde hoofstuk gee ek die data, naamlik die groen spiritualiteit gevind in populêre media soos die films Avatar, Emerald Forest, Dances with Wolves, The Day the Earth Stood Still, en die films van Hayao Miyazaki. Die films word opgesom en ge-evalueer volgens die groen spiritualiteit en ekologiese temas teenwoordig. In die vierde hoofstuk beskryf ek my interpretasie van die data, soos voorgestel ook deur geleerde bronne en die geloofstradisies. Ek maak ook 'n paar praktiese voorstelle in teologiese praxis. In hoofstuk vyf gee ek my gevolgtrekking.

This item is only available in print in the UCF Libraries. If this is your Honors Thesis, you can help us make it available online for use by researchers around the world by following the instructions on the distribution consent form at http://library.ucf.edu/Systems/DigitalInitiatives/DigitalCollections/InternetDistributionConsentAgreementForm.pdf You may also contact the project coordinator, Kerri Bottorff, at kerri.bottorff@ucf.edu for more information.
Bachelors
Arts and Humanities
Humanities

The socio-religious regulations of Leviticus offer little-explored perspectives from which to reflect on the relationship between humanity and the non-human creation. The cosmological framework upon which the worldview expressed in Leviticus is constructed places humanity at the fragile interface between creation (order) and chaos (destruction), ever struggling to discern, define and delineate the sacred and the profane. Several texts in Leviticus portray the land as an active character; capable of vomiting, resting and maintaining a ritualistically demanding relationship with God. Not only does the land appear to have a distinct relationship with YHWH, but in fact that relationship predates YHWH’s commitment to Israel. When the people sin, they risk not only the retreat of YHWH’s presence from the sanctuary, but also the land ejecting them in order that it might fulfill its ritual obligations. Each member of the community is responsible for maintaining the well-being of the lived-in world as expressed through obedience to teachings concerning the body, the social group, and cultic behaviour. Within this system, the manifested symbols of created order are those essential elements which enable the sustenance of the whole community: the people, the land, its vegetation and its animals. Responsible human care for this divinely-established ecology is thus ingrained in, and carefully detailed through, the regulations in Leviticus. Important examples include prescriptions for a sabbatical year for the land to rest and to restore its fertility; the Sabbath day as a space of economic disruption and regeneration; agricultural festivals as cultic boundaries of the life of the community; and dietary and cultic laws regulating the killing of animals for humans (as food) or for God (as sacrifice). Disobedience, or sin, renders both the human community, and the land upon which it lives, polluted and unclean. A particularly significant measure of controlling or cleansing the resulting pollution, of both the community and the land, is animal sacrifice – the killing of a perfect animal for God has the potential to restore the delicate balance between chaos and creation. Given these observations, Leviticus' conceptions of the land, animal sacrifice and ritualized rest can be perceived as a fruitful biblical locus of reflection from which to engage contemporary ecological ethics and praxis.

This dissertation explores the way Jurgen Moltmann's biblical hermeneutic informs his salvation-historical approach to ecological theology. Coming from the post-Barthian camp of German Protestant theology, Moltmann has inherited Karl Barth's theological critique of the technological-scientific spirit of modernity. Moltmann differs from Barth, however, in the fact that his underlying preoccupation with the question of theodicy leads him to interpret Barth's theological critique of modernity from within the perspective of modernity's victims. This he accomplishes by retrieving the biblical tradition of eschatologia crucis. Moltmann's political hermeneutic of scripture, which he develops on the basis of the eschatologia crucis, vindicates his salvation-historical approach to nature by offering a substantial critique of the modern techno-scientific spirit. Furthermore, it enables Moltmann's ecological theology to put the crisis of modernity within the broader horizon of the problem of radical evil, thereby offering a profounder hope for the liberation of the suffering creation called for by the WCC theme "Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation."

Sanskrit is considered by many devout Hindus and global consumers of yoga alike to be an inspirational, divine, ‘language of the gods’. For 2000 years, at least, this middle Indo-Aryan language has endured in a post-vernacular state, due, principally, to its symbolic capital as a liturgical language. This presentation focuses on my almost decade-long research into the theo-political implications of reviving Sanskrit, and includes an explication of data derived from fieldwork in ‘Sanskrit-speaking’ communities in India, as well as analyses of the language sections of the 2011 census; these were only released in July 2018. While the census data is unreliable, for many reasons, but due mainly to the fact that the results are self reported, the towns, villages, and districts most enamored by Sanskrit will be shown. The hegemony of the Brahminical orthodoxy quite often obfuscates the structural inequalities inherent in the hierarchical varṇa-jātī system of Hinduism. While the Indian constitution provides the opportunity for groups to speak, read/write, and to teach the language of their choice, even though Sanskrit is afforded status as a scheduled (i.e. recognised language that is offered various state-sponsored benefits) language, the imposition of Sanskrit learning on groups historically excluded from access to the Sanskrit episteme urges us to consider how the issue of linguistic human rights and glottophagy impact on less prestigious and unscheduled languages within India’s complex linguistic ecological area where the state imposes Sanskrit learning. The politics of representation are complicated by the intimate relationship between consumers of global yoga and Hindu supremacy. Global yogis become ensconced in a quite often ahistorical, Sanskrit-inspired thought-world. Through appeals to purity, tradition, affect, and authority, the unique way in which the Indian state reconfigures the logic of neoliberalism is to promote cultural ideals, like Sanskrit and yoga, as two pillars that can possibly create a better world via a moral and cultural renaissance. However, at the core of this political theology is the necessity to speak a ‘pure’ form of Sanskrit. Yet, the Sanskrit spoken today, even with its high and low registers, is, ultimately, various forms of hybrids influenced by the substratum first languages of the speakers. This leads us to appreciate that the socio-political components of reviving Sanskrit are certainly much more complicated than simply getting people to speak, for instance, a Sanskritised register of Hindi.