theology – The Pollinator: Creation Care Network News

Abundant Community Theology: update

Prarthini Selveindran — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 11:57:00 +0000

On March 27, Tearfund launched Abundant Community Theology. This 90-min webinar celebrated the conclusion of a research project on environmental and economic sustainability.

Maria Ale Andrade V and Clark Buys began by presenting Tearfund’s Abundant Community Theology (ACT). They talked about cultivating an abundant community mindset over that of a scarcity mindset: this prioritizes relationship over individual identity, a shared home over competitive market, generosity over greed, and better distribution over more production solutions.

Prof. Must Dube followed this presentation with a critical reflection on ACT. She highlighted the importance of contextual theology with concern for the communities included and excluded within our conversation. She raised the need for decolonized theology and mentioned that ‘…a spirit of inclusion does not mean a spirit of equality’. She also emphasised the importance of lament with God and God’s creation for ‘…naming oppression, calling for change and justice for earth’. She ended by reminding us that the good news extends to all creation and underscored the transformative nature of salvation.

Dave Bookless offered an overview of creation care theology trends. He first began by highlighting how early creation care theology existed among Desert Fathers, Coptic Christians, Celtic Christians, and even early evangelicals. He discussed how a great reversal took place when a fear of science, liberal theology and ‘social gospel’ concerns emerged. Integral Mission was rediscovered through the aid of theologians such as René Padilla, Samuel Escobar, and John Stott. Currently, we are witnessing a rise of eco-theologies, including liberation theologies, interfaith theologies and post-colonial and indigenous theologies. Finally, he named a few future trends including:

a) rethinking ‘stewardship’
b) questioning ‘anthropocentrism’
c) cultivating theologies of lament, loss and hope
d) exploring intersectionality of ecotheology among other issues like gender, decolonization, and so on.

A link to the recording of this webinar will be shared in the next Pollinator.

Paper: Abundant Community Theology – Buys & Andrade V. (2023). Abundant Community Theology: A Case Study in Decolonial Theological Research. Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(1), Summer2023.

Video: Tearfund – Enough for All

An Invitation to the launch of Tearfund’s Abundant Community Theology

Prarthini Selveindran — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 14:45:02 +0000

You are welcome to the launch of Tearfund’s Abundant Community Theology! Celebrate the culmination of an extensive global theology research project on environmental and economic sustainability, explore transformative ideas proposed in Abundant Community Theology, and hear from global thought leaders about the future of creation care theology in this 90-minute Zoom webinar. You might well spot a familiar face in the speaker line-up!

Date: Wednesday, 27 March 2024

Time: 12:30 – 2:00pm UTC

Are you interested and available? Don’t forget to sign up here.

Opportunity for an Environmental Theology Researcher

Ed — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 18:00:32 +0000

Jobs in creation care don’t come along very often, and even less often for environmental theologians. So this is a rare opportunity that someone should take advantage of:

Tearfund has an exciting opportunity for theology research consultancy in the area of Environmental and Economic Sustainability (EES). This topic, EES, is one of Tearfund’s corporate priorities, and we’ve prioritised focussing on the theology that undergirds this work. One of Tearfund’s working objectives is the development of a theological framework that is biblically robust, theologically articulates an economic ethic of stewardship toward creation, and reflects the diversity of thought from the different contexts in which Tearfund works. We will use the EES theology framework as the foundation to guide our work with policymakers, civil society movements, programmes, churches, and supporter education. We have completed some regional research in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, and have research in Asia ongoing. We are now looking for a consultant for the remaining three related but distinct work packages: (these three work packages are to be held together;we would like applicants to bid for all three together).

Global North regional EES theological research paper
Middle East regional EES theological research paper
Global EES theology framework

The full Terms of Reference is attached (click here). Please feel free to share this with others in your networks who might wish to apply. We are taking applications for this consultancy until 15th November 2020 (if longer is needed, please contact me). Details for application are included in the ToR (see here), but please don’t hesitate to contact me if there are any questions.

Latin American Pentecostals on Theology and Creation Care

Ed — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 22:43:52 +0000

Pentecostalism, theology and creation care might be a surprising combination to some. Not any more! Last September a conference in Quito Ecuador brought together more than 500 Pentecostals to “to promote theological and ecclesial action in the Latin American context around the central theme of commitment to the care, preservation and social relation with nature at a time when there are growing risks of the destruction of our ‘great home’, the Earth”.

Richard (Ricardo) Waldrop reports:

A wide spectrum of related topics were explored through the use of various methods
such as panel discussions, Bible studies, lectures, liturgy, media presentations, case
studies, and a keynote addresses given by Brazilian author and theologian,
Leonardo Boff, perhaps the leading contemporary Christian voice on the chosen
subject. Wide cooperation was also given by representatives of other churches and
service agencies who participated in the conference program.
Specific topics in the conference program included “Contributions from the Worldview of
the Original Andean Peoples”, “Re-reading the Biblical Text with an Ecological
Conscience”, “Ecology, Church, Public Advocacy and Political Action”, “The Ethic of
Love and Health from an Ecological Perspective in Contemporary Preaching”,
“Pentecostalisms, Spirituality and Creation”, and “Toward a Spirituality of Creation
Care”.

Against a backdrop of general lack of interest in the topic of creation care among Latin American evangelicals, Waldrop tells us that this conference was a resounding success:

Not only was a Pentecostal seminary (related to the U.S.-based Church of God—Cleveland,
Tennessee) able to organize a major conference on Ecotheology attracting a wide
audience of both speakers and participants. It also dealt with all the related issues from
a critical and reflective perspective and did not avoid prophetically engaging the difficult
structural issues of global Neoliberal economics and current transnational problems
such as the burning of the Amazon forest.
All of this was accomplished from the perspective of wholistic mission, including issues
of spirituality, discipleship, worship, social and political action and more. We believe that
a great step forward was taken although we understand that much work remains to be
done.
Read the full conference report here.

The Jamaica Call to Action recognized that top priority would need to be given to developing “new and robust theological work” that would serve as a foundation for a vibrant and growing creation care movement. Our congratulations to our Pentecostal sisters and brothers in Latin America for showing the way!