Inter-regional Doctoral Students Colloquium
On “Redeeming God’s Creation: Asian Ecumenical Responses to Ecological Crisis”
Organized by PTCA in Collaboration with ATESEA, SATHRI, CCA & NCCI
SCEPTRE Center, Kolkata India
Dec. 7-11, 2010
Introduction
Some forty years ago, Dr. Kosuke Koyama, a Japanese theologian and longtime missionary in Thailand, who was later become director of the Association of Theological Schools in Southeast Asia (ATSSEA) and Dean of Southeast Asia Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST), wrote a book on “Waterbuffalo Theology” in 70’s of last century. In the preface of the book he began with a quotation of a text from Paul taken from I Corinthians: “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessing.”(I Cor. 9.22f) He then professes his theological position by the following statement, which says: “I will read the Scriptures and theological works with your needs in mind…” Koyama explains that this theological position was made through his experiences in Northern Thailand, there he confronted daily with a herd of waterbuffaloes grazing in the muddy paddy field on his way to the country church. He says that this sight is an inspiring moment for him, he explains:
Because it reminds me that the people to whom I am to bring the gospel of Christ spend most of their time with these waterbuffaloes in the rice field. The waterbuffaloes tell me that I must preach to these farmers in the simplest sentence-structure and ideas, and to use exclusively objects that are immediately tangible. I decided to subordinate great theological thoughts, like those Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth, to the intellectual and spiritual needs of the farmers. I decided that the greatness of theological works is to be judged by the extent and quality of the service they can render to the farmers to whom I am sent… He then continued:
…. that the theology for northern Thailand begins and grows in northern Thailand, and nowhere else. Northern Thailand theology, the theology that serves Jesus Christ in northern Thailand, will surely comes into being when we dare to make this decision. In this decision is the beginning of a theology for Thailand and for Asia.
With Your Needs in Mind
After 40 years socio-political and economic development, the circumstance of Thailand, even northern Thailand may not be the same as Koyama portraits. It is however, the theological principle of “to subordinate great theological thoughts to the intellectual and spiritual needs of people whom I am sent” which was proposed by Kosuke Koyama is still ringing the ear to us. The spirit of the Koyama’s concern about “The needs in the mind of people whom I am sent”, put it in a more popular expression commonly used in theological circle is the term of “contextuality”.
Theologians engaged with contextual theologies contends that all theologies were produced in responding to the particular contexts that theologians and their faith communities confronted in different geographical location and different period of human history, for instance: Jesus and his community were doing their theology in responding to the setting of Judio-Roman religious and political struggling, early church fathers to the impacts of Greek culture and Christian heretics, scholastics to the high power of the sophisticate philosophies and the entangling struggles of church and states under Roman empires in middle age, reformers to the power corruption of the church politics in 15th century, contemporary theologians to the enlightenment movement, while the world view of people was affected by the scientific myth of rationalism, and contextual theologies are advocated for the people in the third world oppressive contexts and their Christian identity struggles in these circumstances. “The needs in the mind of people” which professor Koyama taking as main concern of his theology, reflected in these cases are the talks and their validity that these theologies had engaged with the people they addressed to.
Christian theologies thus, need to transform themselves boldly and continually according to the demands generated from the changing contexts and circumstances. This is what we mean “contextualization” or put in the terminology of Catholic theological communities “inculturation”. Contextualization according to Shoki Coe, a Taiwanese theologian, is a continual task of theological endeavor. He says: “So, for us, authentic contextualization must be open constantly to the painful process of de-contextualization, for the sake of re-contextualization. Only through the pain of the cross is there the glory of the resurrection.” It is therefore, while human history moving forward, contexts changing and cultures developing, inevitably, theologies have to committed themselves renewed in order to be relevantly responding to the new circumstances and contexts.
Paradigm Shifts of Christian Theology
Even though church history has demonstrated that the model of theological arguments was changing constantly. There were three principal theological paradigm shifts, in my point of view, taken place in Christian history, which have to do with change of the nature and scope of theology, they are:
1) Christian formation of theology generated from the religion of Judaism formatted by Jesus’ community in early church. A revolutionary transformation was made to both the doctrine of God and faith community. The Judeo absolute monotheism was replaced by “a” God of Trinity, and a nation based religion and religious adherents were radically extended to a universal and cross cultural faith tradition.
2) Modernization of Christian theology in reaction to the ethos of rationalism proposed by enlightenment movement in 17 to 18 century. In so doing, Christian theology was thus made one of the scientific disciplines, all religious mysteries and spiritual momentum were neglected if not totally against.
3) Third world irruption of contextual theologies after the Second World War. The traditionally considered pagan and profane experiences and cultures are taken as substantial elements for theology for the purpose to transform Christian theology into a liberating power to the oppressed, the marginalized and the discriminated.
It is along with the third wave of the theological paradigm shift of the irruption of contextual theologies from the third world churches, the “space” oriented Asian way of thinking that in contrast to the “time” (history) oriented western way of thinking, in accompany of the impact from global ecological crisis, that a new paradigm of “theology of creation” has been proposed and advocated as a rediscovery of an authentic Christian theology in reaction to traditional theology of “salvation”.
A Genealogy of Christian Anthropocentric Theology
Western theological tradition has been anthropocentric theology. This tendency in fact, is an outcome of historical necessity. In view of the formation of Christian theology, it was though initiated based upon the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and thus upholds Christology as the center of theology since its beginning. It cannot be exhausted by the person of Jesus Christ considering its holistic nature and content as Christian theology. Instead, Jesus Christ is confessed, according to Christian tradition, along with the framework of the doctrine of Trinity. The other two persons of the Triune God, i.e., Father God and the Holy Spirit, their natures and works are nevertheless provide necessary background and framework for us to understand the significances and background of the Salvation worked out by Jesus Christ. It was however, derived from the contextual needs of the situation in early church circumstance, in order to legitimatize the confession of Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, his identity in relation to both divine and human natures, and also his challenging ministries among the people were put in the center of theological arguments. In order to justify the identity of Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, and also to reaffirm that he was truly incarnated as human being, the early church creeds and confessions have struggled to formulate rules of faith constantly throughout Apostle Creed, Nicene Creed, and also their following ecumenical and denominational Creeds to respond to the quarrels, Let’s look into the first two formula:
In the Apostle Creed, it states:
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
The sentences on “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,” have been considered by many interpreters as an output of the intention of the early church to declare both the true divine nature and as well true human of Jesus, which was the central debate that the early church community was confronted severely, that challenge was raised by their contemporary trends of religious polarized positions in between Adoptionism and Gnosticism. In another words, in responding to the faith crisis irrupted by the confession of Jesus as Christ, the Son of Living God, the Apostle Creed has to fight with both ends to keep an inclusive position to profess Jesus as both divine and human. The Christological enquiries on “Who Jesus is” was thus, set off as the central concern to Christian theologies. Nicene Creed follows the arguments and moves its concern from the nature of the Son God to his relation with the Father God, it read:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
While Apostle Creed was focus its concern in Jesus’ two natures, both divine and human, Nicene Creed has to follow the confession, yet to answer the question about how the divine nature of Jesus in relation to the only Godhead, and persisting the position in monotheism which has been commonly accepted by Jews and early church Christians. Thus the emphasis on “begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made” has drawn special attention from the readers. The emphasis here is to identify the Son God with Father God, both in nature (begotten not made), in person (of one Being with the Father) and in power (through him all things were made).
Henceforth, Christology has moved into the center of Christian theology. Theologically speaking, Christology has to do with salvation, particularly with human redemption. As mentioned in previous sessions, the main task of Christology in theological endeavors is to investigate who Jesus is, and what he has done through his birth, works, death and resurrection. In another words, Christology has to do with a divine-human person of Jesus and as well human history that his salvation engaged. Paul as one of the greatest theologians in the early church was not ignorant of the desire of redemption for the whole creation; he was able to profess in his letter to the Romans:
19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
It is however, his theology and the whole Christian theological tradition following his steps, were paying very little attention to the well being of creatures beside human kind. The doctrines of Salvation, Sin and Redemption in Christian history have being overwhelmingly focused on human species, and very rare touch upon other creatures. The Anthropocentric theology of salvation inevitably leads to an exclusive theology for humankind. No wonder Christian religion was accused as root of ecological crisis, Lynn Townsend White, for instance, in his article entitled "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis" published in the journal Science in 1967 argued that “Judeo-Christian theology was fundamentally exploitative of the natural world because: 1) The Bible asserts man's dominion over nature and establishes a trend of anthropocentrism. 2) Christianity makes a distinction between man (formed in God's image) and the rest of creation, which has no "soul" or "reason" and is thus inferior.” Thus, Christian religion, in White’s perception, has stimulated the development of Western technologies and meanwhile caused the exploitation of nature.
The Traditional Theological Framework at Stake
Based upon the theologies of his time, Lynn White was rightly to discern the phenomena about the impact of Christian interpretation of the Bible on the destruction and exploitation of ecology, and derived from this understanding, He posited that these beliefs have led to an indifference towards nature which continues to impact in an industrial, "post-Christian" world. The critique of Christian theology from ecological perspective raised by White, which was seconded by the intensive nature disasters caused by global warming in many parts of the world, that has stimulated Christian theologians to re-examine the spirit and core value of Christian religion, to explore about whether Christian religion is by nature an anti-ecology religion. Different proposals were suggested to respond to the critique. Lynn White himself, for instance, appealed for a change of human’s fundamental ideas about nature, urging people to abandon the human “superiority and contemptuous” over the rest of creations, and thus, suggested an adoption of St. Francis of Assisi as a model to imagine a “democracy” of creation in which all creatures are respected and man’s rule over creation is delimited. The other proposals include a reinterpretation of divine creation order of the Bible by taking alternatively the second creation story in Genesis, which indicates that human being was created from the dust of the ground, and thus is part of the God’s creation. The second creation story has also defined the human relation with the rest of creation as a role of “steward” instead of “dominion”.
It is however, the recapture of the divine creation order through the reinterpretation of creation stories in the Genesis though effectively corrects the one sided perception of Christian position on human-ecology relation, it has not been able to redirect the nature of the Anthropocentric Christian theology. Ecological issues though gradually catch the attention of Christian theologians and being able to be included in the main list of theological discourses. They are either attached to the interest of human redemption or become appendix to the traditional framework of anthropocentric theology. Many ecologists for example, arguing for the environmental protection on the basis of to avoid the nature revenge to the human lives, and other theologians are taking ecology issue as an additional topic to be added to their traditional theological structure. These efforts are though insightful and making contributions to the ecological preservation, they have not challenged the nature and framework of theology which was created in the age that ecological consciousness was not taken into consideration by the theology makers, and thus, concerns for ecology are frequently subordinated to the slogan of human well being, when they are put in an either-or option.
A Demand for New Theological Paradigm from the Contexts of Asia
The many efforts to correct the traditional established theologies in order to take care of the ecological concerns proved finite. The challenges come not only from the outward ecological threats to human lives and the world, but also from within the human spiritual crisis that has been formulated by traditional anthropocentric theologies, which turned out is also Euro-androcentric and hierarchical, the irruption of third world theologies after 60’s of last century, which concerns sexuality, race, poverty (class) and different religions (cultures) have raised the same challenges to the legitimacy of this traditional theology.
When Christian mission was extended outside the Greek-Roman world, the context of theology shifted both its location and of course its historical period of time. Contextual theologies have been constructed in response to the demands of the new circumstances, and for the correction of the traditional theology. In the case of Asia, Koyama, Shoki Coe, Hyun Yung Hak, MM Thomas and D. T Niles and many other masters of Asian theologies were laboring much for this theological purpose. C.S. Song another Taiwanese Theologian, for instance, argues on the relevant of theology and its relation with Asian cultures, he pointed out: “the Christian Gospel that seeks to lead people to the God of love manifested in Jesus Christ must find its echoes and responses from within their spirituality…” “Doing theology with an Asian spirituality thus may bring about a conversion in Christian as well as in people of other faiths.” If the conversion happens out of Christian mission, is not only to be taken place in people of other faiths, but also in Christians, then the theology that can lead to this conversion, must be a theology that challenges not just to other religious tradition, but also to Christian religion and Christian theology itself. Only if a theology that is bold enough to challenge and correct its own old form, that can provides dynamics and momentum to renew or even re-shape Christian identity for people in different contexts of the world and provide redemption to the whole creation of God.
In another words, different culture shape particular spirituality that nurtures distinct theology in its context. Asia as a continent with profound cultures and deep spirituality, there must be elements of Asian spirituality that contains factors which is different and distinct from the spirituality that format western Christian theology. These particular Asian spiritual elements are the potentiality for Asian theologians to do theologies in particular paradigm that not only relevant to Asian context and satisfying the needs in the mind of Asian people, but also to the contribution of theologies seeking ways to self-renewal in different parts of the world. C. S. Song noticed with the dangerous of to over generalize modes of thinking characterized as eastern and western, with the awareness that even within Asia a wide difference exists between different peoples, he has proposed that “intuitive approach to reality” is one among others that can be categorized as special character generated from parts of Asian world, he says:
In contrast to the conceptual and rationalistic approach to the reality behind all realities, there is an intuitive approach that some Asians, especially the Chinese and Japanese, tend to stress in their grasp of the reality that transcends their immediate apprehension.
Rationalism was upheld by the western enlightenment movement and become a label of modernization. The contemporary Christian theologies are mostly products derived from this movement that has driven the modernity. To correct this old form of theology we can not only labor to find new topics attached to it. But have to shift it foundation from the world view of theology. Thus, the method of “intuitive approach to the reality” proposed from Asian cultures will be helpful for the efforts of the recent common exploration for an alternative theology.
Another alternative approach that Asian Christian can contribute to the theological construction is the creation orientation that most Asian cultures directed to. Different from the historical orientation that western theology stress on, Asian people are more concern on space rather than time. The intimate feeling of land and nature that Asian cultures nurture their people has shaped a philosophy of cycle fullness and cosmos harmonious. This natural intimacy feeling maybe shared by many aborigines and tribes in difference continents of the world, who have suffered alienate from nature, uprooted from their land and losing their identities because of the economic development driven by hi-tech industrialization and capitalist consumerism. In seeking new paradigm of theology reacting to today’s ecological crisis, this space oriented approach to the creation must be taken seriously. As mentioned above, Christian theology was started to frame by early church theologians to solve the quarrels of the identity and mission of Jesus as Christ, Christology has thus, occupied the center place of traditional theologies. The whole theological arguments therefore inevitably, led to its concern of the person of Jesus and its relation to the history of Jewish struggle for God’s salvation to their socio-political fate of misery. It was later narrowed down further to the redemption exclusively for the personal sin and transgression by the scholastics and pietism of the middle age. These are the theologies brought with the missionaries to Asian world, where people of Asia has never shared and experienced the same historical experience of expecting Messiah as Israelite people did. A theology started with Messiah expectation has not contact point with their historical experiences of Asian people, and I suppose it is the same to people in Africa and Pacific. Therefore a new starting point for theology to engage dialogues with people from “non-” Jewish and “non-” Euro-American background people should be initiated.
A Theology of Creation Proposed from Asia
A distinct character of Asian theologies therefore is expressed by its special concern of nature and space. This universal character of thinking have challenged us to the rediscovery of the heart and core nature of Christian theology, i.e., seeking holistic redemption to the whole creation of God. To emphasis on a Theology of Creation does not discard a theology of redemption or salvation, in the contrast, it correct and enhance the theology of salvation. Quoted from C.S. Song again, when he tries to connect the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of redemption, he says:
In any case the story of creation is in a true sense the story of salvation loaded with cosmic and historical implications. In St. Paul’s words, “ the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now” (Rom. 8.22, RSV). Creation is God’s response to this cosmic groaning. And as the seer in the Book of Revelation understands it, God’s work of redemption leads to the emergence of a new creation. He states: “then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Rev. 21.1, RSV)
According to Old Testament scholars, the first creation story in the Genesis which took its origin form in a Mesopotamian creation myth has demonstrated that God did not entered the dawn of history without rivals, instead, God was confronted in the beginning by the power of chaos( tohu wa bohu), darkness(tehom), evil and death. Therefore the creative works of God in the beginning of the world is seen as bringing light into the darkness, turning chaos into order and overcoming death with life, C.S Song thus concludes: “the creation story is concerned not so much with the origin of the world as with the problems of life and death in Human existence.” In another words, God’s creation works are also divine redemption works. The difference here is that God’s salvation put under the framework of creation, is holistic and to the whole of creation. While the doctrine of redemption elaborated by the traditional theology was nevertheless constrained within human being, which is but only one species of the plural creatures in God’s creation.
A theology of creation corrects traditional theology not only in its falsehood of taking nature and other creatures beside humankind species indifferently (if not neglect them totally), but also to enhance Christian theology to reclaim its roots more comprehensively and faithfully, to include the all three persons of triune Godhead instead of just stress on the single second person of Christ, the son God. This recollection of Christian roots of theology gives lights also to the weaker parties of human community who are struggling with the power distortion of traditional theologies that re-enforced the inhuman exploitation and oppression to the marginalized sex, race, class and other minority ethnics. Take ecofeminism a strong social political movement initiated in many parts of the world recently as an example, ecofeminists argue:
that a strong parallel exists between the oppression and subordination of women in families and society and the degradation of nature through the construction of differences into conceptual binaries and ideological hierarchies that allow a systematic, however logically unsound, justification of domination ("power-over power") by subjects classed into higher-ranking categories over objects classed into lower-ranking categories (e.g. man over woman, culture over nature, white over black).
The ecofeminists also explore the intersectionality between sexism, the domination of nature, racism, speciesism, and other characteristics of social inequality. In some of their current work, ecofeminists argue that the capitalist and patriarchal systems that predominate throughout the world reveal a triple domination of the Global South, women, and nature. This domination and exploitation of women, of poorly resourced peoples and of nature sits at the core of the ecofeminist analysis. This comment from ecofeminists enlightens us that the traditional theology that was created to respond to the anguish struggles of Israelites in their history, and hence developed accordingly for the interest of single Euro-andro-anthropological concerns in the history, is a theology with prejudice. It was driven by one particular concern and purpose and put all its attentions on Christology, one of the three persons of Christian Godhead, inevitably it will become bias, which neglected and do injustice not only to ecology issue but also all other weaker bodies of the creation. A theology of creation contends that the cosmic humility must replace arrogance, and an appreciation for the whole creation must replace a humanity-centered egoism.
Retargeting Creation as Theological Thrust
With the expansion and extension of theological scenario and arena from concerns of human soteriology to the redemption of whole cosmos, Christian theology in terms of its ecological concern, is challenged not only the recognition of the importance of the natural setting of human existence and of the biological limits of the earth with respect to its capacity to sustain life, but also its framework and method of doing theology.
Traditional western developed Christian theologies have stressed heavily Christology as the focus of theology, the neo-orthodox theology for instance, made a sharp distinction between the world and God, nature and humanity, and reason and faith. God was typically seen as the transcendent sovereign Lord standing over against humanity and the world. Nature and history were seen as discontinuous realms. Creation was the backdrop or stage on which the human drama and the divine-human covenant of salvation took place. Evolution was accepted as a valid scientific theory but was seen as having little or no theological significance. The focus of attention was clearly on the human world and the moral task of securing peace and justice on earth.
In the theology of Creation, the polarity of dualistic world view has to be overcome, the nature and humanity join together in the presence of the divine creator, God’s redemption thus not to be monopolized by humankind, but for all creatures. Concept of harmony will replace the idea of development, and the fellowship (koinonia) will be enjoyed not only by human community, but all, and the philosophy of fullness (round and wholeness) will be taken as foundation of theology. A planetary society is thus framed for all theological arguments.
Called to Reconciling and Healing Stewardship
In the planetary society, human being lives as a partner to the rest of creatures that God created in the world. The Biblical scheme indicates that the world moves from creation to consummation. The first creation story in Genesis declares that in the beginning the heaven and the earth was created by God, and they were created good in the eyes of God. And this creation is said to be brought to glorious fulfillment in the appearance of a new and perfected heaven and earth according to Revelation, the last book of the Bible. Therefore the Biblical view of the world is designed towards consummation and to the realization of the divine purpose of God. It is thus, all creatures include human species are entrusted the responsibility to co-apt with this divine purpose of God’s creation.
Even if we continue to read the Bible with confession of that human species was created with particular distinction in the creation order, they are not to be claimed as privilege to dominate over the rest of creatures, but responsibilities to work with God for the consummation of the whole creation. They are thus, deserving special mission to be partner of God for the divine continual creation, and is entrusted as a steward to bring reconciliation and healing to the broken world and the devastation of the planet which we are live in with. This theological paradigm shift thus, wills not simply a theoretic alternative discovery, but a radical spiritual renewing experience. In the change of the model of theology we have to change also our self understanding and life styles, and as well a rediscovery of our relation to the “others” inclusive of the nature and all rest species of God’s creation.
Many tasks are then invited us to venture and further reflections:
1) To acknowledge that ecological crisis is also spiritual crisis, unless we reorder our mindset and value system, we will never able to solve the ecological problem created by our human greedy, and as well unless we bring reconciliation and healing to the nature we will not be at peace spiritually.
2) To reconsider the meaning of human well being in relation to the wider context of society and holistic harmony with the whole cosmos, and also the ethical responsibility of human being commissioned in this creation order.
3) To re-examine the value and their utilities of developments in terms of economic and technologies with regards to the limitation of resources that the planetary earth can sustain.
4) To reflect upon the human built system of capitalist economic operation that is globalized today to enhance human greedy and competition, and eventually to exploit the mother earth extravagantly.
5) To develop a new lifestyle with simplicity that is coherent with the nature order that can enhance a sustainability for human existence in harmonious with rest of the creation.
6) To continue working for a comprehensive theology in respect to God’s creation, that can contribute not only to Christian community but also to all people of God for a common effort toward the real consummation of the creation.
In doing so, we as Christians should be converted first ourselves to the renewal of our faith and devotion through a humble way to learn from our neighbors and neighbor species of creation. (end)
Kenneth Cauthen, Christianity and Ecology, The Emergence of Christian Biopolitics, cf. http://www. frontiernet.net/~kenc/ecology.htm, August 17, 2010 
