Scriptura : international journal of bible, religion and theology in southern Africa, 2012
The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands,... more The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands, the places where borders have created inequities and injustice. In this liminal space, many aboriginal peoples have lived as mere shadows in their ancestral lands, marginalised by the nations that have colonized them. When the place of Christianity in a society's public sphere is in flux, and it finds itself, at times, within the shadowlands, its relationship to other religious traditions, including Aboriginal worldviews, also encourages changes. What happens to Christianity, particularly eco-theology, when it engages mostly earth-based traditions in this context? These encounters bring to the fore porous borders that have operated consciously or unconsciously in the past and point the way to a new kind of dialogue in the present. We contend that the answer to the above question is a key component in a meaningful eco-theology which finds its context in a pluralist nation. Other key ...
The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands,... more The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands, the places where borders have created inequities and injustice. In this liminal space, many aboriginal peoples have lived as mere shadows in their ancestral lands, marginalised by the nations that have colonized them. When the place of Christianity in a society's public sphere is in flux, and it finds itself, at times, within the shadowlands, its relationship to other religious traditions, including Aboriginal worldviews, also encourages changes. What happens to Christianity, particularly eco-theology, when it engages mostly earth-based traditions in this context? These encounters bring to the fore porous borders that have operated consciously or unconsciously in the past and point the way to a new kind of dialogue in the present. We contend that the answer to the above question is a key component in a meaningful eco-theology which finds its context in a pluralist nation. Other key components to be explored extend beyond theology to broader issues: one, of coming to terms with the effects of colonialism and the need to pay attention to trust in order to become effective allies effecting real ecological change; and two, the very practical need Christianity has to find an effective voice if it is not to be completely marginalised in a pluralist, post-colonial context. This article focuses on Christian engagement with Canada's First Nations and Christian theology. Consideration of the following themes attempts to further a conversation regarding the future of Christian Eco-theology in a post-Colonial, pluralist context where Christianity often finds itself in much the same shadowlands as those who it colonized: the theoretic understandings of porous borders, a metaphor grounded in the porous non-containment of ecosystems themselves, the complex history of Christianity in the Othering of aboriginal peoples legally and geo-politically within Canada, and the contemporary theological implications-particularly in terms of salvation-for Christianity as it attempts to listen respectfully to the ecological insights of a people seeking agency within its own primal traditions, which are at the same time Christian-influenced.
RELIGION / ECOLOGY VISIONING THE COSMOS THROUGH A LIBERATION LENS "It/one Gebara is unquesti... more RELIGION / ECOLOGY VISIONING THE COSMOS THROUGH A LIBERATION LENS "It/one Gebara is unquestionably the most original theologian working from an ecofeminist liberation perspective from Latin America today. Her theology does not begin with absolutes from on high, but ...
Re-inscribing nature into ethics is a perennial problem for environmental ethics. Nancie Erhard t... more Re-inscribing nature into ethics is a perennial problem for environmental ethics. Nancie Erhard turns the problem on its head with an original framework that re-conceives ethics, or ethos, as a co-creation of habitat. Erhard’s argument starts from the modest assumption “that a geographic location, with its topography and forms of life, could make a difference to ethics” (p. 1). Working toward her conclusions “that moral agency is widely distributed in the biotic community,” and that ethical norms arise from within that community,” and “that what is deemed cultural is itself coproduced by humans and the rest of the biotic community” (pp. 2, 14), Erhard critiques prevailing Western theories of moral agency and engages several non-mainstream natural-cultural contexts for contrast. Her goals are “to see how other-than-human capacity to know and act is conceived, whether other-than-human behavior is understood to have moral content, how human moral imagination has been shaped by other-th...
... of moral and spiritual discernment by being brought into an ongoing conversation by those who... more ... of moral and spiritual discernment by being brought into an ongoing conversation by those who bring us up."10 Moral for-mation and discernment, then, are ... 14 Moral Habitat The metaphor of moral habitat expresses the sense of a sustaining environment more holistically. ...
Scriptura : international journal of bible, religion and theology in southern Africa, 2012
The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands,... more The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands, the places where borders have created inequities and injustice. In this liminal space, many aboriginal peoples have lived as mere shadows in their ancestral lands, marginalised by the nations that have colonized them. When the place of Christianity in a society's public sphere is in flux, and it finds itself, at times, within the shadowlands, its relationship to other religious traditions, including Aboriginal worldviews, also encourages changes. What happens to Christianity, particularly eco-theology, when it engages mostly earth-based traditions in this context? These encounters bring to the fore porous borders that have operated consciously or unconsciously in the past and point the way to a new kind of dialogue in the present. We contend that the answer to the above question is a key component in a meaningful eco-theology which finds its context in a pluralist nation. Other key ...
The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands,... more The construction and effectual application of eco-theology must seriously engage the shadowlands, the places where borders have created inequities and injustice. In this liminal space, many aboriginal peoples have lived as mere shadows in their ancestral lands, marginalised by the nations that have colonized them. When the place of Christianity in a society's public sphere is in flux, and it finds itself, at times, within the shadowlands, its relationship to other religious traditions, including Aboriginal worldviews, also encourages changes. What happens to Christianity, particularly eco-theology, when it engages mostly earth-based traditions in this context? These encounters bring to the fore porous borders that have operated consciously or unconsciously in the past and point the way to a new kind of dialogue in the present. We contend that the answer to the above question is a key component in a meaningful eco-theology which finds its context in a pluralist nation. Other key components to be explored extend beyond theology to broader issues: one, of coming to terms with the effects of colonialism and the need to pay attention to trust in order to become effective allies effecting real ecological change; and two, the very practical need Christianity has to find an effective voice if it is not to be completely marginalised in a pluralist, post-colonial context. This article focuses on Christian engagement with Canada's First Nations and Christian theology. Consideration of the following themes attempts to further a conversation regarding the future of Christian Eco-theology in a post-Colonial, pluralist context where Christianity often finds itself in much the same shadowlands as those who it colonized: the theoretic understandings of porous borders, a metaphor grounded in the porous non-containment of ecosystems themselves, the complex history of Christianity in the Othering of aboriginal peoples legally and geo-politically within Canada, and the contemporary theological implications-particularly in terms of salvation-for Christianity as it attempts to listen respectfully to the ecological insights of a people seeking agency within its own primal traditions, which are at the same time Christian-influenced.
RELIGION / ECOLOGY VISIONING THE COSMOS THROUGH A LIBERATION LENS "It/one Gebara is unquesti... more RELIGION / ECOLOGY VISIONING THE COSMOS THROUGH A LIBERATION LENS "It/one Gebara is unquestionably the most original theologian working from an ecofeminist liberation perspective from Latin America today. Her theology does not begin with absolutes from on high, but ...
Re-inscribing nature into ethics is a perennial problem for environmental ethics. Nancie Erhard t... more Re-inscribing nature into ethics is a perennial problem for environmental ethics. Nancie Erhard turns the problem on its head with an original framework that re-conceives ethics, or ethos, as a co-creation of habitat. Erhard’s argument starts from the modest assumption “that a geographic location, with its topography and forms of life, could make a difference to ethics” (p. 1). Working toward her conclusions “that moral agency is widely distributed in the biotic community,” and that ethical norms arise from within that community,” and “that what is deemed cultural is itself coproduced by humans and the rest of the biotic community” (pp. 2, 14), Erhard critiques prevailing Western theories of moral agency and engages several non-mainstream natural-cultural contexts for contrast. Her goals are “to see how other-than-human capacity to know and act is conceived, whether other-than-human behavior is understood to have moral content, how human moral imagination has been shaped by other-th...
... of moral and spiritual discernment by being brought into an ongoing conversation by those who... more ... of moral and spiritual discernment by being brought into an ongoing conversation by those who bring us up."10 Moral for-mation and discernment, then, are ... 14 Moral Habitat The metaphor of moral habitat expresses the sense of a sustaining environment more holistically. ...
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