CREATION Living Together in our Common House One World Theology (Volume 11) CREATION Living Together in our Common House 11 Edited by Klaus Krämer and Klaus Vellguth CLARETIAN COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDATION, INC. CREATION Living Together in our Common House Contents (One World Theology, Volume 11) Copyright © 2017 by Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau Published by Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. U.P. P.O. Box 4, Diliman 1101 Quezon City, Philippines Preface ......................................................................................... ix Tel.: (02) 921-3984 • Fax: (02) 921-6205 [email protected] www.claretianpublications.ph Creation in Crisis Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. (CCFI) is a pastoral endeavor of the Reverence for Life as God’s Good Creation ........................ 3 Claretian Missionaries in the Philippines that brings the Word of God to people from all walks of life. It aims to promote integral evangelization and renewed spirituality that is Simone Rappel geared towards empowerment and total liberation in response to the needs and challenges of the Church today. From Life’s Splendour to Planetary Crisis ........................... 11 CCFI is a member of Claret Publishing Group, a consortium of the publishing houses of Juan Antonio Mejía Guerra the Claretian Missionaries all over the world: Bangalore, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Chennai, Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Lagos, Macau, Madrid, Manila, Owerry, São Paolo, Varsaw and Yaoundè. God the Creator. Man as the Statue of God. ....................... 19 Biblical and Theological Reflections on the Preservation of Creation Savio Vaz Spirituality of Creation: Creation During a Crisis ................. 29 David Kaulem Biblical Reflections Paradise Lost and Paradise Promised. ............................... 45 The New Testament View of Creation Thomas Söding Ecology and Spirituality in the Light ..................................... 57 of the Cosmological Paradigm Leonardo Boff ‘The whole creation, until this time, has been groaning ....... 77 Cover design by Novel Bernabe P. Estillore in labour pains.’ (Rom 8:22) Layout design by Ma. Myreen Q. Gayos On Creation’s Need for Redemption All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without written Jean Prosper Agbagnon permission from the publisher. ISBN: 978-____-____-____-___ v vi Creation Contents vii Towards an Indigenous Spirituality of Creation. .................. 91 Creation and Responsibility Retracing Steps to Mt Banahaw. An Inquiry And Apple Trees still have to be planted. ............................ 221 into the Philippine’s New Jerusalem Journeying together down the Road to Ecological, Andrew Gimenez Recepcíon Social and Economic Responsibility Klaus Vellguth Concepts of Creation Fundamental Elements of a Christian Concept ................... 109 Humanisation in Creation .................................................... 237 of Creation based on the Encyclical Laudato Si’ Diego Irarrázaval Ursula Nothelle-Wildfeuer Reconstructing an African Spirituality of Creation. .............. 247 On Creation. ........................................................................ 127 A Tanzanian Value-Based Paradigm and Best Practice Reflections on a Holistic Eco-Theology Aidan G. Msafiri Rui Manuel Grácio das Neves Creation and Responsibility ................................................. 271 The Concept of Creation in the African World View: ........... 145 Robert Athickal SJ, India Is Laudato Si’ a Gift to Africa? Anne Beatrice Fayé Appendix Index of Authors ................................................................... 285 Towards Ecological Healing: A Philippine Experience ......... 155 Mary John Mananzan, OSB Index of Translators ............................................................. 291 Responses of the Church Sustainability in Solidarity and Justice, the Responses ....... 171 of the Churches in Germany Mattias Kiefer and Markus Vogt Creation Spirituality. ............................................................ 183 Answers from the Church in Africa Moses Asaah Awinongya Sumak Kawsay, a Model to the World from the Periphery ............................................................... 193 Fernán Gustavo Carreras Responding to the Exaggerations of Secularization ............ 209 and Fundamentalism Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil Preface The contributors to this volume, the eleventh in the One World Theology series, map out perspectives for a theology of creation and, in doing so, focus on a topic which is probably of more global relevance than any other. For the inhabitants of Planet Earth unde- niably share a common destiny, which means that the human family depends on cooperation for its survival. Pope Francis drew attention to this in the first of his encyclicals Laudato Si’, in which he called for a new dialogue on how mankind can shape the future of the planet: ‘We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environ- mental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.” (Laudato Si’, no. 14) That this volume of One World Theology should examine a sus- tainable theology of creation is a reflection of the nature and objective of the series and its focus on missiology and the universal Church. One of the features of the One World Theology series is that it addresses issues from diverse vantage points. Each volume provides authors from different geographical and cultural backgrounds with an oppor- tunity to present their views and thus to contribute to the polyphonic universal Church discourse. In their articles the authors examine the crisis of creation, biblical guidance for an up-to-date view of creation, theological concepts of creation, and the active commitment to creation of the Church in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. They also highlight the sense of responsibility which must be developed for a careful and sensitive approach to creation, in particular from a Christian perspective. The chapter on ‘Creation in Crisis’ begins with a contribution from Simone Rappel in which the theologian highlights ‘an understanding of nature as creation, with all its religious overtones, that offers a valuable stimulus in our post-modern context with its plurality of potential meanings and interpretations – a stimulus which can inspire ix x Creation Preface xi a crisis-transforming environmental ethos and support a recon- can be characterised by three fields of tension which reconcile struction of our society.’ She points to the fundamental equivalence creation and redemption, immanence and transcendence, and lament of all creatures and to the solidarity of all created beings and goes and praise. Referring to the Letter to the Colossians, he shows that on to demonstrate the extent to which, in the 17th century, the break the world is regarded as God’s creation which is held together in him with the biblical concept of man and the biblical worldview dispensed and is moving towards its fulfilment. The author notes that God is the with man’s concept of ‘sym-pathy’ with and ‘participation’ in creation Creator, he is not part of the world (Gen 1:1). Looking at Jesus, the and replaced it with a drive to dominate creation. She contrasts this New Testament shows that God is ‘not just outside the world, but that attitude with the principle of retinity, in which man is seen as part of he has entered it’. Creation exists in the tension between present the network of creation. and promise. Prayers for Christ’s presence are thus the ‘heartbeat of In his article entitled from ‘Life’s Splendour to Planetary Crisis’ biblical creation spirituality’. Juan Antonio Mejía Guerra says that the ecological crisis is a global Leonardo Boff looks at ecology and spirituality in the light of the crisis and that climate change has brought mankind to the brink of the cosmological paradigm. He notes first of all that the call for spirituality sixth mass extinction on the planet. Moreover, climate change hits becomes more urgent in situations of extreme danger and points out the poor nations hardest, as they have no means of protecting them- that the question of God in the process of cosmogenesis is crucial for selves against environmental crises. Guerra regards the salvation ‘genuine ecological spirituality’. In view of the Trinitarian understanding of creation as the biggest challenge facing Christians and calls for of God in Christianity he says that the Spirit pervades everything in greater Christian involvement in social and ecological initiatives. the process of evaluation and that, on the basis of such a pneuma- ‘God the Creator’ is the title the Indian theologian, Savio Vaz, has tological understanding, cosmic-ontological mysticism comprises the given to his article in which he investigates the relationship between awareness that all human beings are immersed in the field of absolute science and belief in God before going on to examine the relationship energy, which can be described as the Spiritus Creator. Looking at between science and the Christian teaching on creation. He draws ecological spirituality, Boff draws attention to neurological and neuro- on theological statements according to which the environmental psychological research and calls for the integration of spiritual intel- crisis must be seen as the consequence of man’s repudiation of the ligence into cognitive or emotional intelligence, since this ‘opens us (Christian) belief in creation. The author shows that the Bible does to loving communion