Stewardship, Integrity of Creation and Climate Justice: Religious Ethics Insights - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 374

This wholeness or integrity of creation's perspective implies the need to revisit
the way creation is understood by theology (Vischer 2007 ). From this perspective,
creation is not only something that happened “at the beginning,” as presented in the
topic of Genesis' accounts. Creation, for Christian theology, is a permanent divine
activity that creates, redeems, and renews. As stated in Psalm 104, 30: “When you
send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground.”
In theological jargon, creation is not only creatio prima but also creatio continua . In
this continuous creation, God as life-giving Spirit brings salvation, reconciles,
heals, and liberates the whole creation. This provides the framework for a compre-
hensive view of creation and salvation (Conradie 2012 ).
This understanding reacts against a sole understanding of a transcendent God as
an absolute entity. God combines absolute transcendence ( superior summo meo , in
Augustine of Hippo's words) with deep immanence ( intimior intimo meo , again
according to Augustine) and transparency (as understood by Teilhard de Chardin).
God is seen not only beyond creation but also in creation (Moltmann 1985 ).
If God is in creation, human beings are also in creation and not above it. There is
a close and indissoluble bond of human beings to the Earth. “Man” is “earthling”
( adam in Hebrew), created out of the soil ( adamah ). Created “in God's image and
likeness” (Genesis 1, 27), humans have a special place within creation and respon-
sibility towards it.
For some decades process theologians (Cobb and Griffi n 1976 ; Suchocki 1989)
and ecofeminists (Ruether 1993 ; McFague 1993 ; Gebara 1999 ) have contributed
much to unpack the contents of a revised theology of creation. They have developed
notions such as panentheism or the world as the body of God, which have helped to
understand the meaning of a stewardship of creation. This approach also tries to
respond adequately to the accusation of anthropocentrism in Christianity - as raised
by Lynn White ( 1967 ), for example, a criticism to which we will come back later.
To have a holistic understanding of earth stewardship, together with a biblical
theological refl ection on the integrity of creation, the biblical concept of justice
constitutes another key component. Justice is at the core of the biblical message.
“He [God] secures justice for widows and orphans, and loves the alien who lives
among you, giving him food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10, 18-19). The God of
the Bible is a God who does justice, who cares, who loves, and gives security to the
poor, the vulnerable, represented by the widow, the orphan, and the stranger in
many biblical texts. Accordingly, human beings need to act justly, which means
protecting the vulnerable ones: “…cease to do evil and learn to do right; pursue
justice and champion the oppressed, give the orphan his rights, plead the widow's
case” (Isaiah 1, 16b-17).
Latin American liberation theology has especially looked at the poor, the vulner-
able, and the victims. Some authors have related the vulnerability of human beings
with the vulnerability of the Earth. Leonardo Boff, a well known Brazilian theolo-
gian, says that the cry of the poor is echoed by the cry of the Earth (Boff 1997 ).
Based on the notion of the groaning of creation (Romans 8, 22), Boff calls for
widening the meaning of the option for the poor, which has been a key component
of liberation theologies in Latin America. According to Boff, this option should