CONFESSING CHRIST IN THE CONTEXT OF ECOLOGICAL DEGRADATION

 

David Field

University of Transkei

 

The continued large scale degradation and exploitation of the earth threatens to fundamentally alter the complex inter-relationships of the biosphere and with it human society. Yet, for many, the threat of global ecological disaster seems far too distant a prospect to have a major impact on their lifestyle. This is either the consequence of a life of relative ease in comfort zones of middle class suburbia or the result of the struggle survival in the harsh realities of the townships and squatter camps. The latter context makes any concern for the environment seem to be a luxurious distraction from urgency of providing for the basic necessities of life.

Yet we cannot escape the reality that humanity exists within the context of the limited resources of the earth and that the dominant social matrix of our age has already upset the delicate balances of the biosphere on which human survival and flourishing depends. The depletion of fish stocks is already causing hardship to the poor fishing communities on our coasts. The debates around the merits of eco-tourism versus industrial development are constantly resurfacing. Polluted water and inadequate sewage and waste disposal facilities threaten the health of many South African. The issues of social upliftment, economic justice and community development cannot be separated from the issue of the ecological well-being of the context, both global and local, in which we live. Human well-being is dependant upon a healthy and flourishing creation. Failure to address these issues will result in further suffering for ourselves and our children.

Many people and organisations have responded to the challenge global ecological degradation. Christian churches and organisations have issued statements dealing with ecological issues but a response to the degradation of creation has not become a major focus of the churches praxis. The potentially disastrous consequences of the global ecological crisis demands of the Christian church that it re-examines this marginalisation of ecological concerns in the light of the fundamental truth claims of the Christian gospel. It demands that the church confess again its faith in Jesus as the Redeemer and Lord of creation.

The central confession of the church is that God has acted definitively in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to inaugurate the eschatological redemption of God's broken and suffering creation, and that God calls human beings to share in this redemption through incorporation into the new covenant people of God. This central confession has fundamental implications for our understanding of creation and the role of human beings within creation. It is, first, a reaffirmation of God's loving commitment to the well being of all that God has made. Second, it is a proclamation of God's action to renew the divine image within human beings. Third, it is a declaration of God's eschatological purpose for creation. To wilfully degrade and exploit creation denigrates God's commitment to creation, obscures the image of God and rejects God's eschatological purpose for creation. To confess that Jesus Christ is Redeemer and Lord demands of the church that it repent of its complicity in the destruction of God's creation and commit itself to a praxis of ecological healing. To fail to respond to the continued degradation and exploitation of the earth is a denial, in praxis, of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Confessing Christ Today

At different historical moments the church is challenged to confess its faith in Jesus Christ in relation to a particular contexts. The exact nature of this challenge will vary from situation to situation. It might be a response to a threat from outside the church, such as a Roman emperor's demanded that his deity and lordship be acknowledge by all. In that case the church responded with the uncompromising confession that only Jesus was Lord. Sometimes the challenge has come from within the church, when the integrity of its confession is threatened by heresy. In such situations the confession is accompanied by a distinguishing between the true and the false church. In certain situations it might involve a combination of a threat from beyond the church and an accompanying heresy within the church. The primary examples of this, in the twentieth century, are to be found in the church's struggle against nazism and apartheid.

The challenge to the church to confess its faith in response to a particular challenge is not a challenge to repeat old formulas or expressions of the meaning of the gospel. Rather it is a challenge to re-examine the meaning and significance of the gospel in the light of the new situation in order to determine what God demands of the church in this particular context. A challenge to confession is thus accompanied by a re-examination of the basic truth claims of the gospel to determine their significance for the present crisis. With a renewed confessing of Jesus as the Christ comes a deeper and fuller understanding of the meaning and significance of the gospel.

The challenge to confession has, therefore, both contextual and ecumenical significance. The challenge arises out of a particular context but the consequent confession has normative implications for the church as whole. Thus the conflict over gentile Christians responsibility to the law in Galatia gave normative status to the understanding that justification was by grace through faith and not though works of the law. This understanding was revisited and expanded during the conflicts of the reformation and in the struggle against apartheid. As a consequence of the latter struggle it became clear that any form of racial discrimination and segregation was contrary to the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. This expanded awareness of the meaning and significance of the gospel had implications for the ecumenical church. In no context is it now possible for the churches to practice racial segregation or discrimination and to claim to be faithfully preaching the gospel even if they repeat the Pauline formulas or the confessions of the reformation.

The case of apartheid emphasises another dimension of the challenge to faithful confession. That is, that confession is as much an issue of praxis as one of doctrinal statements. One can sincerely repeat orthodox doctrinal statements and deny the gospel through ones praxis. Denials in praxis are as serious, if not more so, than heretical or illegitimate theological affirmations. This is clearly seen in the New Testament case of the conflict between the apostles Paul and Peter. Paul rebukes Peter for denying the gospel, not because of a theological statement, but because he drew back from eating with Gentiles (Galatians 2: 11-21). His failure to accept gentile Christians as fellow members of the covenant community implied a denial of their justification. In the contemporary world it has been proposed that the possession of nuclear weapons and the realities of the world economic order are similar contradictions in praxis of the gospel.

The church as a fallible human reality faces many challenges and threats both from without and within. It is always in a process of discovering what it means to be faithful to Jesus Christ in its words and deeds. What distinguishes this continual struggle for sanctification from a challenge to confession, is the recognition on the part of a church or group of Christians that in this particular situation the most fundamental claims of gospel demand a response from the church. In such a situation neutrality is impossible. Actions or practices which in other situations might have been considered neutral or innocent now lose all neutrality. Confession in word and deed cannot be avoided without compromising the central truth claims of the Christian gospel.

Ulrich Duchrow has argued that the realities of the present global economic order challenges the church's confession in a similar manner to the struggle against nazism and apartheid. For Duchrow the complicity of the churches of in Europe and North America in the global economic order calls into question the integrity of these churches confession of faith in Christ and requires the development of a confessing church movement. This is a consequence of the poverty, injustice and ecological destruction which results from the global economic order. While Duchrow provides a detailed theological rationale for his argument in relation to the issues of poverty and injustice he does not give reasons as to why ecological degradation is a confessional issue. That it is an issue of confessional integrity has, however, been affirmed by the inclusion of statements on a humanity's responsibility towards creation in a number of contemporary statements of faith. This paper attempts to provide the theological rationale for understanding ecological degradation as an issue that challenges the church to renew its confession of faith in Jesus as Redeemer and Lord.

The Gospel and Ecological Well-Being

The gospel is fundamentally a revelation of the nature and character of God. On the basis of this revelation the church has affirmed the triune identity of God. God is a dynamic sociality of persons existing in relationships of self-giving love. Self-giving love for the other is thus definitional for a Christian understanding of character and actions of God. All God's actions in relation to God's creatures are an expression of self-giving love. This is particularly relevant to the confession that Jesus is Lord with its affirmation of the sovereignty and power of God. In a trinitarian understanding this "is not raw omnipotence but the sovereignty of love that is incomparably strong even weakness". It is a loving power which is manifested in the empowerment of the "other" to be itself in all its unique particularity. The gospel is the narrative of how God has expressed this loving power through sacrificing of Godself, in the person of Jesus, for the redemption of creation.

The Gospel as an Expression of God's Commitment to Creation

The proclamation of God's redemptive action in Jesus Christ is often understood to arise out of God's love for humanity and God's consequent intention to save them. While the Biblical witness does emphasise God's concern for humanity, this can only be adequately appreciated when it is understood in relation to God's fundamental commitment to the whole created order.

Christians confess that the universe is to be understood as creation affirms that is it must be understood in its relationship with the triune Creator. An important motif used in the biblical witness to describe this relationship is that of the covenant. Traditionally theology, particularly in the Reformed tradition, has understood the covenant to relate exclusively to God's relationship with humanity. But the Biblical witness provides explicit precedents for the proposition that God's covenantal relationship with humanity is to be understood within the context of a broader covenantal relationship with the whole created order.

Jeremiah thus argues for the faithfulness of God to God's covenant with Israel on the basis of God's faithfulness to the prior covenant with the created order (Jeremiah. 33: 20-25). More importantly, the covenant with Noah is described as being with Noah and his descendants, every living creature and the earth (Genesis 9: 8-17). William J. Dumbrell argues that this covenant discourse should be understood, not as the establishment of a new relationship, but as the renewal of an already established relationship in the light of new circumstances. As such it is the renewal of the relationship that God entered into with the created order through God's creative activity.

God's act of creation is thus an act of covenant making, through which God enters into a relationship of self-giving love with the created others, living and non-living, which God has made. As a consequence "[a]ll God's dealings with creation are covenantal in character." God's relationship with creation is an expression and reflection of the dynamic self-giving love relationships that exist amongst the persons of the Trinity.

In H. Paul Santmire words:

God resolves in eternity graciously to communicate God's infinite life to interrelated and interdependent communities of finite beings in fitting ways, and to enter into communion appropriately with every community of finite being, mediated by the eternal Logos and energised by the eternal Spirit of God, in order to manifest the divine glory through a universal history, which God wills to bring to completion when the time is right, so that all things, in appropriate ways, might enter into the eternal sabbath rest of God.

This covenant motif provides a multifaceted perspective for understanding of God's relationship with creation. We will examine four particularly significant facets of the motif.

First, God's act of creation is an act of sovereign grace and love through which God brings into existence a community of others, which is not God, in order to enter into a deeply personal relationship with it. Through this covenantal act God empowers creation to have its unique particularity as that which is distinct from God and "free according to its own order of being". God's creative power does not infringe the integrity of Creation but empowers and frees it to be itself. It is in its unique particularity that creation is the object of God's love and therefore has a dignity and value of its own.

Second, a covenantal understanding of creation affirms that God has a deep love for creation. It is this love which motivated God to bring creation into being and characterises God's continued relationship with creation. As Calvin states:

[I]f the cause is sought by which he was led to create all these things, and is now moved to preserve them, we shall find that it is in his goodness alone... there is no creature... upon whom God's mercy has not been poured out.

At the end of the sixth day of creation God affirms his deep satisfaction by declaring that creation is "very good." Psalm 104 and Job 38-41 describe God's care for all of creation, and Jesus speaks of the Fathers loving care of the birds and the flowers (Matthew. 6:26-30 and Luke. 12: 6). Jeremiah describes God as weeping and wailing because creation is suffering as a consequence of Israel's sin (Jeremiah 9: 10). God delights with exuberance in creation's fecundity and bounteous life, yet is grieved and mourns at its suffering.

Third, God's covenant with creation has the specific goal of bringing into being a community of creatures in relationship with God and each other. The parallels in the structure and terminology of the first creation account and that of the building of the tabernacle point to the goal of God's act of creation as being the making of a sanctuary. Creation is ultimately the place where God and God's creatures dwell together in communion with each other. The second creation account confirms this with its description of a garden rich in symbolism associated with the tabernacle and the temple. Eden is the archetypal sanctuary in which God was seen to be present in the same way that God present in the Israelite sanctuaries. God walks in Eden, in the "cool of the day," to have fellowship with God's creatures. This understanding of the goal of creation is enhanced by the first creation account culmination on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the day on which God rests, relaxes with, delights in, blesses and enjoys God's creatures. God's goal for creation is that the community of creatures should share in the freedom, rest and joy that characterises the divine life, a goal expressed in the concept of shalom.

Fourth, the goal for creation has not been achieved. Creation is in travail, distorted by the powers of chaos and death and oppressed by human sinfulness. As a consequence of God's loving faithfulness to the covenant, God refuses to abandon creation. In the life and death of Jesus Christ God gives God's very self to redeem creation in order that God's goal for creation will be achieved. The resurrection of Christ and the out pouring of the Spirit is the down payment guaranteeing the eschatological achievement of this goal.

The Gospel as the Renewal of Authentic Humanity

Christian theology has traditionally understood God's ideal for authentic human existence as described through the motif of the image of God. This motif has been variously interpreted throughout the history of Christian theology. The biblical text gives very few clues as to what it means. At the very least we can assert that in some sense human beings are to reflect and represent God in creation.

The primary indication of what the author intended is to be found in the religious polemic and royal theology of the first creation narrative. The motif is thus to be understood against the background of Ancient Near Eastern religious traditions and royal ideologies. In this context the motif of the image of a god was used in two main contexts. The first was that of a statue which represented a particular god in a temple or place of worship. The second was in Egyptian and Mesopotamian royal ideology. Rulers legitimated their rights and prerogatives by claiming that they, unlike the rest of the population, were the image of a particular god. In both uses of the motif, the image was understood to reflect the character of the deity and to represent the deity's interests in a particular context.

Central to the Ancient Near Eastern use of this motif were the concepts of power and authority. Carved images and rulers represented the power and authority of the god. In the case of a ruler, the claim to be the image bearer of a particular god legitimated the rulers authority and power over the mass of the population. Hence this motif is closely related to that of human dominion over the earth. In contrast to the other cultures of the Ancient Near East the Biblical witness affirms that all human beings, males and females, are created in the image of God and have dominion over the earth. This subverts those oppressive social systems which used the motif of the image of God to legitimate the authority of the powerful at the expense of the poor. Genesis democratises the Ancient Near Eastern royal ideology in accordance with liberating message of Yahweh, the God who sides with the poor and powerless.

The declaration that human beings are created in the image of God is thus a declaration about the use and organisation of power in society. It is a protest against the use of power to oppress the powerless, and a call to all humanity, particularly the oppressed and powerless to assume their vocation to be God's representatives in creation. It is thus a demand for the re-organisation of power in the service of the empowerment of the powerless.

This understanding of the image of God and of human dominion over the earth specifically excludes the use of these motifs to legitimate the massive ecological exploitation and degradation that has take place in the contemporary world.

First, in its literary and socio-historical context the granting of dominion refers to the farming activities of ancient Israel. The text thus legitimates the use of power in agriculture, the keeping of flocks and herds, and the protection of ones family and animals from wild animals. It is permission to use creation to promote the survival and flourishing of the human community not to limitlessly exploit the earth.

Second, the declaration that human beings are created in the image of God is a demand that power be organised and used in a way that represents the character and purpose of God in the world. God brought creation into being as an act of love for all creatures with the aim of bringing into being a community of creatures in communion with God. Power is thus to be exercised in self-giving love to empower the other to be all that God intended the other to be. To bear the image of the triune God of the covenant in creation is to love creation and out of one's love for creation to use one's power to promote penultimate expressions of shalom for the whole of creation.

Humanity has failed to exercise its power as the representative of God in creation. As the second creation narrative testifies, we have abused that power to claim the prerogatives of deity, demanding the right to autonomously control creation. As a consequence humans have used and organised their power to exploit the earth and to oppress and abuse other humans. Powerless humans have been prevented by the powerful from exercising their vocation to bear the image of God. The effect of such oppression is to instil apathy in the powerless so that they do not assert their right to image God in creation. As a consequence of both the usurpation of power and the apathetic failure to claim legitimate power, the earth has been exploited and destroyed. People, animals, plants and minerals are now treated, not as fellow members of the community of creation, but as resources and tools to be used for the benefit of the powerful.

Christians have affirmed that the New Testament bears witness to God's act in Jesus Christ to restore the image of God within humanity. The gospel thus proclaims the renewal of authentic humanity. As a consequence of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Spirit unites believers to Christ who is pre-eminently the image bearer of God. Through union with Christ the believer enters into a process of growth in conformity to the image of God and thus into authentic humanity. To be a Christian is to be called to love God's creation and out of this love to promote penultimate expressions of God's shalom for creation. It is to be committed to the healing of the earth. As Daniel Migliore expresses it:

Christian growth is a maturing in solidarity. By "solidarity" I mean regard for and love of all our fellow creatures... Growth in Christian life is a process of entering into solidarity with ever widening circles of community that are created and nourished by the Spirit.

The Gospel as the Proclamation of God's Eschatological Purpose for Creation

The biblical witness portrays the eschatological hope of creation as its transformation into the new heaven and the new earth. All injustice, oppression, pain, suffering, sickness and death will be removed. Liberty and justice will reign for humanity and the whole of creation. Never again will the powerful trample on the powerless. Humans will freed to be what God created them to be - image bearers of God. Creation will be liberated from its travail and transformed into a glorious new community in fellowship with the triune God.

Creation will be cleansed and transformed, yet this new creation will stand in continuity with the old. The popular picture of God destroying the earth through judgement, must be rejected as contrary to God's faithfulness to the covenant and to the biblical affirmation of the goodness of creation. As Miroslav Volf writes:

The expectation of the eschatological destruction of world is not consonant with the belief in the goodness of creation: what God will annihilate must be either so bad that it is not possible to be redeemed or so insignificant that it is not worth being redeemed. It is hard to believe in the intrinsic value and goodness of something that God will completely annihilate.

Biblical apocalyptic descriptions of judgement by fire are to be understood as the of purging and cleansing creation and not its destruction. As Calvin commented on I Peter 1:10: "[H]eaven and earth will be cleansed by fire so that they may be fit for the kingdom of Christ." The goal of redemption is thus neither the destruction of creation nor the translation of humanity into some new ethereal world but the inauguration of a is a transformed earthly life.

God's covenant is with the whole of the community of creation and thus God's eschatological goal for creation comprehends the whole of creation and not merely humans. This is graphically portrayed in the biblical apocalyptic writings. Isaiah describes the predator and the prey lying down together. Revelation 5 describes all creatures worshipping God. Richard Bauckham thus comments:

Even amongst the worshipers human beings are not pre-eminent. The four living creatures who lead the worship of the whole of creation are not portrayed as anthropomorphic beings, as angelic beings often are. Only the third has a face resembling a human face. The others resemble a lion, an ox and an eagle, and with their six wings and myriad eyes all have a heavenly superiority to earthly creatures(4:6-8). Their representative function is to worship on behalf of all creatures and therefore it is fulfilled when the circle of worship expands to include not only humans, but "every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea" (5:13).

Revelation also complements the Isianic vision of the predator and the prey with its picture of the tree of life in the new Jerusalem. The tree bears fruit every month and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. The redemption of all things embraces a new community in which humanity dwells in companionship with otherkind and finds its healing through its relationship with otherkind. In the new Jerusalem the best of human culture will be in tune with the magnificence of God's creation. Together they will proclaim the glory of God's actions in creation and redemption as God makes God's home amongst God's creatures.

God's goal for creation will be achieved when the triune God enters fully into the sanctuary of creation in order to dwell in fellowship with the whole community of creation. "This in the last resort is what is "new" about the new creation. It is the old creation filled with the God's presence."

This unbelievable hope is not grounded in scientific theories about the future of the cosmos but in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the resurrection of Jesus, God's new creation erupted into history. The resurrection announces God's triumph over evil and the vindication of God's purpose for creation, prefiguring the final eschatological victory of God. The resurrection announces that in Jesus, God has borne and overcome worldly evil. Human sin has been dealt with and the powers of evil defeated. The way is now open for God to renew creation by removing from it all that opposes God's purposes for it. God has acted from the future, invading the present to inaugurate this new order for creation.

This confession has profound implications for the way we interact with creation. Negatively, to oppress, degrade and exploit creation is to deny that it has a an eschatological future as a consequence of Christ's redeeming work. It is to deny the gospel.

Positively, God calls people to partake in God's redemption of creation and to become co-workers with God in the in God's mission within creation. To be a Christian is thus to be called to preserve, heal and enhance creation. This activity has eschatological and thus ultimate consequences, for it, along with all that is good in the present creation will be taken up into the new creation.

 Confessing Christ in Response to the Ecological Challenge

The truth claims of the gospel demand a response from the church. It cannot continue to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the eschatological Redeemer and fail to address the issue of the degradation of creation. To do so is to deny through its praxis that, in Christ, God gave God's very self for the redemption of creation of the world. It is to deny that the persons united to Christ and thus to his body, the church, are being transformed into the image of God. It is to deny that God will transform this present creation into the new heavens and the new earth. It is to reject the calling of the church to become God's fellow workers in the redemption of creation. The Church must confess again its faith in word and action through a commitment to the healing of the earth.

While the challenge of the gospel is stark, the realities are complex. First, despite the rhetoric of environmental activists there are no clear distinctions between the ecologically innocent and the ecologically guilty. We are all caught up in a world order dominated by the ideal of progress through the exploitation and domination of creation. Even those committed to the healing of the earth consume vast quantities of energy, paper and other resources to promote there concerns. If we are to work for the transformation of this ecologically destructive world order, we are forced to make compromises in order to bring about change. While the church cannot escape the exploitative social order in which it exists, it must commit itself to the transformation of that order.

We must, however, make one important distinction amongst those who exploit creation. That is that between those who through there wealth and power dominate society and those who are dominated by it. While the poor and powerless contribute to the destruction of creation, they do so as those who are victims of the dominant socio-economic order and not as those who benefit from it. Very often their survival depends on practices which exploit creation. In seeking to address the consequences of ecological degradation the church must take its stand in solidarity with the poor seeking solutions that serve their interests and not those of the rich and powerful. Ecological healing is dependant upon the empowerment of the powerless to take up their vocation as image bearers of God.

Second, the clarion call for action does not remove the often complex task of discovering how to address particular environmental issues. In many cases there are no easy solutions. Careful compromises will have to be made as the needs of communities, workers and the environment are taken into consideration. In all this the church is called to make compromises in favour of the powerless, both human and otherkind.

Confession of Sin

Authentic confession of faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ begins with confession of sin. The Church has participated in the devastation of creation through its participation in, legitimation of and entrapment to the socio-cultural order which has devastated creation. Theologies of dominion have given people permission to exploit the earth. Anthropocentric soteriologies have denied God's concern for all creation. Spiritualized eschatologies have promoted the idea that the material creation is of no ultimate value as it is destined for destruction. The church stands as a guilty participant in the degradation of creation.

It is only when the church recognises its failure and brokenness that it can contribute in a meaningful way to the healing of creation. The church is a fallible and broken reality and ought not to be seen in an idolatrous manner as the saviour of the world. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of creation and the church is his fallible and sinful instrument. In grace he uses it to further the redemption of creation. The confession that Jesus is Lord entails the rejection of any triumphalism which regards institutionalised Christianity as being without sin in regard to the exploitation of creation.

Confession as Faithful Praxis

Words are not enough, faithful confession must be expressed in a praxis of preserving and healing the earth. Such a praxis must impact all dimensions of the life and witness of the church. It demands a new way of being the church. While constraints of space forbid a detailed exploration of what this would entail, I will highlight three significant areas.

First, the church is called to be a model of the values it proclaims. It must thus adopt a lifestyle which rejects the consumerism, exploitation and wastage that characterises so much of contemporary society. It must carefully examine the way its property, finance and other resources are being used. Where resources are being used in a manner which contributes to the destruction of the earth and the disempowerment of humanity, this must be acknowledged and changed. A determined effort must be made to use them in a manner which contributes to the healing of the earth and the empowerment of humanity.

Second, the church is called to participate in God's redemptive action in the world. In the context of ecological degradation this entails the integration of a concern for ecological healing into its understanding and practice of mission. Evangelism must include a call to renounce lifestyles which contribute to the exploitation of the earth. Activism around environmental issues must be practised as an integral part of the church's mission. Programs aimed at social upliftment and community development must include ecological dimensions. The prophetic witness of the church to the state and society must include a clear witness to God's concern for justice for the whole of creation and not only for humanity.

Third, the teaching and preaching ministry of the church must include a focus on creation. This will, on the one hand, enable Christians to come to a new appreciation creation as a revelation of the glory of God. On the other hand, it will lead to a concern for creation becoming an integral part of Christian discipleship.

Confession and "Neutral" Matters

The crisis brought about by an issue which challenges the integrity of the church's confession is one which demands a reconsideration of issues which, in other circumstances, could be regarded as neutral issues. Thus in most cases the choice as to with whom one should eat is a matter of personal preference but in the context of the early church's debate over Jewish scruples about gentiles, it became an issue of faithfulness to the gospel. In the context of ecological degradation there are many issues which now need to be re-evaluated in terms of faithfulness to the gospel. This is not to say that it is always easy to determine what a faithful response will be, but it does mean that we can no longer treat them as neutral issues. These would include issues of the number of children we have, the amount of resources we consume, the modes of transport we regularly use and the vocation which we pursue. Our life and witness must be re-evaluated in the light of its impact on the environment.

Confession in a Pluralistic Context

There are a host of differing ideological perspectives which inform ecological discussion and praxis. Some of these are explicitly religious while others are not. The theological understanding, developed above, provides a particular approach to these issues. To confess Jesus as Lord is not to engage in a triumphalistic attempt to dominate other viewpoints. Rather it is to bear witness God's saving action in Christ by articulating, in word and praxis, the particular approach to ecological issues that arises out of the gospel. This approach has a number of characteristics.

First, it affirms the integrity and value of creation without divinising it. Second, it recognises the legitimacy of the exercise of human power in creation. But it demands that this power be organised and used in manner which promotes penultimate expressions of shalom. It thus insists that ecological healing is dependent on the liberation and empowerment of the powerless human beings. In recognising the legitimacy of power it also recognises the legitimacy of agriculture, science and technology, but demands that they be used to promote the flourishing of the whole community of creation and not for the exclusive benefit of rich and powerful human beings. Third, it affirms the important role that the legitimate exercise of human power plays in the furtherance of God's purpose for creation. It therefore demands of human beings that they engage in responsible action in the promotion of a just human society in the context of a flourishing non-human environment. Fourth, its affirmation of the eschatological character of ultimate ecological well-being acts as critique of all human attempts to promote ecological healing, and calls them to give fuller expression to God's intention for creation.

 Conclusion

In the same manner that nazism and apartheid posed a challenge to the integrity of the church's confession of faith in Christ as Lord and Redeemer so too does the degradation of creation. Acts which degrade creation, even on a fairly limited scale can no longer be regarded as issues which are neutral or of limited concern for the church. The church, as the people who confess that Jesus is Redeemer and Lord, is faced with the choice of faithfulness to the gospel and thus a commitment to the healing of the earth or of compromising or even denying the gospel by ignoring the degradation of God's beloved earth.