A discussion of early contributions on ecological spirituality, such as “rediscovering the Gospel of the Earth” (Tom Hayden), “telling a New Universe Story” (Thomas Berry) and “religion as roots and wings” (Jay McDaniel), serves as sounding board for the much earlier pneumatological reflections on humanity and nature by the Dutch scholar, A.A. van Ruler. In his Trinitarian theology, Van Ruler explored ways of overcoming dualism in Christianity and countering spiritless definitions of reality in science. Christology and ‘incarnation’ need supplementation by Pneumatology and indwelling’ of God’s Spirit in humanity and nature to eschatologically properly integrate ‘all things’ in God’s ecology.
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Most references come from: Tom Hayden, The Lost Gospel of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996); Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988); Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, The Universe Story (San Francisco: Harper, 1992); Jay B. McDaniel, With Roots and Wings (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1995); Living from the Centre. Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism (St Louis: Chalice Press, 2000).
Willie Jonker, Die Gees van Christus (Kaapstad: NG Kerk Uitgewers, 1981), pp. 50-51.
See McDaniel, Roots and Wings, pp. 75-112, on the importance of how ‘the story’ of the Earth is told in religious traditions. See also Augustine Shutte, Philosophy for Africa (Cape Town: UCT Press, 1993), pp. 35-45.
John Muir, Studies in the Sierra (San Francisco: The Sierra Club, 1950).
Hayden, Lost Gospel, pp. 6-10; see Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (Boston/London: Shambhala, 1995), pp. 22-24, where he speaks of “pathological hierarchy” and “ontological fascism”.
Berry, Lost Gospel, p. xv, and Hayden, Lost Gospel, pp. 45-71. See here the call of the Accra Declaration (2004), identifying the ideology of ‘empire’ as a prime cause of ecological destruction, and the response of two Reformed churches, in South Africa and Germany, in Dreaming a Different World. Globalisation and Justice for Humanity and the Earth (Cape Town: URCSA/ERK, 2010).
See Hayden, Lost Gospel, pp. 17-44, on overcoming the divide between soul and nature, and rediscovering the spirit inside us and in the world. See also Shutte on seriti, the life-giving, relational ‘force’ in humans, enabling them to participate in the ‘field force’ of the universe, in Philosophy for Africa, pp. 52-58; also George Ellis, “The myth of a purely rational life”, 2006, accessed 23 March 2012, 17:10: http://www.mth.uct.ac.za/~ellis/Rational_Life.pdf.
Hayden, Lost Gospel, p. 1; Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 209-210.
Hayden, Lost Gospel, p. 5. Van Ruler’s theology for creation also links with Christian mystic traditions: see Theologisch Werk VI (Nijkerk: Callenbach, 1973), pp. 106-119.
Hayden, Lost Gospel, pp. 17-34; see also the contribution of Mark Wallace on “Christian Animism” in this volume.
Hayden, Lost Gospel, pp. 34-41; the reference is to Theodore Roszak, The Voice of the Earth (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), p. 14.
See the last chapter of Stephen Hawking, A brief history of time (New York: Bantam, 1988).
See McDaniel, Roots and Wings, pp. 78-85; 206-207. According to Berry (Dream of the Earth, pp. 186-193) we, humans, are those beings in creation with organs for ‘dreaming’—ideas not foreign to African spirituality.
McDaniel, Roots and Wings, p. 30-58, an analysis which fits in well with the well-known psychological distinction of cognitive, affective and conative aspects of human behaviour.
McDaniel, Roots and Wings, pp. 42-52. In terms of the work of the Spirit, ‘green grace’ deals with the Spirit’s work in the sphere of what Reformed theology would call ‘general grace.’
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A discussion of early contributions on ecological spirituality, such as “rediscovering the Gospel of the Earth” (Tom Hayden), “telling a New Universe Story” (Thomas Berry) and “religion as roots and wings” (Jay McDaniel), serves as sounding board for the much earlier pneumatological reflections on humanity and nature by the Dutch scholar, A.A. van Ruler. In his Trinitarian theology, Van Ruler explored ways of overcoming dualism in Christianity and countering spiritless definitions of reality in science. Christology and ‘incarnation’ need supplementation by Pneumatology and indwelling’ of God’s Spirit in humanity and nature to eschatologically properly integrate ‘all things’ in God’s ecology.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 206 | 19 | 3 |
Full Text Views | 30 | 3 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 31 | 7 | 4 |