Witness to God's Redemption of Creation

Author: Yordy, Laura R.

Source: Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, Volume 14, Numbers 2-3, 2010 , pp. 206-215(10)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

This article, in response to Willis Jenkins' Ecologies of Grace, explores the connections between Christian ecological practices and soteriology. How do ecological practices draw Christians closer to God? For Aquinas, human sanctification takes place through knowledge of God's creation. Conversely, human knowing and loving of creation, enabled by grace, draws all creation together into closer relationship with God. For the sanctification of nonhumans, human intellect acts as a sort of funnel pointing from creation towards God. However, it is argued here that a better account of the human-nonhuman relationship and sanctification is that humans come to know the ecological peace and abundance of the Kingdom of God by witnessing to that peace and abundance here and now, by living in conformity with the interspecies peace, justice, and abundance of the Kingdom. Human sanctification occurs through the real, concrete activities of caring for God's creation.

Keywords: ecology; creation; sanctification; soteriology; Thomas Aquinas; Jon Sobrino; redemption; environmental ethics; eschatology

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853510X507310

Affiliations: 1: Bridgewater College 402 E. College St., Bridgewater, VA 22812 USA, Email: lyordy@bridgewater.edu

Publication date: 2010-08-01