Theological Education and creation care, a thread:

Start here: https://religiondispatches.org/dispatches-from-the-rhodian-shore-a-tough-love-letter-to-religious-studies/

The author makes the clear and important observations a) that religion/theology programs need to place environmental concerns at/near the core of their work, and b) that traditionally evangelical institutions have either been apathetic or overtly hostile to such concerns.

I think that both of those things are true, and I also happen to work/teach at a traditionally evangelical institution. So, what to do?

First of all, I think that the generational tide has shifted on the issue of climate change, and that younger evangelicals have begun to think very differently on this issue (or have left their traditional religious group for this or adjacent reasons).

Second, evangelical institutions that are/have been hostile to environmental concerns make up a huge proportion of the overall landscape of theological education in North America, and globally. This means they can make a significant impact, especially at the popular level.

And so, if evangelical institutions are willing to take seriously this call to action (and they had better, both because it's right, and because they will perish if they don't), there exists an enormous opportunity.

What if evangelical institutions shifted into a posture of serious attention to our ethical obligations to creation? What if we made these concerns key to our programmatic goals and outcomes? What would happen if the most egregious offenders became serious about this work?

Every call to action on environmental care can feel impossible, because the problems are truly enormous, but within that difficulty there exists an opportunity to inspire as well, and I confess, I feel inspired to try to turn the tide how and where I can.