Teaching Natural Theology as Climate Changes Drown a Way of Life

[Jetavan]

The changing climate that threatens to drown the island nation of Tuvalu is also a trial by fire for the islanders' faith.

"We plant and depend on God to provide fruits. We go out fishing with faith that God will provide enough daily," said Tafue Lusama, general secretary of the Ekalesia Kelisiano, Tuvalu's national church. "The failure of these seems to indicate to the people that God's providence has failed them."

Tuvalu is a tiny, predominately Christian nation in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and Australia. About 10,500 people live on the 10-square-mile island; 97 percent belong to the Ekalesia Kelisiano.

In recent years, the nation has made international headlines as rising sea levels damage crops and ruin drinking water, threatening the islanders' existence.
....
The Tuvaluan church's challenge is to teach a theology that emphasizes that God's providence still exists even if islanders' surroundings are being destroyed, Lusama said. He explains that such destruction is the consequence of human behavior and injustice, not God's wrath.

Natural theology is making a come-back.

[HabteSelassie]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Regardless of the politics the earth is warming, this is a fact. Is it part of a natural cycle or a man-made ecological disaster is simply irrelevant to this fact of nature and observation.  Things are getting warmer, ice is melting, sea-levels are rising.  Lucky for the earth, the core of the Antarctic is actually getting colder, and the ice there is getting   denser, which is good because the ice on the periphery of the Antarctic and also the Arctic ice is already floating on water and  so even if it all melts it will not rise sea-levels because like ice in a drinking glass, the water is already displaced, but if the continental ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland were to similarly melt, there would be some long term problems. 

Climate change is a reality, the cause it what is debatable.  The Fasting culture of Orthodox teaches us that regardless of if climate change is man-made, human beings still need to learn to adjust to the natural rhythms and cycles of fasting and feasting, whereas our 20th and 21st century mentality is feast feast feast at any cost.  The world itself is our vomitorium...

So let us all pause and reflect on the consequences of our day to day actions.  If the world is getting warmer, if climate is changing on a mass scale, than we all need to do our part to readjust our consumption patterns shifting towards a more holistic approach rather than a self-destructive one.  Further, over 2,000,000,000 people live on this planet on less than $1 USD a day, so even if the sky isn't falling, surely we all have a lot of work still to do to help out our brothers and sisters out there.  How can folks have three cars in the driveway and four flat screen TVs in the house, an Iphone in every kid's pocket, meanwhile people are starving to death living in absolute squalor.


While we all don't have be Al Gore, we should all be a bit more Mother Theresa in our approach

That is my two-cents.

Stay blessed,
habte selassie

[Papist]

The changing climate that threatens to drown the island nation of Tuvalu is also a trial by fire for the islanders' faith.

"We plant and depend on God to provide fruits. We go out fishing with faith that God will provide enough daily," said Tafue Lusama, general secretary of the Ekalesia Kelisiano, Tuvalu's national church. "The failure of these seems to indicate to the people that God's providence has failed them."

Tuvalu is a tiny, predominately Christian nation in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and Australia. About 10,500 people live on the 10-square-mile island; 97 percent belong to the Ekalesia Kelisiano.

In recent years, the nation has made international headlines as rising sea levels damage crops and ruin drinking water, threatening the islanders' existence.
....
The Tuvaluan church's challenge is to teach a theology that emphasizes that God's providence still exists even if islanders' surroundings are being destroyed, Lusama said. He explains that such destruction is the consequence of human behavior and injustice, not God's wrath.

Natural theology is making a come-back.

Not exactly what I think of when I hear the term "Natural Theology".

[Tags:]

OrthodoxChristianity.net > Moderated Forums > Free-For-All > Religious Topics (Moderator: Carl Kraeff (Second Chance)) > Topic: Teaching Natural Theology as Climate Changes Drown a Way of Life