The first day or so we all pointed to
our country. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continent. By the
fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth. - Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, a Saudi
prince and former Royal Saudi Air Force pilot who flew aboard the American
STS-51-G Space Shuttle mission as a payload specialist.
Have you ever wondered how Christianity and the earth will look like a
century from now? How will our present choices impact the coming years?
In this time of socio-environmental crisis, we are facing the choice between
what matters and what does not. We are in a dilemma of priorities. The poor
needs care, our common home needs protection and our actions need correction. We
all recognize the earth’s distress and our human responsibility for it. But how
did the instruction to save creation get lost in our Christian reflection? How
does the church respond to this crisis?
It is not dramatizing if we acknowledge what science is telling us to
avoid the radical and catastrophic climate change. Science views the
phenomenon as a crisis of nature. However, it is imperative that the church
help society rediscover nature as creation (Buktus 2002). In Pope Francis
Inaugural Mass in March 2013, he emphasized creation care
Protect creation … protect all creation, the
beauty of the created world …
respect each of God’s creatures and respect the
environment in which we live …. care for creation and for our brothers and
sisters … protect the whole of creation, protect each person, especially the
poorest ….
Let us protect with love all that God has given
us!
Environmental degradation resulting from our activities is one of the
major “signs of the times” (Matthew 16:3) that requires Christians to respond.
There is an urgency to act now, and this is a fact. As negative human activities
toward earth continue to undermine the quality of life across the globe,
Christianity is witnessing a growing ecological consciousness. This
consciousness has redefined Christian spirituality and discipleship to include
human attitudes toward the creation.
Creation care has been a major concern in the church’s ecumenical
mission in the twenty-first century. The 2010 Lausanne Movement Cape Town
Commitment maintained that we cannot love Jesus without loving Creation:
If Jesus is Lord of all the earth, we
cannot separate our relationship to Christ from how we act in relation to the
earth. For to proclaim the gospel that says ‘Jesus is Lord’ is to proclaim the
gospel that includes the earth, since Christ’s Lordship is over all creation.
Creation care is… a gospel issue within the Lordship of Christ.
The Lausanne Occasional Paper: Towards a Missiology of Caring for
Creation held in Beirut, Lebanon in 2010 also asserts that creation care as a
normal element of an authentically biblical mission agenda. In 1989, the San
Antonio World Conference on Mission and Evangelism used the theme of Justice,
Peace and Integrity of Creation basing it on Psalm 24 “The earth is the Lord’s.”
Much attention has been given to the importance of ecological and environmental
issues for the mission of the church. The heightened need to explore
earth-keeping as a mission theme can be felt in ecumenical fora in different
denominations. Everyone feels the threat to life of the environment and has led
to more effort for a more biblical and theological understanding of the breadth
of God’s purposes and the wholeness of God’s salvific intention in Jesus
Christ.
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) acknowledges that
the earth is the Lord’s. It is affirmed in its Statement of Faith. And a matter
of expression, one Sunday is dedicated to the protection of the environment. We
believe:
In one God: Creator, Redeemer, and
Sustainer, who provide order, purpose meaning and fulfilment to all creation;
That person are created in the image of
God and destined to live in the community with God, with other persons and with
all creation.
That being entrusted with God’s
creation, they are called to participate in the establishment of a just and
compassionate social order.
And we look forward to His coming again
in all fullness and glory to make all creation new and to gather all the
faithful under God’s Kingdom.
At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, Christian
representatives made their voices heard that sustainable development must be
oriented toward “a real commitment to care for the poor, the marginalized and
the voiceless” (Jenkins. 2008). Even Pope Francis’ concern for the poor was
profound in his Laudato Si in 2015 as he sees the poor being the most vulnerable
of those affected by the environmental degradation. He
laments against
“pollution,
climate change, a lack of clean water, loss of biodiversity, and an overall
decline in human life and a breakdown of society.”
And the poor bear the ill effects of these
problems. The Church then cannot ignore its call to seek after the needs of the
poor and the needy (James 1:27). While these are valid calls address a
real danger, there are challenges in our generation that must be
addressed:
- Population Growth and
Unlimited Resources – rapid population growth in a country is a threat to
the environment through agricultural expansion, unrestrained urbanization
and industrialization, and the destruction of the animals’ natural
habitat. According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), in the year
2050 there will be 9 billion people on this planet. This means that in one
generation, there will be 2 billion people. That’s more than there were in
total people a century ago. At the rate of current consumption, we are
going to need three times the number of resources we are currently
consuming in order to sustain 9 billion people. This is a real issue. The
earth feels the pressure of a massively growing population because it will
require more food and food requires more land and water and all other
forms of production.
- Waste Management
or Desire - we live in a me-first centered world. In order to sustain our
desire for the new and the innovative, we have to continue to produce more
and more things. National Geographic published an article claiming
that
Of the 8.3 billion
metric tons that has been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic
waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority—79
percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural
environment as litter. Meaning: at some point, much of it ends up in the
oceans, the final sink.
Food waste is a
different story. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, one-third of food produced around the world is wasted.
Globally, that is about 1.4 billion tons of food every year. These waste impact
climate change because of its need for freshwater and fossil fuels and its
emission of methane and carbon monoxide.
3. The challenge of
ignorance - it’s the reality that we are constantly bombarded with competing
agenda that it’s hard to know what to believe. Everybody has an agenda. When we
read about carbon dioxide, about carbon emission, we will hear a lot of
opinions. For example, we have always thought that gas emission is the highest
source of methane which reduces the amount of oxygen breathed from the air.
However, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Agriculture
is the predominant source of methane. In a recent assessment
from the UNEP and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, it was found that
cutting farming-related methane emissions would be key in the battle against
climate change. However, there is a socio-economic conflict between the need
for farm animal produce and its effect on the environment. How does society
address this balance? As ordinary citizens, how do we handle information
that may seem contradicting depending on who presents it? Let us not fall prey
of the economic philosophies of this world so that we can boldly proclaim the
gospel of Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:8).
Stewardship
There are two extreme worldviews about the world: consumerism and
pantheism. According to Baylor University Institute of Faith and Learning, “consumerism
is, first and foremost, a culture of expectations that draws us into unhealthy
ways of relating to our material possessions and tempts us to be consumers of
one another.” Consumerism believes that the world is a commodity
to be used. The problem with consumerism is that the world does not have
enough resources to continue at the pace of consumption that we are on. This unrestrained
desire to acquire more material possession is no longer just a modern
affliction, but an enduring addiction. Even the Church falls prey into this
addition by becoming another vendor or products and services by adopting
marketing strategies.
Pantheism, on the other hand, believes God in everything. Its ethical
framework is based on a Divine Unity which is “all inclusive” (Mander, 2022).
This extreme worldview believes that the world is sacred and that humans are
the enemy and must be annihilated. A pantheistic
ecological ethic is not anthropocentric where man is not the “steward of
nature.”
In the middle of these two opposing worldviews, the Bible provides a
balanced approach towards environmental care. This approach is called
stewardship. According to the Catholic Bishops of the Pacific Northwest
Stewardship is the traditional
expression of the role of people in relation to creation. Stewards, as
caretakers for the things of God, are called to use wisely and distribute
justly the goods of God’s earth to meet the needs of God’s children.”
The concept of stewardship is seen throughout the Bible but is most
visible in Genesis and the Psalms. The world is a gift that has been entrusted
to our care. This does not belong to us. It belongs to God. Psalm 24:1
says “The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it
upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” And again in Psalm 89:11 “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;
the world and all that is in
it, you have founded them.”
The concept of stewardship is based on Genesis
1:26-28 where man is commanded by God to have dominion over everything on earth
and on the heavens. While man is given the authority over all creation, McKenzie
(n.d.) cites Dietrich
Bonhoeffer that we are bound to it.
He
further quotes Bonhoeffer as having developed the concept of interconnectedness
saying:
“The ground and the animals over which I
am lord constitute the world in which I live, without which I cease to be. I am
not free from it in any sense of my essential being, my spirit, having no need
of nature, as though nature were something alien to the spirit. On the
contrary, in my whole being, my creatureliness, I belong wholly to thins world;
it bears me, nurtures me, holds me. But my freedom from it consists in the fact
that this world, to which I am bound like a master to his servant, like the peasant
to his bit of ground [Boden], has been made subject to me, that over the earth
which is and remains my earth I am to rule, and the more I master it, the more
it is my earth. What so peculiarly binds human beings to, and sets them over
against, the other creatures is the authority conferred on humankind by thing
else than God’s word.”
The command of stewardship is also seen by Sandu
(2007) as a trinitarian action. He provides us a profound explanation on the
mystery of creation being the work of the Trinity:
The mystery of
creation lies in God’s unfathomable will, manifested outwards through the
uncreated divine energies present in matter. The Father is “the Maker of heaven
and earth”, who works through the Son (John 1: 3) and sustains and leads matter
into the eternal life through the Spirit, which the Holy Scripture calls
“life‐giving” (John 14: 16 or 15: 26). The world is the work of the
Holy Trinity, a shared work, brought about by the profusion of love of the one
divine being, a unity of divine origin in harmonious diversity.
This shared work of the Father, Son and the Holy
Spirit is the reason why God decided that His creation was “good”. In Genesis
1, God repeatedly declares that His creation is good. The word “good” appears
six times during the creation story. According to Christopher Wright, there are
three things about creation being good:
- Creation is good because it
belongs to God. Creation is His willful act of goodness and not out of
conflict. He was not in coercion with other cosmological deities.
Creation declares His glory (Psalm 19.
It reveals his kindness to mankind. Acts 14:17 says that “He has shown his
kindness by giving man rain from heaven and crops in their season”. God’s
kingdom did not begin with “let us make man . . .” (Gen. 1:26) but with “let
there be light” (Gen. 1:3). He created the heavens and the earth before He made
man. And then He provides us with our needs and further reveals His “invisible
qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
(Romans 1:20). God knew what He was doing. He saw that His creation was good,
and He approved of it. Then He created man to be His tenants. He is our landlord,
and we are only His tenants. He is a good boss
who shares his work. Romans 8:14-15 says “For all who are led by the Spirit
of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of
slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as
sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” God invites man into his family
business. We read in Romans 8:17 that “we are co-heirs with Christ.” God has
created an inheritance for us. He has this deep desire to share with us not
just creation but His very presence. As tenants, we are accountable to
God how we treat his property. Our care for God’s creation is an expression of
our love for God. Therefore, according to Berry (2003)
our destruction of nature is not just bad stewardship, or stupid economics, or a betrayal
of family responsibility; it is the most horrid blasphemy. It is flinging God's
gifts into His face, as if they were of no worth beyond that assigned to them
by our destruction of them.
2. Creation is God’s temple,
and He dwells in it (Exodus 15:7, 1 Chronicles 23:25, Acts 7:49). His creation
reflects His image. He prepared it for Himself and for man who was created in
His image and likeness. This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my
throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for
me? Where will my resting place be?” (Isaiah 66:1) is a temple language.
Therefore, as man worships and praises God, He in turn will continue to inhabit
the earth.
- Creation is good in relation
to Mankind. Psalm 5:16 states that “the highest heavens belong to God
but the earth he has given to the children of Adam or to the human race.”
There is no other place that God intends man to live than the earth. The
earth is our home. This is the home that
God has provided for mankind. God created this perfect world for us. There
is a perfect balance of everything. We need to take care of
it because although God owns the created world, we have been given the
responsibility to care for it. This responsibility was not given to other
animals but only to man because we are created in God’s image. This image
is capable and equipped of taking dominion over creation initially in Eden
and later throughout the whole earth. Then God said, ‘Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock
and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.' (Genesis 1:26).
Butkus supports Wright's assertions and gave
salient points in the biblical creation theory:
- Creation is
theocentric. God is the center of the entire creation. He is a sovereign,
creative and sustainer God. He provides space and care for all creatures.
- God
continues to create things. His creation requires His sustaining power and
presence.
- God created
everything according to His will and not according to chaos. There is
order and purpose in creation. Creation works harmoniously following
moral, physical and ethical order. He created something out of His goodness and
not out of chaos or conflict. Creation was His willful act. He was not in
coercion with other cosmological deities.
- Everything
in creation has a purpose and a place according to a grand design. Nothing
is out of place and nothing is out of function. Nature is an extension of
God. He did not just make it out of boredom. God is a creative God.
He thought of things that no other would see. He created things that are
unique and useful. Nothing in His creation is not useful. Everything was
created for a purpose even that which man may think of as useless. God
created the world not to show off but to show up. Luke
12:6-7 states that animals are important in the eyes of God for “are not
five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by
God.”
- God is the
creator and author of the meaning and value of creation. He is good and
His creation is good as He declared it. In the Genesis creation story, God declares
that what He has just done was good. All of His creation was good. Why did God create everything good? It is good
because God is good.
The created order declares the glory of God. Man
has been given the command to subdue the earth disclosing his role with God’s
world. Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky
above proclaims his handiwork.” The whole world was created to reveal the
glory of God. Creation is an extension of Himself. An artist does not create
something just for the sake of creation. A masterpiece reflects his whole
being. It is a sacred moment of self-expression. He reveals Himself through the
created world to inspire our faith and our love for Him. We can know God more
and more as we encounter Him through the Biblical stories, psalms and parables
and the creation.
Creation
Care and the Unreached
If we consider the future of the unreached people
groups (UPG) in the Bible, we would be led to Revelation 7:9 and 5:9 where the
vision of
“a great multitude
that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”
and
“ransomed people for
God from every tribe and language and people and nation”.
Both verses have been used fundamentally used by
missiologists and missionaries to support their passion for doing their
ministry to the unreached. Reading further in Revelation 5:13, we read:
And
I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the
sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the
Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
According to Bible commentator, Charles Ellicott, this
verse refers to the “song of praise rises from all quarters, and
from all forms of creation. The whole universe, animate and inanimate, joins in
this glad acclaim.” Therefore, no matter how sincere mankind may be
in its role in stewardship of creation, it has the danger of becoming
anthropocentric. And regardless of this worldview, it is clear that all of
creation matters to God and He will receive honor and glory not just from
people from all of His created order.
As a missionary engages with an Unreached People
Group (UPG), it is imperative that he posses the correct perspective about
creation care. We are not bringing the Kingdom to these peoples. The earth and
the heavens already declare God’s Kingdom (Psalm 66:4, Romans 1:20, Psalm
19:1). God is already present and has manifested Himself in these peoples that
even if we do not speak out, the rocks will cry out (Luke 19:40). This means
that even the non-living creation has a role to play in God’s grand plan and has
the capacity to glorify Him. Everything
in creation is important to God. Ecological care is a new mission field
(McKenzie, n.d.). Our ecological responsibility is part of the salvation story
(Synder 2011).
While most of our missionaries are passionate of
preaching the gospel of the Kingdom as a testimony to all peoples (Matthew
24:14), our efforts have become very centered of lifting their eyes towards
heavens above as their final destination. We have been so heaven centered that
we have neglected our responsibility to take care of the what is in front of
our eyes - created world. We have used creation for our own purpose. The Church
is not innocent of this abuse. We are
guilty of using creation to serve our purposes. We have been silent to the
abuses that multimillion dollar companies are doing to exploit the natural
resources. We have diminished God’s glory around us and have let our own glory
fill the skies. We have been active consumers of resources that are detrimental
to the environment. We have also been passive supporters of the abuses to
animals. We do not want to get involved in cases against animal rights. We want
to leave these issues to concerned authorities for our cause are just for the
spiritual nourishment of man. And this mindset is what we bring to the mission
field.
Most missionaries live a lifestyle that is detached
to the original food source. They may go for nature trips and visit farms, yet
they get their food primarily from supermarkets. In Cambodia, their food still
come directly from their daily catch from the river or a pond or a harvest from
their small backyard garden. Everyday a father may need to go out to the lake
to get food for the family. The mother may need to get a few vegetables from
the few remaining plants within their community. If these amenities are not
available in the community, there is the wet market which always provides fresh
produce from local farmers. However, this kind of life is foreign to some
missionaries unless he lives in the community. And even if the missionary
immerses himself and lives in the community, his source of food and his outlook
in life will still be challenge in reaching out to the locals. In some cases,
some missionaries live in the city or in the town proper and just visit the
village on weekends or during the daytime. Hence, there will always be a
disconnect in the way we may want to impart a more holistic understanding of
the gospel.
In 1977, James Gustafson (1991), a Swedish
missionary to Thailand, established the Center for Church Planting and Church
Growth in Northeastern Thailand (CCPCG). Later this organization birthed the
Isaaan Development Foundation (IDF). The ministry of CCPCG and IDF came up with
the Integrated Holistic Development approach to help the people of North
Eastern Thailand grow in a relationship with God, man and nature. At the heart
of their ministry are seven core principles guiding every process:
1.
The grace of God is the heart of the gospel.
2.
Their lives are integrated into the ministry.
3.
The organization must be willing to adjust its ways
to better communicate the gospel.
4.
The gospel must be contextually relevant to the
locals.
5.
The gospel will confront values and mindset so that
transformation will happen.
6.
The local church is the focus of the ministry.
7.
Empower the local church to do the Integrated
Holistic Development within the community.
Gustafson, himself, admit that development initiatives
should not be seen as too simple, yet his paradigm still embodies a working
ecological mission by presenting a practical design of a farm, a center and a
foundation (Dewitt, 1993).
Creation
Care and Cambodia
Cambodia has rich endemic flora and fauna which are
valuable contribution to the biodiversity in the Southeast Asian Region.
Endangered species like the Siamese crocodile and the Asian elephants are only
found in Cambodia. But just like any country, the country struggles with its
waste management, excessive use of plastic and loss of biodiversity. Poverty causes
these natural resources to be expoited. The forest cover in Cambodia has
fallen by 20% since 1990. This challenge is made more
difficult because of the government’s restricted financial and
technical capacity for sustainable environmental management.
Cambodia
is not exempt from the pangs of climate change. It is one of the most
vulnerable countries to floods and droughts. Of the four top economic sectors -
garment, tourism, construction and agriculture - the latter accounted for 57.6%
of rural labour force, and for over 30% of GDP in 2011 (SNV Netherlands Development Organization).
Major cities like Phnom
Penh are facing huge challenges in waste management due to population growth,
increasing income and consumption levels, expanding urbanization and inadequate
waste management. Each day, Phnom Penh produces about
3,000 tons of trash – 600 tons of which is plastic waste. According to a report
by Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, a Cambodian urban NGO, some 35.7 percent of Phnom
Penh’s poorer communities receive no waste management. There
is no segregation and recycling. Waste disposal is poorly handled, and it is causing
a huge toll on its drainage system.
However, there is always hope. There have been
initiatives that focus on conservation that are existing across cultural and
interreligious groups. Buddhism, Islam and Christianity are very well
acknowledged by the Cambodian governments in their efforts to help the country
address the issues of environmental care.
Buddhists
have been actively involved in addressing environmental issues. They hold
workshops to educate the people on culturally appropriate ways of addressing
climate change. In 2009 and 2011, the International Network of Engaged
Buddhists (INEB) released a statement asserting that “climate change is the
result of human intentions and actions…it is the desire for material
possessions and the driving force of greed without wisdom or compassion.”
Muslims
are equally engaged particularly in education, agriculture, livelihood and
environmental projects. They have efforts to strengthen communities and unite
them for a common vision of protecting and preserving the environment from
further degradation.
And
then we have the Christian NGOs from nearly every Christian denomination which
support environmental initiatives either directly, or alongside their programs in
humanitarian relief, conflict resolution, and poverty reduction.
In the midst of these pressing challenges of the
country, what role does a missionary play in creating a difference towards a
more holistic treatment of this problem? How does a missionary model a life
that reflects how God sees the created order? Churches planted by missionaries
reflect the priorities of those who started the fellowships. Hence, it is
unlikely for a new Cambodian believer to care for the environment unless it is
modeled by the missionary or the church planter.
Conclusion
As a Christian, are you a consumer or a caretaker?
Are you looking for how you can get and use the gift or are you looking for how
you can steward the gift? Are you living for convenience or are you
living with a conscience? Are you striving for comfort or are you living to
fulfil a calling? When people look at you and the way you live, what do
they think about the heavenly Father? When they see how you treat animals and
plants and other human beings, what does that say about your God? What they
think about God will impact them for good or for bad.
What are the practical things that a Christian can
do to make a difference? In the book Salvation means Creation Healed: The
Ecology of Sin and Grace by Howard Snyder and Joel Scandrett,
there are practices on stewardship of creation which provide
climax to the entire book.
a.
Bible Study with creation-care eyes. I believe most
Christians are unaware of this important aspect of life because of ignorance.
We always try to see the Bible as God’s Word except its link to creation
care. We need to learn what the Bible teaches about creation, and God’s
covenant with the earth.
b.
Prayer for the healing of the land and the nations.
Again, this needs intentionality especially on the leaders. We need to create
more awareness and participation in prayer. The Philippines is regularly
ravage with natural disasters, all of which are symptoms of an earth that is
crying out for help, healing and restoration. My husband’s hometown was
devasted with Typhoon Odette and is also near the recent Typhoon Agaton’s
devastation. While the church are one of the first responders to these kinds of
disaster, we need to be more united in prayer for the protection of the created
order. Our prayers need to be more intelligent and strategic asking God for
specific practical actions that we should do.
c.
Recycle. The Philippines needs to learn from other
countries who are maximizing their recycling endeavors. But recycling is more
complicated than just simply segregation and reusing stuff. Most people are
ignorant of the methods of waste processing (Krieger 2008). Recycling requires
that the items are rinsed, stripped of labels and are correctly sorted. This
requires commitment and cooperation from the consuming public.
d.
Support laws and international agreements that
protect the environment and promote creation care. There are many environmental
organizations around that we can join. The Church can help to make a
difference in creating awareness towards effective stewardship and
sustainability. It can engage in eco-evangelism by being an advocate of parks,
gardens and the issuance of energy-saving ordinances.
e.
Make Sundays (or another day) real
Sabbaths. Allow yourself and the created order around you to rest. Sabbath
rest is part of God’s stewardship command to allow man, the land and the beast
the opportunity to replenish itself (Richter. 2020).
f.
Join or start a group. Focus on the
creation-care
dimensions of mission and discipleship—prayer, study, conversation, action.
g.
Write a poem, hymn, song or meditation. The
wisdom of God is seen in creation. We can express it through art.
h.
Form creation-affirming habits - moderate eating,
regular exercise, walking, appreciating nature, gardening. These are very good
practical ways of caring for creating.
i.
Eat locally by supporting the local economy. Support
local farmers and growers. They offer fresher produce which is good for our
health.
j.
Practice energy conservation. We do not only save
money but we also help the earth.
k.
Join an organization or network that promotes the
healing of creation from a biblical standpoint. These organizations can be
found on the internet. It just takes intentionality to find them.
The world that God so love includes the entire creation. Sadly, this
creation is marred by sin in every aspect. Today the church faces a huge
opportunity to be a channel of blessing, healing and restoration of God’s
creation. We have been given the opportunity to be the hand, feet, and
mouthpiece of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Bibliography
Books
Berry, Wendell. 2003. “The Art of
the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry. Counterpoint
DeWitt, Calvin
B. and Ghillean Prance (Editors). 1993. Missionary Earthkeeping.
Mercer University Press. GA
Nellist, Christina
(editor). 2021. Climate Crisis and Creation Care: Historical Perspectives,
Ecological Integrity and Justice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK
Journals
Blasu, Ebenezer.
2019. “The Bible and Caring for the Land: African Theocology as Christian
Impulsion for Creation Care.” DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.12383.10404
Brown, T. C.,
Mahat, V., & Ramirez, J. A. 2019. “Adaptation to future water shortages in
the United States caused by population growth and climate change.” Earth's
Future. 7, 219–234. https://doi. org/10.1029/2018EF001091
Effa, Allan. 2008.
“The Greening of Mission.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research.
Vol. 32, No. 4
Guillebaud, J and P
Hayes. 2008. “Population Growth and Climate Change.” The BMJ. 337:a576 doi:10.1136/bmj.39575.691343.80
Gustafson, James.
1991. “The Integration of Development and Evagelism.” International Journal
of Frontier Mission. 8:4
Jenkins, Willis.
2008. “Missiology in Environmental Context: Tasks for an Ecology of Mission”. International
Bulletin of Missionary Research., 32: 4
Krieger, Janice.
2018. “CaRe: Communicating About Recycling, Phase I.” University of Florida. https://www.jou.ufl.edu/stem/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2018/12/Final-Report_CaRe_Krieger-1-1.pdf
Hall KD, Guo J, Dore M, Chow CC. 2009. “The Progressive
Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impact.” PLoS ONE
4(11): e7940. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007940
McKenzie, Gregory.
n.d. Creation and Ecological Responsibility. Academia. Liberty
University School of Divinity.
Mander, William.
2022. "Pantheism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Edward N. Zalta (ed.). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/pantheism/ Accessed April 13,
2022
Niemandt, C.J.P. 2015.
“Together Towards New Life For Missiology? Mission And Missiology In The Light
Of The World Council Of Churches 2013 Policy Statement.” Acta Theologica 35(2): 82‑103
Pech, Sokhem, and
Kengo Sunada. 2008. “Population Growth and Natural-Resources Pressures in the
Mekong River Basin.” AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 37.3
219–224. Web.
Sandu, Dan. 2007. “The
earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it!” (Psalm 24: 1) Benchmarks for a
dogmatic and social eco‐theology”. Journal for Interdisciplinary Research on
Religion and Science. No. 1.
Sluka, Robert.
2020. “Creation Care and Frontier Missiology.” International Journal of
Frontier Missiology. January – March Issue.
Thurber, Newton.
1990. “Care For The Creation As Mission Responsibility.” International
Review of Mission. 79: 314
Website Content
2020 World Population Data Sheet.
https://interactives.prb.org/2020-wpds/ Accessed April 10,
2022
Baylor University Institute of
Faith and Learning. Consumerism. https://www.baylor.edu/ifl/index.php?id=937664 Accessed April 1, 2022
Butkus, Russell A.
2002. “The Stewardship of Creation.” The Center for Christian Ethics at
Baylor University https://www.baylor.edu/ifl/christianreflection/CreationarticleButkus.pdf Accessed April 10,
2022
DeWitt, Calvin. Contemporary
Missiology And The Biosphere. Academia. (Pdf) Contemporary
Missiology And The Biosphere | Calvin Dewitt - Academia.edu
Accessed April 10, 2022
DeWitt, Calvin. The
Place of Creation in Today's Missionary Discourse: Evangelical Environmentalism
in America. (PDF) The Place of
Creation in Today's Missionary Discourse: Evangelical Environmentalism in
America | Calvin DeWitt - Academia.edu Accessed April 10,
2022
Flora and Fauna International.
Cambodia Hidden Treasures. https://www.fauna-flora.org/countries/cambodia/ Accessed April 10,
2022
Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home Accessed April 10,
2022
Lausanne
Occasional Paper: Towards a Missiology of Caring for Creation https://lausanne.org/content/lop/towards-a-missiology-of-caring-for-creation-lop-63-c#III Accessed April 10,
2022
Open Development Cambodia. Environment and natural resources https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/topics/environment-and-natural-resources/#:~:text=Cambodia's%20environment%20provides%20natural%20resources,distinct%20landscapes%20across%20the%20country
Accessed April 10, 2022
Recycle Track Systems. Food
Wastes in America 2022. https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/ Accessed April 10,
2022
Sahmakum
Teang Tnaut.
2019. Urban Governance Waste Management in Phnom Penh January 2019.https://teangtnaut.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/20190129_STT_Final_Annual_Report_English_version-compressed.pdf Accessed April 10,
2022
Southern Christian
College. Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. https://southernchristiancollege.edu.ph/the-statement-of-faith-of-the-united-church-of-christ-in-the-philippines/. Accessed March 15,
2022
The Columbia River
Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good, An International Pastoral
Letter by the Catholic Bishops of the Region (2001), 7. Accessed April 10, 2022
The Lausanne
Movement, ‘The Cape Town Commitment’ www.lausanne.org/content/ctc/ctcommitment Accessed April 10,
2022
World Faith
Development Dialogue. First Look: Faith and Environmental Action in Cambodia.
April 2013. Accessed April 10, 2022
No comments:
Post a Comment