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ABSTRACT
It has long been a stereotype that Pentecostals are more concerned with saving souls than saving the planet. While this false dichotomy is no longer recognizable within academic Pentecostal scholarship, it does persevere at a congregational level. I argue that, if we want to see environmental concern within congregations, the connection between environmental care and salvation (eco-salvation) should be taught to pastors and lay-leaders. In this way, the connection between salvation and creation care can become an integral part of evangelism and discipleship within congregations. This paper is based on the content of a compulsory undergraduate module on Environmental Stewardship, which has been developed and delivered for Pentecostal ministers and lay-leaders at Birmingham Christian College (Birmingham, UK).
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Davis, “Pentecostal Approaches to Ecotheology,” 4–33. Davis provides an excellent overview of the existing Pentecostal scholarship on environmental concerns up to 2021, which demonstrates the mainstreaming of ecotheology within Pentecostal theology at an academic level. See also Lamp, “Ecotheology,” 357–66.
2 This was noted most recently by the author during discussions of the Theological Colleges Environmental Network.
3 Zizioulas, “Proprietors or Priests of Creation” [online].
4 Davis, “Pentecostal Approaches to Ecotheology,” 4–33.
5 Matshobane, “Climate Change” [online].
6 Kahsay, “Theological Education,” 103.
7 Bouma-Prediger, For the Beauty, 64. Bouma-Prediger goes into great detail as to how an interpretation of ‘rule’ or ‘have dominion over’ as domination is in direct opposition to a Christ-like model of servant leadership.
8 Marlow, “Creation, Humanity and Hubris,” 493.
9 Marlow, “The Other Prophet!” 81–82; Marlow, “Justice for All the Earth,” 192–208.
10 ‘Eco-centric’ here refers to a worldview which places non-human creation at the centre. ‘Anthropocentric’ refers to a worldview which places humans at the centre.
11 Golo, “Redeemed from the Earth?” 357-358.
12 Golo, “Akan Religious Ontology,” 102.
13 Marlow, “Justice for All the Earth,” 192–208.
14 White Jr, “The Historical Roots,” 1205.
15 Edwards, “The Redemption of Animals,” 81.
16 Kgatle, “A Spirit-Filled Environment,”153.
17 Swoboda, “Reconciling Creation,” 97.
18 Ibid., 99.
19 Golo, “Redeemed of the Earth?” 358.
20 Hunt, Horrell and Southgate, “An Environmental Mantra?” 546–79 analyse Romans 8:19–23 as a popular text for ecotheologians and offer tools for its interpretation.
21 Milton, “Salvation,” 236.
22 Williams, “Greening the Apocalypse,” 206.
23 Ibid., 210.
24 Pattemore, “Towards an Ecological Handbook,” 339.
25 Ibid., 339.
26 The high response rate may be attributed to the close connections between students and staff within a small college. Participation bias will also play a part here in that those who chose to participate may have been those who had a particularly positive experience of the module.
27 This final point about consent was also made clear in the body of the email itself. It was not appropriate for participants to complete a separate consent form as this could compromise their anonymity.
28 Students look particularly at Palmer “Stewardship,” 67–85.
29 Marlow, “Creation, Humanity and Hubris,” 496.
30 This is in keeping with research that found male, urban Ghanaians and Ghanaians living in Europe tend to have a ‘rice, pasta, meat, and fish’ based diet. Galbete et al., “Food Consumption, Nutrient Intake,” 8.
31 Hodson, “Integrating Environmental Perspectives,” 77.
32 Hodson and Hodson, The Environment in UK, https://jri.org.uk/resources/the-environment-in-uk-theological-education-institutions/. The outcome of this report was the establishment of the Theological Colleges Environment Network (TCEN).
33 For detailed recommendations of how ecotheology can be integrated into modules on Doctrine and the Bible, Ethics, Mission and Worship see Hodson, “Integrating Environmental Perspectives,” 77–106.
34 Hollinghurst, “Environmentalism and Evangelism,” 479–490.
35 Quampah, “Pursuing the Ideal,” 300–320; this article is based on another CoP national training college, this time based in Ghana.
36 Frestadius, “Pentecostal Theological Education,” 69–73.
37 Aidoo, “Towards an Agenda,” section 2, paragraph 4.
38 Pearson describes that ecotheology ‘ … emerges in a somewhat ad hoc manner. It is rarely the product of one theologian and seldom can every area of dogmatic concern be explored right from the start’. Pearson, “Electing to do Ecotheology,” 8.
39 Swoboda, “Reconciling Creation,” 100.
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Grace Milton
Grace Milton has been a Lecturer at Birmingham Christian College since 2020 where she teaches Environmental Stewardship at undergraduate level. She had previously been a Research Fellow at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion where she was Principal Investigator on The Hyphen Project exploring culture and Christian conversion. She has published on Pentecostal soteriology and conversion, most notably in the Routledge Handbook of Pentecostal Theology (2022) and in her book Shalom, the Spirit and Pentecostal Conversion (2015).