Towards a theology of sustainability
‘Sustainability’ is a concept in search of a home. Many have an idea of what it means, but scratch beneath the surface and the ideas are diverse at best, contradictory at worst.
Today sustainability has become a great rallying cry, adopted by politicians, economists, multinational corporations, scientists, environmentalists, town planners and faith leaders . . . but they use it to mean what they want it to mean.
This chapter tries to put sustainability in its place — to attempt to define it, by asking key questions. What are we to sustain, why, and for whom? Are we sustaining for ourselves, for future generations, for other species, or for the earth itself? Why so — for self-preservation, or for broader altruistic purposes? What is it that gives us our drive to sustain, and what gives individual species and whole ecosystems their value? What makes them worthy of being sustained? On what philosophical or ethical value system is sustainability based? As we explore these questions, we shall find that a biblical theology of sustainability is not only possible, but is arguably the most plausible and practical approach to a sustainable world.
