100
R. A. Davis
Climate injustice has been well documented by secular agencies and scholars
(Barker 2008; Barnett and Campbell 2010; Fair 2019; Parks and Roberts 2006). This
work shows that regions like the Pacific, and countries in those regions which have
among the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in the world, but are facing serious
consequences if their islands or some coastal areas become uninhabitable or even be
completely submerged. Relating God’s justice to climate change is less common in
global discussions, but cannot be ignored in those regions and nations where Christian
adherence is strong and continues to play a key role in how social, political, and in
this case, existential issues are conceptualized (Nunn et al. 2016).
In discussing these issues in relation to climate change, I wish to demonstrate a
method of bringing theology into this discussion, through focusing on the medieval
reforming theologian Martin Luther. In 2017, the church celebrated or commemorated 500 years since the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany. When
Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg he sparked a
revolution in the Church and changed the direction of history. The effects of his
Reformation are still debated today, but Luther’s place in history is assured with
Lutheran churches having some 72 million adherents around the world. Believing
that Luther’s theological writings can still speak to contemporary issues, this chapter
will ask what Luther can say to Pacific people facing the effects of climate change
and climate injustice. In a wider perspective, this forms an example of what could
form an approach for bringing theologians and philosophers into climate change
discourse. When we look back through history, we can ask: What existential crises
did our ancestors face and how did they think them through and adapt to them?
As a theologian located in the Christian Pacific from 2014 to 2020, I have been
engaging with students, theologians, and church leaders exploring theological angles
on climate change, examining both the Bible and theological traditions for resourcing
the churches’ teachings and actions on climate change. This research began in a paper
presented to the Pacific Theological College’s celebration of Luther’s quincentenary
in 2017. In seeking the relevance of Luther to today’s Pacific, I chose to examine
his relevance to climate change. While Lutheranism is not widespread in the Pacific,
Lutherans are amongst the largest Christian grouping in the Pacific thanks to their
numbers in Papua New Guinea.
Luther’s Theology of Creation and Climate Change
in the Pacific
My hope for this chapter is that Martin Luther’s writings might speak to those in the
South Pacific grappling with the effects and expected effects of a rapidly changing
climate, and the need to adapt to this. First, it is important to have a grasp on how
Luther understood the natural world as God’s creation and humanity’s place in it.
Second, I will offer some theological insights based on Luther’s writing on creation
that might inform a contemporary theological engagement with the issue of climate
R. A. Davis
Climate injustice has been well documented by secular agencies and scholars
(Barker 2008; Barnett and Campbell 2010; Fair 2019; Parks and Roberts 2006). This
work shows that regions like the Pacific, and countries in those regions which have
among the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in the world, but are facing serious
consequences if their islands or some coastal areas become uninhabitable or even be
completely submerged. Relating God’s justice to climate change is less common in
global discussions, but cannot be ignored in those regions and nations where Christian
adherence is strong and continues to play a key role in how social, political, and in
this case, existential issues are conceptualized (Nunn et al. 2016).
In discussing these issues in relation to climate change, I wish to demonstrate a
method of bringing theology into this discussion, through focusing on the medieval
reforming theologian Martin Luther. In 2017, the church celebrated or commemorated 500 years since the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany. When
Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg he sparked a
revolution in the Church and changed the direction of history. The effects of his
Reformation are still debated today, but Luther’s place in history is assured with
Lutheran churches having some 72 million adherents around the world. Believing
that Luther’s theological writings can still speak to contemporary issues, this chapter
will ask what Luther can say to Pacific people facing the effects of climate change
and climate injustice. In a wider perspective, this forms an example of what could
form an approach for bringing theologians and philosophers into climate change
discourse. When we look back through history, we can ask: What existential crises
did our ancestors face and how did they think them through and adapt to them?
As a theologian located in the Christian Pacific from 2014 to 2020, I have been
engaging with students, theologians, and church leaders exploring theological angles
on climate change, examining both the Bible and theological traditions for resourcing
the churches’ teachings and actions on climate change. This research began in a paper
presented to the Pacific Theological College’s celebration of Luther’s quincentenary
in 2017. In seeking the relevance of Luther to today’s Pacific, I chose to examine
his relevance to climate change. While Lutheranism is not widespread in the Pacific,
Lutherans are amongst the largest Christian grouping in the Pacific thanks to their
numbers in Papua New Guinea.
Luther’s Theology of Creation and Climate Change
in the Pacific
My hope for this chapter is that Martin Luther’s writings might speak to those in the
South Pacific grappling with the effects and expected effects of a rapidly changing
climate, and the need to adapt to this. First, it is important to have a grasp on how
Luther understood the natural world as God’s creation and humanity’s place in it.
Second, I will offer some theological insights based on Luther’s writing on creation
that might inform a contemporary theological engagement with the issue of climate