190
C. Pearson
religious. Biblical ideas weave their way into customary knowledge. For a theologian
like myself the task becomes one of seeking to discern what pattern of religious
beliefs are dominant and being acted out. Is there an alternative that may assist those
charged with the task of exploring possible mitigating and adaptive strategies? Is there
a potential frame of religious belief which can sit alongside geopolitical strategies
and do so in a way which coheres with the practices of faith?
The task of a public theology is to discern urgent issues that demand policy and
debate. In this particular instance it is to be respectful to peoples most affected by
the threats posed by a changing climate and rising sea levels and enable their voice:
hence this work begins with the witness of an i-Kiribati—a former student of mine.
His desire to find an appropriate theology for a time of climate change sits with that
request to do with preaching. Both are set within the well-established pattern of a
public theology which places that which is local inside a sympathetic global praxis.
In this case the focus of attention falls on the role of Scripture which is of profound
significance in island life. The dilemma is whether the excessive attention given to
the Noah saga and the book of Job is becoming an obstacle to a more constructive
religious voice that may emerge from a public theology.
‘I Stand in the “Middle of the Ocean”’
It is fast becoming a staple of public theology to identify the climate crisis as a kairos
moment for the ‘global community’ (Pearson 2010; Fretheim 2016; Conradie and
Koster 2020; Deane-Drummond et al. 2017). This designation carries allusions to
‘sign of the times’, a crisis, an opportunity. For those who find themselves ‘stand[ing]
in the Middle of the Ocean’ like Timoti Timon from Kiribati signs of that crisis
are ever-present: loss of lands, villages relocated, the compromising of fresh water
supplies, and the loss of food supply also due to the impact of saltwater on fruit
trees and plant life (Timon 2018, 2019). It is a narrative that can be repeated in
Tuvalu (Lusama 2004; Talia 2009; Curlew 2012) and any other low-lying island in
the Pacific. In terms of timing kairos differs from linear, calendar, chronos time to
which dates and years are assigned. For the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew a
kairos moment is a ‘decisive time in our relationship with God’s creation’. It is one
in which ‘choices that will affect our whole lives’ must be made. ‘Will we act in time
to protect life on Earth … or [will] we fail to act’? (Fretheim 2016, p.132).
Timon is only one of the latest in a series of Pasifika theologians that includes
Maina Talia (2009) and Tafue Lusama (2004), who are seeking to address diverse
aspects of climate change. Like them Timon does not use the rhetoric and method
of a public theology which is only slowly growing a foothold in island cultures. The
benefit of this coming together of a public theology and a world Christianity—that is,
non-western expressions of faith (Sanneh and McClymond (2016)—is that it frees
the former from the constraints of its western origins: ‘World Christianity has its
own public face, voice and reason’ (Barreto et al. 2017, p. xvii). It recognizes in a
glocalized form that what issues arise, how they are addressed in the local idiom,
C. Pearson
religious. Biblical ideas weave their way into customary knowledge. For a theologian
like myself the task becomes one of seeking to discern what pattern of religious
beliefs are dominant and being acted out. Is there an alternative that may assist those
charged with the task of exploring possible mitigating and adaptive strategies? Is there
a potential frame of religious belief which can sit alongside geopolitical strategies
and do so in a way which coheres with the practices of faith?
The task of a public theology is to discern urgent issues that demand policy and
debate. In this particular instance it is to be respectful to peoples most affected by
the threats posed by a changing climate and rising sea levels and enable their voice:
hence this work begins with the witness of an i-Kiribati—a former student of mine.
His desire to find an appropriate theology for a time of climate change sits with that
request to do with preaching. Both are set within the well-established pattern of a
public theology which places that which is local inside a sympathetic global praxis.
In this case the focus of attention falls on the role of Scripture which is of profound
significance in island life. The dilemma is whether the excessive attention given to
the Noah saga and the book of Job is becoming an obstacle to a more constructive
religious voice that may emerge from a public theology.
‘I Stand in the “Middle of the Ocean”’
It is fast becoming a staple of public theology to identify the climate crisis as a kairos
moment for the ‘global community’ (Pearson 2010; Fretheim 2016; Conradie and
Koster 2020; Deane-Drummond et al. 2017). This designation carries allusions to
‘sign of the times’, a crisis, an opportunity. For those who find themselves ‘stand[ing]
in the Middle of the Ocean’ like Timoti Timon from Kiribati signs of that crisis
are ever-present: loss of lands, villages relocated, the compromising of fresh water
supplies, and the loss of food supply also due to the impact of saltwater on fruit
trees and plant life (Timon 2018, 2019). It is a narrative that can be repeated in
Tuvalu (Lusama 2004; Talia 2009; Curlew 2012) and any other low-lying island in
the Pacific. In terms of timing kairos differs from linear, calendar, chronos time to
which dates and years are assigned. For the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew a
kairos moment is a ‘decisive time in our relationship with God’s creation’. It is one
in which ‘choices that will affect our whole lives’ must be made. ‘Will we act in time
to protect life on Earth … or [will] we fail to act’? (Fretheim 2016, p.132).
Timon is only one of the latest in a series of Pasifika theologians that includes
Maina Talia (2009) and Tafue Lusama (2004), who are seeking to address diverse
aspects of climate change. Like them Timon does not use the rhetoric and method
of a public theology which is only slowly growing a foothold in island cultures. The
benefit of this coming together of a public theology and a world Christianity—that is,
non-western expressions of faith (Sanneh and McClymond (2016)—is that it frees
the former from the constraints of its western origins: ‘World Christianity has its
own public face, voice and reason’ (Barreto et al. 2017, p. xvii). It recognizes in a
glocalized form that what issues arise, how they are addressed in the local idiom,