Waging the green war: initial steps towards eco-practical theology and eco-pastoral care in the African context

ABSTRACT

This article is an exploratory contemplation of practical theological and pastoral engagement in the so-called green war in the African context. It first provides an overview of eco-theology, the Anthropocene age, biodiversity, eco-practical theology, and eco-pastoral care to create a theoretical framework for the research. As it is aimed at the African context, the notion of the African Anthropocene is put forward in the second section. Considering the African Anthropocene and subsequent biodiversity challenges, an eco-practical theology and eco-pastoral care are imagined in the third and fourth sections. Ecological preaching, liturgy, and youth work are discussed as avenues for eco-pastoral care contributing to the multidisciplinary biodiversity conservation discourse and its vision of a sustainable globe.

KEYWORDS:

• Green wars
• African Anthropocene
• eco-theology
• eco-practical theology
• eco-pastoral care
• African context

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In the opening remarks of ‘Under Pressure: Conceptualising Political Ecologies of Green Wars’ (2018), Bram Büscher and Robert Fletcher alludes to the idea that defending biodiversity may represent ‘The mother of all wars’, borrowing from a film campaign of Conservation International in 2008. Judging by the title of this article which served as introduction to a special section of Conservation and Society on Green Wars (16[2] 2018), they poignantly encapsulated the urgency and agency of biodiversity conservation.

2 The notion of a sustainable globe will be framed in a Christian paradigm related to biodiversity conservation as Christian imperative to distinguish it from some of the social and historical challenges associated with the generic term sustainability (cf. Vogt 2022). Here biodiversity conservation stands in the broader service of the glory of God and the earth as sustainer of human life.

3 According to Myers (2016), the Anthropocene is a ‘new, present-day epoch, in which scientists say we have significantly altered the Earth through human activity. These changes include global warming, habitat loss, changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soil, and animal extinctions’. Malhi (2017, 79) refers to the Anthropocene as the ‘notion that the relationship of humanity with the natural world has changed that therefore all of “nature” is touched by the hand of humanity, and that realization of the implications of this change requires a new worldview’.

4 Cf. World Council of Churches. 2022. Care for Creation and Climate Justice. Accessed 6 January 2023. https://www.oikoumene.org/what-we-do/care-for-creation-and-climate-justice.

5 See Gabrielle Hecht’s evocative essay ‘The African Anthropocene’ available at https://aeon.co/essays/if-we-talk-about-hurting-our-planet-who-exactly-is-the-we which rests on the thesis that the experiences of the Anthropocene strictly depend on locality.

6 Gumo et al. (2012, 525) contends that ‘the way in which African spirituality is practiced varies from one community to another, explaining why African worldview is expressed in plural terms – African worldviews’.

7 With regards to the development of programmes and movements aimed at biodiversity conservation, Emmanuel Katongole’s notion of integral ecology is worth noting as set in his narrative about the Bethany Land Institute in Uganda (cf. Katongole 2022). This is a poignant example of what eco-pastoral care, as depicted in this article, can potentially entail in African contexts and elsewhere.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alfred Brunsdon

Alfred Brunsdon, PhD, is a professor in Practical Theology and teaches in the School of Christian Ministry and Leadership of the Faculty of Theology of the North-West University, South Africa. He is a C2-rated researcher of the National Research Foundation (South Africa) and a member of the Unit for Reformational Theology and the Development of the South African Society.