Sustainability at Columbia Seminary

A Pedagogical Manifesto in the Face of Climate Disruption

Context

The latest climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the most dire yet produced by expert scientists (3/19/2023).[1]  Within the next seven years, humanity will largely determine its own prospects for flourishing, or lack thereof, and that of countless other species, in “our common home.”  All human communities across the world are at a crossroads, some more vulnerable to climate change and others more responsible for it, but all detrimentally affected.  Consequently, radical changes in current energy policies, capitalist economies, and collective and individual lifestyles, as well as renewed commitments to dismantling environmental racism and practicing reparative justice, are all required to mitigate a dramatically worsening ecological catastrophe never experienced in human history. 

Commitment

Given such urgency, theological educators must address the mounting crisis of climate disruption caused by global warming with full intersectional awareness (see FCITL).  We, the faculty at Columbia Theological Seminary, acknowledge that none of our disciplines will go untouched by the physical and conceptual changes wrought by anthropogenic climate disruption.  We acknowledge that this “long emergency” has deep roots in white supremacy, (neo)colonialism, and patriarchy, among other intersecting, layered forms of oppression.  In such a time as this, ignoring how climate disruption is undermining the flourishing of life is tantamount to theological and pedagogical malpractice.  Because “the fight for justice cannot be segregated but must be integrated with the fight for life in all its forms,”[2] we join together in the just cause of sustaining the flourishing of life on a rapidly changing planet. 

Pledge

In so doing, we (re)commit ourselves to do the following within and beyond our classrooms:

• To educate ourselves regarding the best of science on climate change and on other “man-made” crises, from deforestation to ocean acidification;

• To embrace the disciplines of grief rather than despair, and of hope rather than optimism, over the incalculable loss of life and livelihood among all species in the face of climate disruption and habitat destruction;

• To respond to the voices of human beings and communities most endangered by pollution and rising sea waters caused by fossil-fuel based industries and land exploitation;

• To teach and lead in action and activism, advocating for environmentally-focused policies, challenging exploitative ones, and dismantling cultural norms that have for centuries been grounded in white supremacy, (neo)colonialism, and patriarchy. 

In the face of impending ecological collapse, we renew our commitment and seek to hold each other accountable to learn how to teach integratively with urgency, creativity, and hope for the ultimate repair of creation (Revelation 21:5). 

A Primer Bibliography

Ayres, Jennifer.  Inhabitance: Ecological Religious Education.  Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2019. 

Beal, Timothy. When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2022. 

Cone, James H. “Whose Earth Is It Anyway?” Cross Currents 50 (Spring/Summer 2000): 36-46.

Harris, Melanie. Ecowomanism: African American Women and Earth-Honoring Faiths.  New York: Orbis Books, 2017.

Joerstad, Mari. The Hebrew Bible and Environmental Ethics: Humans, Nonhumans, and the Living Landscape.  Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019. 

Johnson, Elizabeth. Asks the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants.  Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2013. 

Rasmussen, Larry L. Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Wirzba, Norman. This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

[1] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-cycle/

[2] James H. Cone, “Whose Earth Is It Anyway?” Cross Currents 50 (Spring/Summer 2000): 36.