Tongues and Trees: Towards a Green Pentecostal Pneumatology

Abstract

This thesis develops a Pentecostal ecotheology by utilizing key pneumatological themes that emerge from the Pentecostal tradition.It examines and utilizes the salient Pentecostal and Charismatic voices that have stimulated ecotheology in the Pentecostal tradition and situates them within the broader context of Christian ecumenical ecotheologies (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Ecofeminist).These Pentecostal expressions are placed in dialogue with the particular ecological pneumatologies of Denis Edwards (Roman Catholic), Mark Wallace (Protestant), and Sallie McFague (Ecofeminist).The thesis advances a novel approach to Pentecostal ecotheology through a pneumatology of the Spirit baptized creation, the charismatic creational community, the holistic ecological Spirit, and the eschatological Spirit of ecological mission.Significantly, this thesis is the first substantive contribution to a Pentecostal pneumatological theology of creation with a particular focus on the Pentecostal community and its significance for the broader ecumenical community.Furthermore, it offers a fresh theological approach to imagining and sustaining earth-friendly practice in the twenty-first century Pentecostal church.essentially remains recycled material from this "Big Bang" event. 2 Following Hubble in 1965, Arno Penzias's and Robert Wilson's seminal discovery of expanding background radiation harmonized with Hubble's thesis, further indicating the possibility of a "Big Bang" event and the reality of a rapidly expanding universe.Soon, Einstein's theory of relativity would do little to perpetuate a once safe and static view of the universe.3 All the while, many amongst the Christian tradition would continue to reserve questions regarding any (or all) of these recently developed theories.Yet one thing remains clear: human perception of the universe has evolved radically in the last five centuries even if one contends the universe itself has not.Truly, as we discover a seemingly whole new world, late modern 4 human experience is re-situating itself in the wake of staggering revolutions not only in scientific, cosmological, and theological paradigms.One of these shifts, vital to our current discussion, is of an ecological nature. 2 Thanks to Denis Edwards for pointing out this discovery.Denis Edwards, Jesus and the Cosmos (Mahwah: Paulist, 1991), 65-66.3 On the significance of Einstein's theory of relativity for scientific and Western understandings of God, see Gregory Ganssle and David Woodruff, eds., God and Time: Essays on the Divine Nature (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).4 "Late modern" will be used in contrast to "post modern."Both refer to a set of philosophical tendencies connected to the time following modernism, which is commonly considered to have begun between the 1930s and 1960s.The term "post modernism" is often ascribed to the twentieth-century French philosophers Jean-François Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard.In contrast, we will commonly use the term "late modern" throughout.For an exploration of this contrast, see Robert Neville, Religion in Late Modernity (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002), 144.For usage of "late modern" within a Pentecostal framework, see F. LeRon Shults, "The Philosophy of Time: The Turn to Futurity in Late Modern Philosophy," ST 61.1 (2007), 47-60; F. LeRon Shults, "Spirit and Spirituality: Philosophical Trends in Late Modern Pneumatology," PNEUMA 30.2 (2008), 271-287.28 Quoted in Richard Hiers, "Ecology, Biblical Theology, and Methodology: Biblical Perspectives on the Environment," ZY 19.1 (1984), 43-59 (46). 29"Progressive Pentecostals" is found throughout Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).For a helpful overview of the relationship of North American Pentecostalism to social justice, see Michael Wilkenson and Steven Studebaker, eds., A Liberating Spirit: Pentecostals and Social Action in North America (Eugene: Pickwick, 2010).30 Murray Dempster, "Christian Social Concern in Pentecostal Perspective: Reformulating Pentecostal Eschatology," JPT 2 (1993), 51-64 (52).31 Thanks to Clifton for this on his website.See the complete collection of the Australian Evangel available at Pentecostal Heritage Centre, Southern Cross College.A selection of this collection has been digitized to date, available at http://aps.webjournals.org/.Original sourcing located at Clifton's website, see http://scc.typepad.com/scc_faculty_pentecostal_d/2006/05/pentecostals_an.html#_edn2,(accessed June 21, 2010).spirituality.113 Here, he defines a holistic vision of creation and earth as "the totally integrated intuition of the seamless fabric of the entire reality."114 It is in this "cosmotheandric" experience that humanity is "capable of the most profound encounter with the divine mystery"; a mystery whereupon we encounter both God and his created order in a new spiritual light.115 For our purposes here, Panikkar remains a crucial player in RC ecoconscience and has deeply influenced much of the contemporary creation theology movement, as evidenced by Fox's continued dialogical reliance on Panikkar's work in his own writing endeavors.Although Panikkar has been an impact on many in the RC community as a priest in Spain, he has been considered unpalpable to many on the theological and political right because of his reliance on Eastern religious paradigms.Nevertheless, Panikkar will remain to be an important ecological dialogue partner for years to come.Broadly, his ecotheology has been heavily influenced by Hindu, Vedic, and Eastern philosophical and religious thought which itself is developing intriguing engagements with ecology, illustrating for us how Eastern theological imagination reserves significant space for earth friendly theology.116 For in large part, Eastern earththought tends to migrate more to the pantheistic/mystical, often boding a more ready willingness for dialogue on theologies of the earth.

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