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~ Richard A. Davis blogging

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Category Archives: climate change

Luther on the Scientific and Theological Understanding of the Rainbow

04 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by radiescent in climate change, Luther

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Here is Martin Luther making a point about the difference between the philosophical (read ‘scientific’) and theological understandings of the rainbow from Genesis 9:13:

This sign [the rainbow] should remind us to give thanks to God. For as often as the rainbow appears, it preaches to the entire world with a loud voice about the wrath which once moved God to destroy the whole world. It also gives comfort, that we may have the conviction that God is kindly inclined toward us again and will never again make use of so horrible a punishment. Thus it teaches the fear of God and faith at the same time, the greatest virtues. Philosophy has no knowledge of these and carries on a discussion solely about the material and the formal cause; it does not know the final cause of this beautiful creature. But theology points it out. (Luther’s Works, Volume 2: Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 6–14, page 148.

On causes, here Luther refers to Aristotle’s four causes, three of which are mentioned here:

  • material cause
  • formal cause
  • final cause

(for more detail on those, you may refer to “Aristotle on Causality” at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

In brief, Luther is making the argument that the speculations of the scientists about the rainbow’s shape, colours, appearance, and its relationship to clouds, ignore the purpose of the rainbow in God’s design. Science is limited in the questions it can answer about purposes or final causes. It is very good at answering questions of how, but not questions of why. Theology deals with final causes better than science does.

In a modern day application of Luther’s point, we might consider how this applies to phenomena related to climate change. For instance, scientists can tell how a cyclone develops, moves, and operates, but not why it appears when and where it does. Luther would say that this happens according to the will of God – not a popular notion in our science-focused era.

Research into Climate Change and Democracy in Fiji

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by radiescent in climate change, conference, democracy, Fiji, Public Theology, research

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climate change, Fiji, Public Theology

I have been invited to deliver a conference paper at the triennial consultation of the Global Network for Public Theology in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The conference dates are 24-26 October 2016.

The theme of their meeting is “Democracy and Social Justice in Glocal Contexts“. The details of my proposed paper are:

PAPER TITLE

Public Theology in the Context of Climate Change and Fiji’s Unchanging State of Exception

ABSTRACT

Applying the theory of the “state of exception” from Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben to Fijian public life, this paper examines whether the crisis of climate change facing this island nation could strengthen the case for the Fijian government’s current state of exception to the detriment of constitutional democracy.

Following democratic elections in 2014, the international community once again recognizes Fiji as formally democratic. Yet the constitution sometimes finds itself overruled in favour of decrees made by the government of former coup-maker and elected Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama. In this way, Fiji public life lies suspended in a “state of exception” between democracy and dictatorship.

Fiji is also facing the effects of climate change, which may include sea-level rise, more devastating cyclones, and lessened food security. In February 2016, Fiji was hit by Tropical Cyclone Winston, which claimed 44 lives and destroyed more than 40,000 homes. In the wake of Winston, the government declared a temporary state of emergency and imposed curfews. This paper investigates whether the ongoing and increasing threat of climate change to Fiji may reinforce or strengthen the exceptional nature of Fijian political life, giving further reasons for additional decrees and the continued denial of full democratic rule.

Finally, the paper will examine what prospects there are for public theology in this political atmosphere. Some people see climate change as something that only states can deal with adequately and are willing to give the state increased power to do so. Public theology might suggest that the issue of climate illustrates state failure and offers great potential for the church, as a leading actor in Fijian society, to do public theology in such a way that deals with climate also as a faith issue, and in this way decentralize the Fijian response to this threat.

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My Recent Writing on Climate Change in the South Pacific

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by radiescent in climate change

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climate change

I have recently published or given three papers on climate change in the Pacific. They are collected here for your convenience:

  • “The Rainbow Covenant, Climate Change, and Noah’s Exile,” The Pacific Journal of Theology Series II, 54 (2015): 37–44. [read PDF]
  • “The Commons: A Pacific and Theological Perspective on Managing Common Resources”. Presented to ECREA’s ‘Seminar and Deliberative Forum on Climate Justice in Rethinking and Reclaiming our Common Home’, at the Novotel. Lami, 13 April 2016. [read PDF]
  • “The Politics of the City and the Sea—Revelation 21:1-6” Political Theology Today. 18 April 2016.

 

Morning Devotion for Peace Building Workshop – 24 June 2015

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by radiescent in Catholic Social Teaching, Christian ethics, church, climate change, environment, sermon, violence

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climate change, violence

Dr. Richard A. Davis, PTC Faculty

Reading — Isaiah 24:3-6 (NRSV)

3 The earth shall be utterly laid waste
and utterly despoiled;
for the LORD has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers;
the heavens languish together with the earth.
5 The earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled,
and few people are left.

Reflection

Last week saw a greatly anticipated event as Pope Francis issued his second encyclical letter, “Laudato Si’“. The title is Latin, and can be translated “Praise be to you”. The subtitle in English is “On Care for Our Common Home.” For non-Catholics an encyclical letter is a message issued by the Pope for teaching the church, and sometimes others. In this case The Pope addressed his encyclical to all peoples on planet Earth. It was largely on the topic of climate change, which, as we know, is an especially important issue for our Pacific region. The Pope’s wider concern was that humanity is destroying the earth and that we humans need to take greater care of the planet on which we depend on for our very survival.

In place the Pope used colourful language in the encyclical. For example, he wrote:

“The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

He also commented on the kind of situation some of us face in the Pacific. He wrote:

“it is essential to show special care for indigenous communities and their cultural traditions … in various parts of the world, pressure is being put on them to abandon their homelands to make room for agricultural or mining projects which are undertaken without regard for the degradation of nature and culture.”

What does this all this have to do with peace, our special concern this week?

First of all, and most simply, war and conflict is not good for the environment. As Pope Francis rightly observes:

“War always does grave harm to the environment and to the cultural riches of peoples, risks which are magnified when one considers nuclear arms and biological weapons.”

To anyone who has been in conflict or even seen the photos of war, this seems obvious. But even in peacetime, preparations for war are massively harmful. For example, the USA is planning to use Pagan Island, far north of Papua New Guinea, for live bombing practice and land invasion training. This is expected to devastate the pristine forest, home to some rare species. And we all know of the damage done by nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific by both the American and the French.

So it makes sense to say that peace, true peace (in which we are not preparing for war), brings a huge benefit for the environment. But there is another, perhaps more important link between peace the environmental care. And that is that one cannot harm the environment too much without oppressing people and undermining the basis for peace.

Isaiah makes clear the connection between environmental degradation and human sin. In Isaiah 24:5, he writes

The earth lies polluted
under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.

Firstly, we could say that according to the Pope’s analysis, humanity is at war with the planet. The land and sea and atmosphere have been violated and laid waste by our extraction, production, and consumption. Mining and oil companies have penetrated and attacked the earth so that the earth will be forced to give up its riches. And we have all treated the land and atmosphere as a dumping ground for our waste. I think that this imagery helps us to see more clearly what we are doing to the earth.

We can predict that this war on the planet will become increasingly aggressive as the earth gives up its resources less and less readily. Oil used to be easier to find, but now oil companies are moving to drill in the fragile Arctic. They are already extracting oil and gas through fracking which involves violating mother earth to force it to give up its hidden wealth.

We should also be aware that this is also a war on people. Communities are disrupted and displaced to make way for oil and gas extraction and mining. These practices of extracting and then burning fossil fuels have become the kind of curse that Isaiah wrote about. In verse six he says:

Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled,
and few people are left.

People are already suffering for these industries, whether through air pollution, sea level rise, or other climate change related problems. Scientists fear that the worst is to come.

This curse is often justified in the name of human domination over nature. And here is another important link between peace and the environment. The domination of other humans and the domination of nature are mutually reinforcing. What does this mean? Let me give two examples.

If we think it is OK to remove the top of mountain to get at the gold and copper underneath, we might also think that it is OK to remove the head of the person protesting the arrival of the miners.

Or, if we think is OK to rape someone’s mother, it will probably not occur to us that there is anything wrong with violating mother Earth.

I’m not sure which way the connection works, perhaps we dominate people because we have first dominated the earth, or perhaps we dominate the earth because we first dominated people. Whichever way it is, I’m convinced that these forms of domination and power and violence are closely linked.

In this vein, the Pope writes of our sister creature, earth:

“This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.”

To be peace-makers means that we must seek to be peace at God, with God’s creation and with each other. We cannot separate these.

Isaiah would, I think, agree. The earth suffers not only because we violate the earth, but also because we don’t follow the statutes and laws of God, which are often rules about how we treat each other.

But Isaiah also offers a glimmer of hope. In the middle of chapter 24 there is a group praising and honouring of God. It is difficult to tell whether these people are oblivious to the destruction of the earth, or whether they are a faithful remnant in the midst of the unfolding chaos.

One interpretation comes from the Ancient Christian theologian Eusebius of Caesarea. In commenting on Isaiah 24:15, which in the Septuagint translation partly reads “the Glory of the Lord is in the islands of the Sea”, he speaks of the church, “Which is located in the midst of the godless nations as if an island in the sea.”

What might this mean for us in a world of conflict and environmental degradation?

  • Can our churches be islands of peace in nations at war?
  • Can our churches demonstrate a way of life that respects both our world and our people?
  • Can our churches bring the reconciliation of Jesus to fighting factions and the Spirit of God into how we life at peace with other creatures of God?

If our churches can do these things then perhaps we might be able to claim to be those islands of the sea which show the Glory of God. We can be a faithful remnant in a world that is actively destroying its social and environmental fabric.

Eusebius also evokes an image of a church surrounded by a potentially hostile culture. This image also speaks to our lands in a time of climate change. It is other nations, those that surround us, that have largely caused climate change, with the island nations of the Pacific paying a heavy price for their greed.

The sea when it rises will transform from being a source of food and a means of travel into that which washes whole nations into a hostile sea. Can our churches live a different way of live and show the world how to live at peace with the earth and each other?

To be this church we need to transform conflict in our hearts, communities and with the earth. To do so we need to embrace an ecological way of thinking that recognises our interconnectedness. As the Pope reminds us:

“everything is interconnected, and that genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others.”

Not only is everything in nature interconnected, meaning that the tree is connected to the bird to the sea and to the atmosphere, but human behaviour is connected to how we relate to other creatures.

In being peace builders we are helping to heal not only human relationships, but also harm to mother earth. There is no more important task today.

Amen.

Sermon: First Sunday in Lent (22 February 2015)

23 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by radiescent in climate change, exile, sermon

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climate change, exile, Noah

Preached by Dr Richard A. Davis at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Suva, Fiji Islands (22 February 2015)

Reading: Genesis 9:8-17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Our Old Testament reading today from the book of Genesis speaks of the covenant God makes with Noah, his descendants, and all living flesh. It is a well-known part of the larger Noah narrative, in which God floods the world wiping out sinful humanity and giving life on Earth a fresh start.

Coming toward the end of the Noah story this particular reading from Genesis would have to be one of the most repetitive pieces of scripture.

When we see repetition, we can assume a bad writer or editor, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that instead God really wants us to learn the point. Repetition here is giving emphasis for a humanity that is perhaps slow to learn. Or, perhaps God wants to reassure Noah and his family about the his change of behavior. I think it is significant that when God asked Noah to build the ark he spoke to Noah alone, but here God, in making the Covenant makes sure that he speaks to Noah and his sons. Noah and his family had just seen everything they knew wiped off the face of the earth, so God was at pains to reassure them all directly that he would not do it again.

The lesson is clear enough it seems, God will never again flood the whole earth. He wants this point to sink home. And it is one we must remember too.

Some might think that because of this covenant it is impossible that God will allow climate change to cause water to inundate low-lying areas or counties.

Sadly, this covenant does not prevent natural disasters and floods. It did not prevent the 1931 Chinese floods that may have claimed up to 4 million lives. Closer to home, it did not prevent the Fiji floods of 2009 that claimed at least 16 lives.

God’s covenant with Noah will not prevent flooding due to climate change either. Evil remains with us, but through the covenant we can be sure that those disasters that do occur are not the products of God’s anger or rejection.

In many cases, disasters have very human causes. While Western politicians debate resolutions at big international conferences while increasing their emissions at home, and protect and subsidize oil and coal industries, communities in the Pacific are already being relocated.

For people tied so closely to the land and sea where their ancestors lived I can only imagine the disruption caused – not only to the communities, but also in the hearts and minds of those affected. We should never underestimate the attachment to a place, especially those who have not much else but the land they farm and which has provided for them and their communities.

Instead of coming from God’s hand, the rising waters of climate change are the waters of human sin.

Humanity was all but wiped out due to its sin. In this covenant with Noah, God will no longer send waters of destruction. This does not mean that Noah’s family and their descendants will eradicate sin. What it means is that sin will not punished in this way.

It is sin nonetheless that leads to climate change. The greed of the West and the violation of mother nature is what lies behind climate change. The curious thing here is that the unintended result of climate change was just that – unintended. No one desired to pump gases into the atmosphere to change the climate. That would be a sin. No, the sins that eventually lead to climate change are most likely greed, pride, and gluttony. These sins continue to drive an inhumane global economy to the brink of destruction.

In some ways we deserve the punishment of a word wide flood as people implicated in the causes of climate change. Some have more emissions than others, but we all have emissions and many of us use beyond what is acceptable for a stable climate.

In our text for today, God makes humanity a promise. God promises never to flood the whole earth and all flesh ever again.

Humans make promises too. And children seem to have a very good memory for promises made to them by their parents. You parents know what I’m talking about.

Have others made promises to you? Too often when people make promises to us we remember the broken promises that that person made before. This reveals both their shortcoming and ours, as we shouldn’t dwell on the failings of others.

But when God makes a promise to us, we should remember all the promises God has made and fulfils on a daily basis to us. God’s promise in our story today is that God will not allow the forces of chaos to destroy us.

Other promises of God include that found in Jeremiah 29:11: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

But these promises may have a hollow sound to those facing dislocation through climate change induced sea level rise. Those faced with losing their lands and ancestral homes in the Pacific, are in some cases our families and friends and they are certainly our brothers and sisters in Christ.

But a sea level rise is not a flood to destroy the whole earth and all flesh.

To think that the flooding of our land is a flood for the whole earth is self-centred. In itself such a view is a sin that somehow our world is the whole world. That somehow if our world is destroyed, the whole world is destroyed. This is not how we should think at all.

Those displaced by climate change may wonder what God has done in allowing this to happen.

Instead of thinking about what God may have taken we can choose to see what God has given us.

Perhaps these people displaced by climate change can be a gift to the church. They might be able to teaching us that our home is not this earth.

But that I do not mean that our home is in heaven and we should simply accept what we are given here and wait for death. No. I mean that they can teach us how to live here and now.

Those victims of sea level rise forced to leave their homelands have been called rightly been called refugees. This appears to be a correct use of the term. But I want to apply another, more theological, term to their plight, and that is the term “exile”.

An exile is someone forced to leave their home for one reason or another. But it allows us to draw on our own traditions of the Bible and theology as we understand the plight of those moved on from their homes by climate change. They will move, like all exiles, to a strange place and encounter the unfamiliar.

But they are not the only exiles in the church. Our ancestors perhaps faced a greater disruption with the arrival of missionaries and colonization. Christians today face being exiles in a culture which has increasingly little place for faith. All exiles need to help one another deal with the unfamiliar.

For many dislocated by rising sea levels they will end in exile. But unlike the exile of the Hebrews in Babylon, there will be no chance of a return home. They will need to learn how to sing their songs in a new land

The question for them is: How do we learn to be resident aliens, living in exile?

In the famous “Epistle to Diognetus” early Christians were reported on in the following way:

“They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.”

Christians were seen in a way that transcended boundaries with a light connection to place

Noah was also an exile. For Noah there was no going back. His homeland was flooded and everything he had in the whole world was in the ark. Most likely, he and his family had drifted a long way from home. He had to accept his new location as being provided by God.

He demonstrated this acceptance by immediately planting a grape vine. Given that grapes can take about three years to produce fruit, we can see that Noah was taking a long-term view and adopting his new home.

In fact, some scholars suggest that the first 11 books of genesis were written during the Babylonian exile. If true, then this would suggest to us that we might see a criticism of Empire and a way of dealing with Exile in our text.

One thing that the Creation narrative of the first 11 chapters of Genesis makes clear is that our God, the God of Noah, is the God of the whole world.

God not only made the world but is also everywhere present in it. God was with Noah when he set off in the ark and was there when the ark came to rest. Few gods of the ancient world could achieve that feat. They were often being located in just one place.

Climate change forces us to rethink our God. God is not the God of our village or the god of our farm. God is the god of the whole world.

Can we nurture the faith of an exile? -With eyes on the Kingdom of God, which is above nations, hovers over the waters and the land and has no regard for arbitrary national borders.

Can we demonstrate a new way of living – clinging lightly to this earth and the things of this world? I hope we can.

Part of this poses a responsibility on those receiving the exiles too.

Take Deuteronomy 10:19: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Refugees, asylum seekers, and exiles are being treated terribly in Australia and other countries around the World. We Christians need to open our hearts and encourage government to do better in welcoming the stranger.

As someone in self-imposed exile, a New Zealander, a Kiwi living and working in Fiji, I love the communal life here in Fiji. People are friendly and here in the middle of the Pacific Fiji and other countries are surrounded by some of the worst climate offenders in the World, USA, China, Australia and New Zealand.

What do we have to offer them? I think we can live a life that shows how people can live in harmony with nature and each other under God.

This was the task given to the exile Noah, It is remains our task today.

Recent Posts

  • Parihaka Sources and Resources
  • Unlimited competition is wrong
  • Reflection in PTC Chapel on Acts 8:26-40 (23 April 2018)
  • Luther on the Scientific and Theological Understanding of the Rainbow
  • That Christianity and Anarchism Should Be Friends

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