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The Word and the World: Biblical Reflections on Climate Change

Edited by Viji Varghese Eapen George ZachariahP. Mohan Larbeer

Facilitatorsl. Jayachitra

Allan Samuel Palanna R. Daniel PremkumarRoyce Manoj Victor

Vinod Wesley

BTESSC & CSI2013

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The Word and the World: Biblical Reflections on Climate Change

© 2013, BTESSC & CSI

ISBN : 978-93-83002-00-9

Jointly published byBTESSCP.B. No. 46353rd Floor, 73, Miller’s RoadBenson Town P.O.Bangalore – 560 046.Tel: 080 2353 6868, Fax: 080 2353 8274E-mail: secretary@btessc.org

Department of Ecumenical Relations & Ecological ConcernsChurch of South India No. 5, White’s Road, Royapettah, Chennai - 600 014.

Cover DesignK. Immanuel Paul Vivekanandh

Printed at :National Printing Press Phone: 080-25710658

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TABLE oF ConTEnT

Editorial Viji Varghese Eapen, George Zachariah and P. Mohan Larbeer ................................................................ v

Climate Justice: A Call for Solidarity and Partnership Vanlalpeka ................................................................................... 1

From Climate Change to Climate Justice: A Reflection for Transformation B. Silpa Rani ............................................................................... 16

Bible in the Public Sphere: Hermeneutical Tools for Bible Studies on Social Issues Royce M. Victor ........................................................................... 34

Towards an Eco-Justice Hermeneutics: Some Random Reflections George Zachariah ....................................................................... 49

A ‘Fishy’ Call? Viji Varghese Eapen .................................................................... 64

Blessed are the Torah Doers and Earth Keepers: The Beatitudes in Psalm 1: 1-6 R. Daniel Premkumar ................................................................. 69

A Sabbath of Complete Rest for the Eres (Earth) Abhishek Isaac Lyall ................................................................... 73

Genocide and Ecocide: The Ethnic Violence in Sri Lanka and the Violence against Nature K. Immanuel Paul Vivekanandh .................................................. 79

Development – Wilderness to Vineyard Christy Gnanadasan ................................................................... 83

‘Abraham’s Tent’: An Alternative Paradigm for Commercial Tourism Sandeep Theophil ........................................................................ 88

“Comfort, Comfort My People, Says your God” Chandra Mohan .......................................................................... 94

Ecological Imbalance – Plague of the Present Day Chrisida Nithyakalyani ............................................................... 97

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Towards a Spirituality of Resilience to Protest Life D.S. Arun ..................................................................................... 101

Colonization of the Commons and Climate Change: Where have all the Prophets Gone? R. Christopher Rajkumar ............................................................ 108

Climate as our Good Neighbour R.R. Irish Raih ............................................................................. 116

“Land is God’s ‘Disciples,’ Let us allow her to…” Augusty G. Gandhi ...................................................................... 122

Cosmic Groaning and Climate Justice J. Jeremiah Anderson .................................................................. 136

Vilappilsala: An Issue of Waste Management - A Perspective from the Pastoral Epistles Alex Yesudas ................................................................................ 142

Celebrating Pentecost: Plural Narratives of Dissent and Alternatives from the Margins George Zachariah ....................................................................... 149

List of Contributors ......................................................................... 155

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The Word and the World: Biblical Reflections on Climate Change

Editorial

The earth is really warming up. The alarming rate at which the glaciers disappear, and ice melts indicates what the future holds for us. Global warming has literally disturbed the rhythm of nature. Unpredicted rains, floods and droughts have become our companions today, causing hunger, displacement, epidemics and death. Communities, who have been living from time immemorial, in communion with jal, jungle and jamin, have lost their lives, livelihoods and food security, and have become climate refugees in the cities. Global warming is a universal phenomenon; yet, it is the subaltern communities—the poor, the adivasis, the dalits, and the women—are the ones who are disproportionately affected by it. Communities with almost zero carbon emission are forced to bear the brunt of climate change. This cruel reality exposes the politics of climate change, and invites us to perceive climate change as justice issue.

Social action groups, engaged in climate justice campaigns, identify climate change as a wake up call for humanity to repent, and to mend their ways to save our planet from the looming disaster. They call for significant reduction in the anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases. They further demand radical socio-economic restructuring to reduce the impact of climate injustice and climate apartheid on subaltern communities. Social movements and

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peoples’ science groups are engaged in the search for developing alternative energy sources which are just, democratic, sustainable and clean.

The crisis of mother earth is equally a crisis of our faith. A critical analysis of our spiritual practices, biblical interpretations and doctrinal understanding exposes the ecological bankruptcy of the Christian faith which not only obscures the importance of nature in Christian faith and spirituality, but also absolves our ecological sins. Bible and Christian doctrines in general have failed in inspiring us to strive together to create a just and sustainable world. So the crisis that we face today is essentially a theological crisis and it makes it imperative on us to re-discover God, the creator and our role as created co-creators in the community of creation. This little book is a humble initiative towards that end.

The Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore College is a constituent body of the Senate to translate the following Vision and Mission of Theological Education in India: “We believe that the Triune God has offered the possibility of renewal of life and hope for the entire creation in and through Jesus Christ, and that as an instrument of God, the Church is called to be involved in God’s mission of liberation, reconciliation and community building among all peoples through varied forms of ministry. Set in the midst of people of other faiths and ideologies as well as situations of life-negating forces, we are called upon to equip the whole people of God to respond to the contextual challenges critically and creatively by being faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In light of this faith and self-understanding, we seek to equip ministers, leaders, scholars and the whole people of God to be committed to creative discernment of and active participation in God’s liberative mission in the world at large and in South Asia in particular by providing programmes of theological study and ministerial formation at various levels

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through affiliated colleges and institutions.” The BTESSC has been organizing various programmes and projects to realize the aforementioned mandate.

Climate justice has been chosen as the theme for the activities of the BTESSC for the academic year 2012-13. Various programmes were organized during this year to create awareness among the theological educators and students as well as the wider Christian community. The Board Annual Meeting, held in Dehradun in February 2012, deliberated on the theme Climate Justice and the presentations were compiled and published as a booklet under the title ‘Climate Justice.’ The BTESSC has also organized a seminar in Chennai in January 2013 for the church leaders on climate justice.

In association with the Church of South India, Department of Ecumenical Relations and Ecological Concerns, the BTESSC organized a Bible Study Workshop on Climate Justice in Chennai in September, 2012. This workshop was meant to develop Bible Study materials on climate justice for the use of the Christian community in India. Twenty participants and five resource persons attended the workshop. The participants developed almost fifteen Bible studies reflecting upon different impacts of climate injustice from their respective contexts. This book is a compilation of the Bible studies developed in the Chennai Workshop and the theme presentations. We have also requested some other friends to contribute Bible studies to this volume. We place on record our deep gratitude to EMS -Germany and Dan Mission, Denmark who supported this Workshop. We are grateful to the resource team, consisted of Dr. Mohan Larbeer, Rev. Viji Varghese Eapen, Dr. Daniel Premkumar, Dr. Royce Victor, Dr. Allan Samuel Palanna, Dr. Jayachitra, Mr. Vinod Wesley and Dr. George Zachariah.

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We hope and pray that this humble effort will inspire many to consider Climate injustice as a survival issue and engage in campaigns to reduce carbon emissions and to develop alternative practices of creation-care, informed and challenged by the Word of God.

Viji Varghese EapenGeorge ZachariahP. Mohan Larbeer 30.01.2013