CYBERJOURNAL FOR PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC RESEARCH #27
“Pentecostal Ecotheology from the Margins”
By Dr. Harold D. Hunter
Abstract
A telling state of affairs was revealed in the adoption of the theme "Come, Holy Spirit – Renew The Whole Creation" for the Seventh Assembly (Canberra ‘91) of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Emilio Castro, initiator of this theme when General Secretary of the WCC, participated in the 1992 edition of Encuentro Pentecostal Latinoamericano (EPLA). Castro’s support for the Canberra ’91 theme was influenced by his relationship of many years with Pentecostals in Latin America. [Castro (1989)]
Pentecostals were intrigued by an official document released prior to the Seventh WCC General Assembly:
The transformation that the Spirit brings restores our communion with God and one another. We are built up through the gifts of the Spirit into a people empowered to do God's will, to share the good news, and to become a community of sharing. [Come, Holy Spirit, 1989]
The push to advance Pentecostal Ecotheology in the 21st Century has primarily been driven by activists from the Global South. Pentecostal voices from Africa, Latin America, and Asia will be heard in this article. It is economic realities alone that keep many of these social activists away from ecumenical tables.
Keywords: Pentecostal, Margins, Ecumenical Patriarch, Integral Theology, Redistribution
Was the Founder of the original “Earth Day” a Pentecostal?
John Saunders McConnell, Jr. was raised a Classical Pentecostal. His father, J.S. McConnell, was an Assemblies of God minister and was on hand in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for the 1914 “birth” of the Assemblies of God. His grandfather, T.W. McConnell attended the famed Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. The early ministry of his father was filled with ‘signs and wonders’ as they traversed the U.S.A. It was John McConnell who launched the original Earth Day sanctioned by the United Nations. John would drink from the same wells as his Pentecostal family by seeing a divine mandate in moving forward on this critical front. [McConnell (2011)]
Unfortunately, the stewardship of God’s creation has not been warmly embraced by most Pentecostal leaders in the Global North. Among the signs of a shift some years ago, was the pointed presentation about African Indigenous Churches (AICS) in Zimbabwe given at Brighton ’91 by M.L. Daneel at my invitation that we will visit momentarily.
No Pentecostal leader in the USA challenged Donald Trump when on June 1, 2017, he withdrew the USA from the Paris Climate Agreement on Climate Change. Nor did any of these Pentecostal leaders publicly endorse anything like ecological statements by the WCC or National Council of Churches USA (NCCCUSA). In the meantime, neither Christian Churches Together USA nor the Global Christian Forum including their meetings of scholars – both groups include Pentecostals - has tackled this critical issue. The IPHC magazine Encourage published August 2019 included an article by Cheryl Bridges Johns on ecology. This was a reprint from her previous article in the Church of God Evangel (Spring 2009) published long before Trump’s term.
I gave the keynote address on Pentecostal ecotheology for Red Pentecostal Latinoamericana de Estuidios Pentecostales (RELEP) 2018. This was delivered on October 25, 2019 in Vitoria, Brazil. I tried to warn about what then favored Brazil president candidate Jair Bolsonaro - who is Trump-like as elections were the weekend of the RELEP conference - would do to the Amazon. Unfortunately, many Pentecostals voted for Bolsonaro. It was clear from his campaign that the Amazon and indigenous peoples were getting in his way for what he saw as a solution to the country’s economic woes. During August 2019, the entire world witnessed that the Amazon is critical to all of us as the ‘lungs of the earth’ due to out of control fires that the Brazilian government initially played down.
The NCCCUSA Faith and Order Commission looking at the environment included a paper prepared for our Washington DC meeting of 2018 about the Category 5 Hurricane that hit Puerto Rico on Sept 7, 2017. Puerto Rico survived a glancing blow but a direct hit as Category 4 Hurricane on Sept 20, 2017 ultimately took 3K (2,975) lives with loses at $94B USD. “What is worse than being hit by a Category 5 Hurricane? Well, being hit by a category 5 hurricane in a colony, under a Trump presidency and in a regime of extreme austerity led by Wall Street and (the USA) Congress. Cyclones are natural, but disasters are political.” [Martel (2018)]
A recent UN report look at increased temperature and the impact on severe storms concluded the “Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change”. David Ramirez, the third assistant General Overseer for Church of God (Cleveland, TN), and founder of SEMISUD in Ecuador retweeted this UN report urging Pentecostal young people to respond accordingly.
It is no surprise, then, that for almost 20 years, SEMISUD, a Pentecostal seminary outside Quito, Ecuador, has hosted an annual ecology conference known as PRIDEMI. The September 10-12, 2019 edition featured famed theologian Professor Leonardo Boff as the keynote speaker, and he did not disappoint. Attendance was strong and enthusiasm high. It was gratifying to hear several enlightening sessions including one morning that started with Professor Leonardo Boff and ended with three indigenous Pentecostal speakers.
It is noteworthy that the national leader of one of the largest Pentecostal indigenous peoples in Ecuador, Byron Calo, said “We were conquered by the Incas, then the Spaniards, then the Catholics, and now the Evangelicals.” Luz Tipan digging deep into Pacha Mamma emphasized that they must ask permission and express sorrow when taking from the earth while noting they are quick to return anything they take. The third indigenous speaker, Jose Chisaguano, took us on an enhanced journey of Pacha Mamma who was featured earlier in an animated video.
The first speaker at the PRIDEMI 2019 conference was Jonathan Suarez who offered a detailed deconstruction of Ecuadorian colonial history crushing indigenous peoples. Later anthropologist Michael Uzendoski took us inside the Quechua culture connection to the soil with implications for the Amazon. Professor Boff had underscored such things and more about why indigenous voices must be respected. Among the strengths of this conference is that they have sessions on campaigning and social activism.
Oscar Corvalan recently confirmed that the Pentecostal Church of Chile has been involved with ecology for many decades. The Pentecostal Church of Chile is a member of the WCC and connected to the United Church of Christ in the USA. Things might have been quite different for this church had IPHC kept the affiliation with the Pentecostal Church of Chile signed in 1966 along with the Methodist Pentecostal Church rather then terminating this agreement in 1968. [Corvalan (2018)]
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s Integral Theology
I have often said that Classical Pentecostal church leaders would do well to learn from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I particularly when His All Holiness used the word “sin” to depict the devastating impact of human abuse on God’s Creation. The word “sin” has been much used in Pentecostal sermons and teachings. Pentecostals in the USA who constantly measure themselves against magisterial Protestants, need to look closely at the record of the “Green Patriarch”. Bartholomew has made creation care a hallmark of his tenure as Ecumenical Patriarch. Archdeacon John Chryssavgis is more than justified to devote an entire chapter in his biography of Bartholomew to this critical theological issue. [Hunter (2016)]
International media coined then conferred the title “Green Patriarch” in recognition of Bartholomew’s unique contribution. This unpretentious yet telling title was recognized at the USA White House in 1997 by Al Gore, then vice president of the United States. True to this landmark distinction, Bartholomew in 1997 would equate abuse of God’s creation as sin. This public stand was rightly lauded by environmental activists from around the world.
During the 2018 RELEP conference in Brazil, I recounted Bartholomew’s July 2006 “blessing of the waters” on the Amazon River which attracted international media attention. Bartholomew was welcomed as “the Patriarch of the Amazon”. His All-Holiness responded by enlarging on the significance of the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River: “In our encounter with the indigenous peoples of this region, we witnessed and felt their profound sense of the sacredness of creation and of the bonds that exist between all living things and people. Thanks to them, we understand more deeply that, as creatures of God, we are all in the same boat: ‘estamos no mesmo barco!’” [Chryssavgis (2016)]
Odair Pedroso Mateus, Reformed theologian from Brazil who leads the WCC Faith and Order Commission, tweeted on 9/10/19, “WCC President Bishop Mark MacDonald says ‘The impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples directly mirror what is widely reported among the impacts of Arctic environments and their animals and sea life’”.
It should be emphasized that Bartholomew I sought to bring accountability for God’s creation first to the Eastern Orthodox prelates. In 1992, soon after his election as Ecumenical Patriarch, he brought together an unprecedented Synaxis of Primates at the Phanar. All the assembled prelates endorsed September 1 as a day of “Pan-Orthodox prayer for God’s creation.” Bartholomew put it this way when clarifying the scripture phrase “stewards of creation”: “… we are called to offer creation back to God as priests, just as the priest in the Eucharist offers the bread and wine to God, who in turn transforms them into his body and blood for the life of the whole world. So, rather than speaking of becoming ‘stewards of creation,’ it may more helpful to speak of becoming ‘priests of creation’ in accordance with our donation and vocation to be part of the ‘royal priesthood’.” [Chryssavgis (2016)]
Maria Sereti gave a paper to the 5th international Conference on Ecological Theology and Environmental Ethics (ECOTHEE-2017) conference meeting at the Orthodox Academy of Crete entitled “The contribution of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Ι to the configuration of an Ecumenical ‘Integral Ecology’”. Integral Ecology was understood to speak of economic justice and according to Sereti was subsequently lauded by Pope Francis in his Encyclical “Laudato si” which was much quoted in various papers at ECOTHEE ‘19. The clarion call for this basic concept has loudly come for many years from the WCC and others in the broader ecumenical movement. Sereti goes on to link Integral Ecology to the Eucharist which is echoed in the 1982 WCC Faith and Order ‘Lima Document’. [Sereti (2018)]
With the aid of recently deceased Roman Catholic Monsignor Peter Hocken, I put together the first global conference for Pentecostal scholars known as the Theological Track of Brighton ’91. Our presenters were Roman Catholic, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal. This invitation only event did everything possible to strike a balance between the Global North and Global South. Simultaneous translation was provided in four languages. The irony is that I initially tried to link this global event with the WCC General Assembly known as Canberra ’91. I spoke to the WCC General Secretary Emilio Castro about this in his Geneva office in 1989. Castro was positive about the concept, but wanted input from W.H. Hollenweger who he had employed at the WCC headquarters in Geneva. When Hollenweger - who had retired to the Swiss Alps - was slow to engage the process, I had to quickly move everything to Brighton ’91.
The keynote speaker for the theological track of Brighton ‘91 was Professor Jürgen Moltmann. Professor Moltmann reserved a chapter of his The Spirit of Life (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991) until after the delivery of his presentation at Brighton ’91. The sessions addressed race, gender, liberation theology, other living faiths, martyrdom, ecology, and other forward-looking issues.
It is against this background that the importance of the Theological Stream of Brighton 91, held July 8-14, 1991, must be judged. Of the 150 invitation only scholars attending, several were theologians, exegetes, or historians of world renown. Most striking was the range of nationalities and of Church traditions represented: these ranged from Latin American Pentecostals to a Coptic Orthodox bishop, from Scandinavian Lutheran to New Zealand Open Brother, from African-American Pentecostals to a Syrian rite Catholic. Particularly well represented was South Africa (with scholars from most groupings seeking attention during the day of transition). Thus, the unprecedented symposium attracted participants from many ecumenical and academic bodies like the WCC.
When putting the Brighton ’91 conference together, I invited UNISA Professor ML Daneel to present a paper. I had read several of his books and was delighted when he proposed doing a session on Creation Care. I had lectured on this in the early 1980s (in a course I designed under the name “Contemporary Theology”) while full time faculty on a Pentecostal seminary (e.g. Church of God Theological Seminary now Pentecostal Theological Seminary). However, I was not prepared for the title of his proposed session. When I received his proposal to read “African Independent Church Pneumatology and the Salvation of all Creation,” I accepted it but put him on early Saturday morning a point which he noted with a smile as he started his address.
Daneel’s paper was received with enthusiasm during the Brighton ’91 conference and later in the print volume All Together In One Place. Daneel’s work instilled a sense of urgency in me as I waved this Creation Care banner high when during the early 1990s as Professor at Large teaching in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. I presented a formal paper at the International Theological Conference on the Holy Spirit, International Theological Institute of the Yoido Full Gospel Church (May 21, 1999) in Korea which led to my article being published in Korea in 2000. This became the first article of its kind by a Classical Pentecostal scholar.
There is a diverse group of non-western Christians in Africa known as African Indigenous/Initiated Churches (AICs). Those churches in South Africa that participate in the Pentecostal World Fellowship have not previously officially accepted AICs as Pentecostals. Each Easter – at least in the 1990s - the Zion Christian Church in South Africa attracted up to three million for their celebration which made it one of the largest celebrations of its kind in the world. This discussion has been advanced by the likes of the luminous Nigerian scholar Samson Adetunji Fatokun in an article entitled “The Distinctive Features of Aladura Movement and their Implications for African Pentecostalism.” [Farokun (2019)]
According to Daneel’s presentation at Brighton ’91, when it comes time for water baptism, one group of AIC candidates in Zimbabwe confess not only personal sins, but things like "I chopped down 30 trees, but did not plant any." “I ruined the topsoil”. More on this in the Daneel paper presented to Brighton ‘91 available in All Together in One Place that was reprinted recently by Wipf and Stock. [Daneel (1993)] Then there is the Lord's Supper. A monstrous fire is built and 1,000s go running around this huge fire yelling out their sins. Along with familiar confessions to adultery, jealousy, stealing–are wailings over ecological wizardry. Before actually taking the elements of communion, they must pass through a series of symbolic gates of heaven. Each gate has prophets who discern hidden sins not confessed when running around the bonfire. Those hidden sins include ecological sins!
Juan Sepulveda, an authchonous Pentecostal from Chile who did a Brighton ’91 presentation on liberation theology, delivered a paper at the November 23-28, 1992 Encuentro Pentecostal Latinoamerica (EPLA) in Brazil entitled "Romans 8:18-23, La Liberacion de la Creacion." Presentations I gave in 1993 on the restoration of God’s creation to Pentecostal pastors across Nicaragua were warmly affirmed by the bishop and pastors. While in Asia shortly afterward, a fax came in from CEPHAD asking if I was going to be at CIEETS with Professor Moltmann. I could not get from Asia to Nicaragua, which was disappointing because Moltmann, of course, had influenced many on this issue including the Roman Catholic Charismatic author of a trilogy on the Holy Spirit–Yves Congar.
Did God create the trees? Occupants of a post-industrial informational society are less sure and do not really care that much. I was raised around talk about what exclusive community or what generation will greet the rapture. One thing we can agree on, the omnipresent polystyrene balls and cups in the Global North will survive all of us. One sign of this is that some archival time capsules are now made of polystyrene. In this context, vendors do not hesitate to advertise the longevity of polystyrene to potential customers.
There were economic affects like that in Nicaraguan cities where cutting down coffee trees had changed their economy. Pentecostals were part of the 60% and higher unemployment. In early 1980s many coffee trees were cut down because they were diseased. The result was that where one had to wear sweaters because of cold, then it became hot in this city and the local economy was in ruins. In the early 1990s, many local workers from Nicaragua were going into Costa Rica to find coffee-tree work. We see here again Maria Sereti’s Integral Ecology.
One of the gifts of the Pentecostal Movement to the Twentieth Century was its commitment to the possibility of physical healings. Yet, how does the movement now respond to caring for God’s creation when the sickness of creation damages our health and well-being? When pollution in various places caused me to be ill, my church would readily lay hands on me to recover. I welcomed this intervention, but I said that we must cure the curse because this same pollution is having a devastating effecting on those directly exposed to these monsters.
Stated in a theological way, we acknowledge that God created humankind in the divine image. When we get sick, we are invited to pray for healing. God created this planet and said it was good. We were given water to drink and land on which to live. But we have brought many diseases into creation. Now we must seek the salvation of all creation.
Setri Nyomi, friend of Apostle Opoku Onyinah former chairman of the Church of Pentecost in Ghana, presided over the Accra Declaration as General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Church (WARC now known as World Communion of Reformed Churches or WCRC). This remarkable document produced during the 2004 WARC General Council - is subtitled “Convenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth”. Unfortunately, there is not enough space here to even highlight sections of this significant document.
Joseph Quayesi Amakye, opens an in intriguing article on Ghanian Pentecostals by saying,
“This paper argues that contemporary Pentecostals in Ghana have shifted drastically from their forebear(er)s’ approach to healing and medicine. Unlike their ancestors contemporary Pentecostals take (a) keen interest in the healing of the Ghanaian. This interest is not restricted to metaphysical healing but embraces scientific approaches to healing, which include establishment of hospitals, clinics, health centres, taking environmental issues serious(ly), health promotion among Ghanaians among others.”
[Amakye (2013)]
These findings should be in harmony with the Church of Pentecost in Ghana considering their impressive health welfare system that includes one hospital and seven clinics for the poor and marginalized. The Church of Pentecost has sought economic empowerment through their 40 credit unions under the umbrella Pentecost Corporative Mutual Support and Social Services Society Limited (PENCO). The Church of Pentecost Disaster Prevention and Relief Services would be supportive of Creation Care that seeks to minimize the adverse impact on all God’s creatures. All these ministries expanded under the capable leadership of Apostle Opoku Onyinah.
In 2017, Apostle Opoku Onyinah publicly opposed illegal mining and “other practices” in part because of the degradation of the environment. All these statements are important to the three million believers that make up the global Church of Pentecost. There is an excellent article about the social engagement of the Church of Pentecost by David D. Daniels III in the 2018 book honoring Apostle Opoku Onyinah. [Daniels (2018)]
Environmental Discrimination and Redistribution
During the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA) conference held October 2, 1997 in Washington, D.C., Bishop George D. McKinney, Pastor of St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ in San Diego, California, gave an example of injustice that he engaged that I published in 1998.
Public policies that allow low income housing to be built and maintained on known toxic
waste sights must be dismantled. About a year ago, a group of us traveled to Washington
D.C., and met with Vice-President Al Gore regarding this injustice. We had with us a
black pastor from Dallas who testified that he, his wife and their seven children did not
know that the low-income housing in which they lived was built over a toxic waste site.
Now it’s too late. All of the children are affected with cancer or some other debilitating
disease or deformity. The husband and wife, only in their late fifties, are dying from
cancer. In their community, the cancer rate is twenty or thirty times higher than in the rest
of the city. The tragedy of the situation was that the city of Dallas was aware that the
location was a toxic dump, but no appropriate action was taken. The church, when it is
aware of these circumstances, must bring pressure to bear upon those in power,
demanding that justice be served to those who are defenseless. [McKinney (1998)]
A sign of the changing landscape for Pentecostal ecotheology by Global North scholars writing in English are the forward steps taken by AJ Swoboda. Look at Blood Cries Out: Pentecostals, Ecology, and the Groans of Creation (Pentecostals, Peacemaking, and Social Justice Book 8, (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2014) edited by A. J. Swoboda that includes a chapter on Pentecostal Ecological work in Africa. Yet this is primarily the same AIC group noted by Daneel in his Brighton ’91 paper mentioned earlier. Among the important chapters are the following: Peter Althouse: “Pentecostal Eco-Transformation: Possibilities for a Pentecostal Ecotheology in Light of Moltmann’s Green Theology”; Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, “The Greening of the Spirit: Towards a Pneumatological Theology of the Flourishing of Nature’; Robby Waddell, “A Green Apocalypse: Comparing Secular and Religious Eschatological Visions of Earth.” [Swoboda (2014)] My paper read at the 1998 Pentecostal World Conference in Korea was published as “Pentecostal Healing for God’s Sick Creation?” in South Korea’s The Spirit and the Church 2:2 (November 2000), pp. 145-167. This was the first article of its kind by a Classical Pentecostal. Suurmond published on the topic before me, but Suurmond self identifies as a Charismatic not a Classical Pentecostal. [Suurmond (1988)]
The trend of urbanization has changed the world forever. No adequate infrastructure is found in Global South megacities that have exploded in size. These huge cities combined with global industrialization of the world have contributed to the environmental chaos. We affirm that God is the Creator. North American Evangelicals have generated mountains of paper arguing how this relates to various sciences. Is God also the Governor, I ask? Kosuke Koyama, who quips “the monsoon rain cannot make God wet,” noted that Thai tied to a monsoon orientation are unfamiliar with a Creator who “shakes the wilderness of Kadesh” and who “sits enthroned over the floor.” [Koyama (1989)] Anyway, does not ecological decay hasten the coming of the Lord? In contrast to such desperation, Presbyterian Choo Lak Yeow from Singapore argued that “end of the world” is not destruction, but “regeneration.” Yeow pointedly denied Greek and Yin-Yang dualistic influences which account for some of this pessimism. [Yeow (1981)]
Pentecostals under the spell of dispensationalism frequently talk about Armageddon and there are political alliances in the USA with Israel to try and make this happen in my lifetime. But they ignore the fact that they are destroying the earth even now and the damage cannot be reversed. Pentecostals also talk much about evangelizing the world, but often forget we live on one planet that requires all of us working together to keep the earth healthy. I have heard prophetic style inspired speech warn of the end of the ages and urgency to complete their mission, but no such inspired speech warning about climate change.
According to former Pentecostalist Miroslav Volf, if we leave aside the more modern ethical and existential interpretations of the cosmological eschatological statements, Christian theologians have held two basic positions on the eschatological future of the world. Some stressed radical discontinuity between the present and the future orders, believing in the complete destruction of the present world at the end of the ages and creation of a fully new world. Others postulated continuity between the two, believing that the present world will be transformed into the new heaven and new earth. Two radically different theologies of work follow from these two basic eschatological models. [Volf (1991)]
The picture changes radically with the assumption that the world will end not in apocalyptic destruction but in eschatological transformation. Then the results of the cumulative work of human beings have intrinsic value and gain ultimate significance, for they are related to the eschatological new creation, not only indirectly through the faith and service they enable or sanctification they further, but also directly: the noble products of human ingenuity, whatever is beautiful, true and good in human cultures, will be cleansed from impurity, perfected, and transfigured to become part of God's new creation. They will form the building materials from which (after they are transfigured) the glorified world will be made.
North Americans cannot pray "give us our daily bread", use a disproportionate portion of the world's resources then send toxic waste to poor countries. This is 'plundering for profit.' Hazardous waste presents high risks to humans, animals, plants and the environment. We forfeit the right to sit in judgment on Brazil's rainforests and ignore acid rain in Canada. It is our "progress" that has influenced the tropics with its cultures that live cooperatively with the forest now being wiped off the land by coercion, killing, and legal procedures that deprive them of traditional lands.
Come Holy Spirit, Renew Thy Whole Creation!
Amakye, Quayesi, (2013), “The church, medicine and healing: the Ghanian Pentecostal Response,” Ogbomoso Journal of Theology, Nigeria 18/2, 1.
Castro, Emilio, (1989), conversation with Harold D. Hunter in office of the WCC General Secretary, Geneva, Switzerland.
Chryssavgis, John, (2016), Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary, Nashville: W. Publishing Group, 193.
Come, Holy Spirit: Renew Thy Whole Creation (New York: Friendship Press, 1989), 8.
Corvalan, Oscar, (2018), conversation with Harold D. Hunter in Vitoria, Brazil during RELEP conference.
Daneel, M.L., (1993), “African Independent Church Pneumatology and the Salvation of all Creation,” All Together In One Place: Theological Papers from the Brighton Conference on World Evangelization, edited by Harold D. Hunter and Peter D. Hocken, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 96-126.
Daniels III, David D., (2018) “Progressive Pentecostalism, Pentecostal Philanthropy: Church of Pentecost” in African Pentecostal Missions Maturing: Essays in Honor of Apostle Opoku Onyinah, edited by Lord Elorm Donkor and Clifton R. Clarke, Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 50-63
Fatokun, Samson Adetunji, (2018), “The Distinctive Features of Aladura Movement and their Implications for African Pentecostalism,” in The Changing Faces of African Pentecostalism, edited by Babatunde Aderemi Adedibu and Benson Ohihon Igboin, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria: Adekunle Ajasin University Press, 88-102.
Hunter, Harold D. (2016), book review, John Chryssavgis, Bartholomew: Apostle and Visionary in Pneuma Review at http://pneumareview.com/journey-with-the-orthodox-biography-of-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-reviewed-by-harold-d-hunter
Koyama, Kosuke, (1989), Waterbuffalo Theology, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 41, 35.
Martel, Loida I., (2018), “And the Earth Screamed Back: Doing Violence to the Land,” paper presented to the National Council of Churches Convening Table for Theological Studies and Matters of Faith and Reason.
McConnell, John (2011), Earth Day: Vision for Peace, Justice, and Earth Care, Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, chapter 5.
McKinney, George D., (1998), “A God of Justice,” Reconciliation 1, 5
Sereti, Maria, (2018), “The Contribution of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the Configuration of an Ecumenical ‘Integral Ecology’,” The Ecumenical Review 70:4, 621-623.
Suurmond, Jean-Jacques (1988), "Christ King: A Charismatic Appeal for an Ecological Lifestyle," Pneuma 10:1, 26-35.
Swoboda, AJ, Ed., (2014), Blood Cries Out: Pentecostals, Ecology, and the Groans of Creation (Pentecostals, Peacemaking, and Social Justice Book 8, Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications.
Volf, Miroslav, (1991), Work in the Spirit: Toward A Theology of Work, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 89-91.
Yeow, Choo Lak, (1981), To God be the Glory! Doctrines on God and Creation, Singapore: Trinity Theological College Publication, 135.