Barth and Ecotheology: The Electing God and the Community of Creation

Barth and Ecotheology offers a critical and constructive reading of Karl Barth’s theology in the context of the Anthropocene. It reflects on how a contemporary doctrine of creation must be broad enough to address issues such as climate change, colonialism and racism, sexism, as well as integrating modern science. Such a theology would resist the human domination of nature and the various forms of displacement occurring in modernity. With Barth, the author contends that a theology of creation grounded in the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the best place to rethink what it means to be human and to exist within the community of creation. Nevertheless, if we are to affirm the livingness of the world, creaturely differences, and a central place for land and place, then critical additions to Barth are needed. To accomplish this, the book provides constructive reinterpretations of Barth’s theological method, doctrine of God, creation by the Word and Spirit, anthropology, and reconciliation. What emerges is a vision of the triune God of love as the source and ground of all that is. Along the way, Barth is brought into dialogue with ecotheology as well as theologians such as Wolfhart Pannenberg, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Bruce McCormack. The volume will be of particular interest to theologians focused on the doctrine of creation, ecotheology, and Barth studies.

Adrian Langdon is Director of Programs at The Leadership Centre, The Presbyterian College, Montreal, and an affiliate faculty in the School of Religious Studies at McGill University, Canada.