Discussion on Lutheran plans for an Eco-Reformation from the point of view of studies about Eco-anxiety.

1. Dr. Panu Pihkala, September 2017

3.  Environmental damage is so large…
 And the necessary changes are so deep…
 …that only a change on the scale of a
reformation is big enough
 Christians must take into account the
contemporary problems that are evident in
the world (the creation)
 This is also a question of relevance
 A missiological aspect

4.  Led by North American Lutherans
 www.lutheransrestoringcreation.org
 Books, videos, events…
 Eco-Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in
Peril (2016)
 Eco-Lutheranism (2013)
 LutheranWorld Federation
 Creation – Not For Sale, 2016
▪ https://2017.lutheranworld.org/content/creation-%E2%80%93-not-sale-131

5.  1) For a Christian, everything is related to
faith
 2) God is present in a suffering creation
(theology of cross)
 3) All humans are both good and evil
(simul justus et peccator)
 4) God is with us even when we don’t feel it

6.  Luther’s Catechisms: all things as God’s gifts,
including such ”earthly” things as food,
clothing, domestic animals, air etc.
 Responsible treatment of anything has a
religious dimension
 ->Very easy to see ”creation care” as a
religious vocation

7.  Not ”theology of glory”, but ”theology of
cross”
 God sometimes hides in opposites of what
people would presume
 Present in suffering, weakness, nothingness…
 God suffers with all his creation, both humans
and non-humans
 Luther: ”A theologian of the cross sees a
thing as it is”

8.  The psychological dimension of
environmental problems: people resort to
defences, such as splitting and projection
 Some people always feel insufficient, some
others feel overly good (self-righteous)
 Lutherans: doctrine of justification, it’s all
God’s work
 The need to accept our ambivalence, but also
our possibilities

9.  Luther suffered from dark periods when he
felt that even God was absent
 Still the emphasis was on the need to trust
God, even when we are not able to do so
 Cf. Catholic theologian Steven Chase, Nature
as Spiritual Practice:
 ”Dark Night of the Planet”
▪ echoing St. John of the Cross (Dark Night of the Soul)

10.  In the Anthropocene, there are no spiritual
guides who could say: ”I’ve been on the other
side of this dark night”
 But there are numerous spiritual guides who
tell us of the need for perseverance and hope
 We need the courage to walk together in the
dark night of the planet, with hope
 An emphasis on God’s presence and promise
is elementary

11.  What’s your part?
 Please do read more of the materials and join
the ranks
 Some more discussion:

12. P. Pihkala:
 ”Environmental Education After Sustainability:
Hope in the Midst ofTragedy”, Global Discourse
7:1 (2017)
 “The Pastoral Challenge of the Environmental
Crisis: Environmental Anxiety and Lutheran
‘Eco-Reformation’”, Dialog Summer 2016
(10.1111/dial.12239)
panupp@yahoo.com