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Document Details : Title: Wat te doeb voor het einde? Subtitle: Profetische handelingen en radicale ecologie Author(s): DUNN, Patrick Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie Volume: 58 Issue: 1 Date: 2018 Pages: 9-21 DOI: 10.2143/TVT.58.1.3278600 Abstract : Attempts to formulate a theological perspective on current ecological debates typically begin with ontological questions: How should the being of creation be understood in its relation to God? How should the being of humans be understood in its relation to the being of other creatures? Privileging these ontological questions as the key to a theological ecology – as has been done most notably in Laudato si’ – is both understandable and yet unsatisfying. Either humanity retains its status on a great chain of being – and thus struggles to avoid granting itself the full privileges of dominion – or else humanity has its status reduced. This reduction takes one of two forms, either by pulling the divine being fully into immanent reality, or by elevating creaturely existence into divinity. This article seeks a different foundation for a theological ecology in the prophetic sign-acts, and thus sets to one side the ontological question. The prophetic sign-acts press the reader away from decisions about ontological standing and towards the necessity of imitation, striving to articulate in one’s body a divine Word. Drawing on the example of the prophets’ deeds, this article argues that a truly radical ecological ethic is possible once the ontological situation is suspended, replaced by a faithful urgency to act in ways that disregard one’s own standing. |
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