RT Article
T1 Rediscovery of Early Twentieth-Century Ecotheology
JF Open theology
VO 2
IS 1
SP 268
OP 285
A1 Pihkala, Panu 1979-
LA English
PB De Gruyter
YR 2016
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1829458310
AB In this article, I examine the early history of Christian environmentalism ("ecotheology") in the twentieth century. I delineate four strands of early ecotheology: agrarian ecotheology; social Christianity; British contributions; and "post-liberal" foundations for later ecotheological movements. I show that ecotheology was a slowly-rising movement, which had notable proponents. I argue that these early ecotheologians are significant for several reasons. First, these writings support the view that there are momentous roots of environmentalism in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Second, these texts reveal important information about the relation of Christian and other environmentalism. Third, early ecotheologians contributed to discussion about themes which would later form distinctive environmental disciplines, such as environmental aesthetics, education, ethics, history and philosophy. Their thoughts offer interesting reflections pointing to these fields. Fourth, the contributions by the early ecotheologians are not only historically interesting, but they have relevance for the current discussion. These theologians were in a special position to notice the major changes brought by technological development in the twentieth century and they provided important critical reflections about these issues. Because they developed their thought independently, they display creative thinking, although often in an unfinished manner.
K1 Environmental History
K1 environmental theology
K1 religion and ecology
K1 religion and nature
K1 Social Ethics
DO 10.1515/opth-2016-0023