Beyond Sustainability: Hope in a Spiritual Revolution?

The world’s nations are intent on achieving ‘a sustainable future’ whilst continuing to pursue economic growth as the means to which human wellbeing should be achieved, a decision which suggests fruitfulness for the human species but in reality reaps danger for all species in the present and future. Although this topic is widely debated in a multitude of disciplines, the topic is largely absent in theology. Theologians address aspects of sustainability in their responses to the environmental crisis in the genre of ecotheology whilst a few have ventured into climate change theology. A small discipline forms a theology of economics which although highly relevant does not address sustainability issues per se. Theology is a crucial element in a discourse on sustainability because, in presupposing a creator God who created the universe, the world and all of life, and with the incarnation of Jesus, his death and resurrection at its centre, it allows exploration of humanity’s condition in relation to the natural environment in the context of a transcendent yet present divine otherness, a perspective unique to theology. It is pertinent therefore that theology enters into the discourse on global sustainability. This article aims to do this by bringing to bear the relevant theological literature on the issue of global sustainability whilst putting in place the foundations of a more coherent theology on sustainability and offering a fresh perspective for debate. It specifically addresses sustainability as perceived by the United Nations and accepted by governments in which global capitalism goes unchallenged and questions the plausibility of such an approach from a theological perspective. It does this by exploring the human condition shaped by the capitalist system, especially desire and the pursuit of freedom and how this interacts with the natural environment and compares this with God’s purposes for humanity, nature and the world as his creation. An argument emerges in this paper which shows that in order to properly address the environmental crisis, to mitigate and to adapt to its impacts in a changed world, there is a need for a spiritual revolution amongst the capitalist cultures in the world. Theology therefore offers the tools of hope in the face of a failing illusory concept of sustainability and consequently forms a critical part of a global discourse on sustainability