Christian Missions and the Environment

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Religions deals with the relationship between Christian missions and the natural environment. Lynn White argued that Western Christian dominion theology has proved historically detrimental to the environment. [White 1967]. The Lynn White thesis has been extensively debated for the relation between Christianity and the natural environment. The purpose of this volume is to specify and focus the discussion by investigating the understanding and practice of Christian mission vis-à-vis the natural environment.

From the 18th century, the activities of Christian missionaries were entangled with European imperialism, and engaged with and reflected upon colonial environments. Missionaries left an ambivalent heritage. Whereas they participated in the colonial enterprise and embraced a theology that regarded natural environments as subservient to human needs, some of them also recognised the need for nature conservation. It is precisely in these colonial settings that some scholars have situated the origins of modern environmentalism [Grove 1990]. Studying missionaries’ engagement with the natural environment thus illuminates the historical roots of Western environmentalism more broadly. How does the missionary relationship with the natural environment help us understand modern Western environmental attitudes?

More recently, some scholars have identified a ‘greening of mission’ [Effa 2008; Robert 2011; Kapya-Kaoma 2015], illustrated by Emilio Castro’s reference to the natural environment as the ‘third missionary frontier’ [Castro 2000]. Others remain sceptical and believe Western Christianity at large is not fundamentally changing its lukewarm or even hostile position towards environmentalism [Konisky 2018; Zaleha and Szasz 2015].

Our understanding of the role of missionary and diaconal organisations in environmentalism is fragmentary. There is very little scholarly literature on the engagement of historical missionary societies or modern Christian NGOs with the environment. At the same time, there is a growing awareness of the necessity of global Christian missionary and diaconal organisations and communities to participate in the fight against climate change [Kidwell 2020]. There is also a need to connect theological and ecological views from the global church with Western perspectives. A better understanding of eco-theology in relation to mission is needed.

We invite contributions on the following themes:

1. The historical role of Christian mission in its engagement with the environment in the ‘colonies’;
2. The role of missionary societies in postcolonial environmental settings;
3. Policies of current Christian NGOs vis-à-vis climate change and loss of biodiversity;
4. Christian missionary eco-theology;
5. Contemporary theology of missions and environmental sustainability;
6. Churches, environmental change and sustainability in contexts;
7. Churches, mission stations, Christian architecture and place-making, and the natural environment.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarising their intended contribution. The abstract must contain the main arguments addressing one or more of the themes, the purpose or goal of the topic, how the author intends to address the issues. Please send it by 15 April 2024 to the Guest Editors (David Onnekink [email protected], Richard Darr [email protected] and Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo [email protected]), or the Assistant Editor Ms. Violet Li ([email protected]) of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

References

Castro, E. (2000), ‘A Christocentric trinitarian understanding of mission’, International Review of Mission, 89/355: 584-591.

Effa, A. (2008), ‘The greening of mission’, International Bulletin of Mission Research 32 (4): 171-176.

Grove, Richard (1990), ‘The origins of environmentalism’, Nature 345: 11-14.

Kaoma, Kapya J. ed. (2015), Creation Care in Christian Mission.

Kidwell (2020), Jeremy, ‘ Mapping the field of religious environmental politics’, International Affairs 96: 2 (2020) 343–363.

Konisky, D. M. (2018), ‘The greening of Christianity? A study of environmental attitudes over time’, Environmental Politics 27/2: 267-91.

Robert, D.L. (2011), ‘Historical Trends in Missions and Earth Care’, International Mission Research Bulletin 35: 223-28.

White, Lynn (1967), ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’, Science 155: 1203-1207.

Zaleha, B. and A. Szasz (2015), ‘Why conservative Christians don’t believe in climate change’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 71/5: 19–30.

Prof. Dr. David Onnekink
Dr. Richard Darr
Dr. Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Christianity
• mission
• ecology
• environment
• agriculture
• colonialism
• post-colonialism
• RNGOs
• global Christianity
• creation care
• earth-keeping