This article considers some theological reasons why there is a Centre for Sustainable Communities at the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria. The role of the Centre is discussed within the global and local search for sustainability; the world-wide trend in churches towards a missional approach, which emphasises the church's life-giving role in all areas of life, and the theological reflection on the relationship between the church community and the civil community, so reflecting on the role of the local church to promote life in its fullness in the community. The Centre for Sustainable Communities (Centre) was established at the Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, in 2014. The Centre is intended to develop resources for local congregations to promote life in its fullness in local communities in southern Africa in an effective and meaningful way. In this article attention is given to the theological reasons for its establishment and where it is being positioned in the wider field of sustainability institutions. Attention will be given to the following:
The position of the Centre in the global search for sustainability. Life in its fullness in the emerging 21st century missional paradigm. The Christian community as agent of life in its fullness in the civil community.
The term ‘sustainable communities’ forms part of a field of meaning that includes related terms such as sustainable living, sustainable society, eco-cities, green cities, sustainable cities, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, sustainable homes, sustainability in mining, and sustainable clothing.
Both terms, sustainable and community have a wide range of meanings and need to be defined. As can be expected, the terms take on various ideological shades and shapes, depending on where each version originated and for what purpose, no less so when they are combined.
With the Centre for Sustainable Communities it is no exception. This article aims to shed more light on the
The terms ‘sustainable society’ and ‘sustainability’ (but not ‘sustainable development’) were introduced into the present world-wide discourse by the World Council of Churches in 1974. Prior to that, the term ‘sustainability’ referred to, for example, the sustainable yield of forests and fisheries (Rasmussen
Today, there are many programmes that attend to sustainability all over the world. In South Africa, for example, the University of the Witwatersrand has the Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry (CSMI), which is part of the School of Mining Engineering. The University of the Free State has the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development and Extension, in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. At the University of Cape Town, the Environmental and Geographical Science Department offers an MPhil Degree in
All these initiatives are part of a bigger picture. They are all interdependent. All the sectors of society are interlinked, and no one can be completely sustainable without the others. Mines, for example, can pollute the water that communities depend on, and social unrest can cause the mines to close down. In an interview, Nancy Coulson of the CSMI (see above), that is working on sustainability in
… the CSMI collaborates with research groups … to tap into the methods used in working with communities and the institute's body of knowledge on how communities in South Africa are shaped … We do this because, while there are natural limits to what you can extract from nature, that's not the only important aspect of sustainability. We also need to talk about a sustainable society, sustainable communities and sustainable business models. (Zhuwakinyu
This tendency to relate sustainability in one sector to sustainability in other sectors occurs globally, as can be seen in the report by Daniel M. Franks,
The report of Franks and his colleagues has calculated the
In a similar way, there are hard reasons why each role player should get involved with others in the search for sustainability. The Centre will focus on the role of the church and the community within the bigger context.
On the one hand, the different initiatives globally that search for sustainability are interdependent; on the other hand, they are divided by factors such as language, ideology and the way that our academic tradition structures the various academic disciplines.
Perhaps the most fundamental difference is described by Rasmussen (
If the qualification ‘sustainable’ is added to the basic premise of development, the issue is ‘how to alter environments to serve the economy and yet be sustained’. The idea of development as a continuous growth in production and consumption is maintained, with the added notion that it must be growth that nature can sustain. Both growth and the biosphere are regarded as ‘sustainable’ (Rasmussen
In an alternative approach that has a long tradition and has been gaining momentum in recent years, the issue is ‘how to alter economies so as to serve comprehensive environments ordered around healthy communities’. The idea of development is now linked to concepts other than continuously growing production and consumption; the focus is now on local and regional communities attending to ‘… home environments in a comprehensive way around basic needs and quality of life’ and on ‘mutually enhancing earth relations’ (Rasmussen
One of the differences between these two approaches, says Rasmussen (
The Centre for Sustainable Communities tends towards the alternative approach. We need to find local concepts of development that do not merely bring continuous growth in present patterns of production and consumption, when we have already surpassed the capacity of the planet to provide resources for our present global economic order and absorb the waste produced by it. In the search for such a concept, relationships on the local level will play an important role.
The quest for sustainability confronts communities with difficult issues. Both affluent and poor communities have their particular issues to confront. They display different processes of change and patterns of connections, but both have unsustainable patterns of living. They also interact with each other and have, in this process, different roles to play and responsibilities to shoulder. For both, it appears, the question can only to a certain level be solved by greater efficiency. In a WCC paper,
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The same theme is picked up by the South African Council of Churches:
It is a matter of moral vision. We need to envision alternatives to the current global economic order that has caused climate change. Such a vision needs to be attractive enough to motivate millions of people, to energise and mobilise action. The question is therefore whether a different world is indeed possible. (Declaration SACC
The emerging
‘Relations’ is a key concept in the missional approach and in contemporary theology. In fact, over the last century, a broad consensus has developed in Western theology and philosophy that human personhood is fundamentally constituted by its relationships. Eberhard Jüngel calls sin ‘the urge towards relationlessness and dissociation’ and the sinner ‘a person without relations’ (Jenson
‘Sin’ is an important concept in the Christian message. It indicates what is wrong in the world, and what we are saved from by believing in Christ. Jenson argues that the image of being ‘curved in on oneself’ is the best paradigm for understanding sin relationally. It provides a conceptual umbrella under which various features of a relational account of sin can be gathered. He also tests the applicability of the paradigm against various acts that have been regarded as sin in the Christian tradition (Jenson
Karl Barth demonstrated how the concept of
The same approach is described in positive terms in the theme
The emphasis on relations and responsibility finds practical support in the principle of subsidiarity, which plays an important role in Roman Catholic circles. Subsidiarity means that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry. The principle was described by Pope Pius XI in 1931. This principle leads to an emphasis on grassroots community projects where community members are involved in leadership and decision-making (cf. Rasmussen
These trends in the church and in theology provide the framework in which the Centre for Sustainable Communities at the Faculty of Theology has come into existence. The Centre exists in order to understand and promote the type of relationships – to God, to people, to nature – that would make it sustainable, whole, humane, just – in a realistic and not a utopian way.
To what extent should the church link up with the aspirations and achievements of our communities, and to what extent should we present resistance, criticism, and an alternative way of living?
The tradition that the Christian community should be involved in the secular community in a constructive and in a critical manner goes back to the Old Testament, and this line can be traced through the centuries. A few examples are mentioned below.
The Old Testament emphasises the distinction between the community that belongs to God and other communities, but it is also said, from the beginning, that all things that exist were created by God, and that this creation was ‘very good’ (Gn 1), and that Abram was called so that all nations could be blessed through God's history with Israel (Gn 12).
Christopher Wright, an Old Testament scholar from the evangelical tradition, emphasises that the people of Israel were called to be a blessing to the nations, and this calling began with their ethical quality of life as a community:
… ethics stands as the mid-term between election and mission. Ethics is the purpose of election and the basis of mission … the ethical quality of life of the people of God is the vital link between their calling and their mission. God's intention to bless the nations is inseparable from God's ethical demand on the people he has created to be the agent of that blessing. There is no biblical mission without biblical ethics. (Wright
This alternative way of living was intended to become reality in the Promised Land, where the people of God had to live in a way that was different from other nations. However, they often failed to do so, and found themselves in other countries, where they were unable to live their own lives as community. In these cases, they often loyally served the foreign government and promoted life – as was the case with Joseph and Daniel. Daniel behaved in accordance with the letter that Jeremiah sent to the exiles in Babylon, of which Daniel was one. In Daniel 9:2 there is a reference to the scriptures of Jeremiah, and the behaviour of Daniel corresponded with the advice of Jeremiah: ‘Seek the peace and prosperity (š
Daniel brought the message of God's punishment to the king of Babylon, but he also tried to help the king to find the right way, that would save him from this punishment – seeking the peace of the city.
The tradition is continued in the
One of the most vital issues in
This radical combination of faith and life played an important role in the rapid spread of the Christian faith in the early centuries. It also profoundly influenced Christian theology, especially through the important book of Augustine,
Augustine (354–430) was one of the greatest theologians of Western Christianity. He started to write his influential work
In
Is it a harmonious, peaceful, worshipful society of persons united in relationship to God and one another, or is it a society of discord, war, private affections and broken relations? (Jenson
These descriptions may sound utopian, but the seasoned journalist Henry Jeffreys (
It seems that the tradition of constructive and critical engagement of the church in the civil community was not maintained by the Reformation. In 1938, in his essay
inner and vital connection is between service of God in Christian living … in the worship of the Church as such, and another form of service, which may be described as a ’political’ service of God … (pp. 101–102)
The ‘political’ service of God refers to the affairs of human justice and life in general. If there is no such inner connection, it would be possible to build a highly spiritual message and a very spiritual church that ‘had ceased to seek or find any entrance into the sphere of these problems of human justice’ – as has happened with Pietistic sterility. At the same time it would be possible to consider the question of human law very seriously and to construct a secular gospel of human law and a secular church – as has happened with the sterility of the Enlightenment. Barth (
Barth sees the task of the state as that of maintaining order and justice; it is an important task in the coming of the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus Christ:
the State belongs originally and ultimately to Jesus Christ; (that) in its comparatively independent substance, in its dignity, its function, and its purpose, it should serve the Person and the Work of Jesus Christ … the State becomes ’demonic’ not so much by an unwarrantable assumption of power – as is often assumed – but by the
It is not inevitable that the State must become demonic. It can also play its intended role.
This view leads to a positive view of the role of the State: it must prevent chaos. Community life is seen as the arena where Christ must be served in the way that we live our secular lives.
Barth regarded both the Christian community, that is, the church who forms a community of people by reason of their knowledge of and belief in Jesus Christ, and the civil community, which is the commonality of people in a certain place, as part of the Kingdom of God, even if the civil community does not belief in that Kingdom. The civil community has shared interests, but no shared creed or conviction. The members of the church are also members of the civil community. The church forms the inner circle, with Christ in the centre, and the civil community the outer circle around the church (Barth
This positive view of the role of the civil community means that the Christian will have high expectations of the state and the community. It makes the Christian more radical in its expectations of the state and other entities, and more consistent than others, but also more positive and more constructive (Herberg
The church's final loyalty is with the city built by God (Heb 11:10). It cannot give any present movement the same loyalty; the result is that no present ideology or civil community can be given absolute loyalty. This protects the Christian against fanaticism in politics. The Christian community joins the civil community in the search for the best form and most fitting system for each context (Barth
The church must be involved in the matters of the community, and search for solutions that direct us towards the coming of the new heaven and earth that the church expects, where justice will reign. Barth (
the object of the promise and the hope in which the Christian community has its eternal goal consists … not in an eternal Church, but in the
Not only does the church see its future and its hope in the State that comes down from God, but the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it (Rev 21:24):
And this city will not endure merely on the ruins of the annihilated glory of the peoples and kings of this earth, but the whole of his earthly glory will be brought into it, as supplementary tribute. (Barth
Wright agrees: the ‘kings’ are the bearers and representatives of their respective cultures:
… the promise spans all ages, all continents, and all generations in human history … All human history, which takes place in the public square of human public interaction, will be redeemed and fulfilled in the new creation, not just abandoned. (Wright
This expectation is the logical conclusion of the message throughout the Bible, that God is taking all of creation and human history to its destination. The church and theology should not only be concerned with spiritual and religious matters, but with all of daily life. Theology should not only reflect on building up the church, but also on improving the quality of life of the community.
The State and the community, and the church, can also fail in their task. As Barth (
The community depends in many ways on the church, because as humans we cannot save ourselves. The civil community:
cannot call the human
The Christian community can play a role to prevent the civil community from being trapped in some or other destructive way of thinking and behaving, such as an ideology or the rampant consumer culture. The South African Council of Churches, for example, recently criticised the governing party for being too comfortable with ‘wealth religion’ (Hunter & Mataboge
If the State fails in its mission and becomes evil itself, its failure does not take away its mission of being neutral in matters of truth and granting the Church freedom to proclaim the Gospel and that we may a live a peaceful life (1 Tim 2:2) (Barth
Barth was one of the first theologians to realise to what extend the optimism of the 19th century, the trust in the goodness of humans, and the expectation that human endeavour would bring salvation, which led to the general optimism of liberal theology, were shattered by the First World War. He wrote the above in 1938, after his active opposition to Nazi ideology had begun in 1934. In 1948, having lived through both the First and the Second World War, he expressed himself in still harsher terms. The State, he said, received from God the mission to do what is good and to prevent evil. Chaos is, however, always a real possibility because of human nature:
The Christian community knows of man's presumption and the plainly destructive consequences of man's presumption. It knows how dangerous man is and how endangered by himself. It knows him as a sinner, that is as a being who is always at the point of opening the sluices through which, if he were not checked in time, chaos and nothingness would break in and bring human time to an end. (Barth
Considering what have become of the high ideals that prevailed with the dawn of democracy in South Africa, we may tend to agree with Barth. Even more so if we consider, on a global level, the way in which science and technology have not only brought life but also the fear that our present economy may bring the world to ecological disaster. Our present ecological dilemmas are not as urgent as was the case with the Nazis, but they may be more chronic, more widely spread, less localised and clear-cut, and for that reason no less serious. These dilemmas confirm Barth's view that political questions are not only technical questions, but often questions in which ‘spirits are tested’ (Barth
Barth developed these ideas further in his
The church must play its role as agent of life in its fullness in the secular sphere with dedication. Barth (with Dietrich Bonhoeffer) saw the secular sphere as the arena in which the Christian faith should find expression in a non-religious way, by promoting the wholeness and fullness of life. Barth accepted concepts of modern Western culture such as autonomy, freedom and change through activity (Jonker
Barth, for example, always spoke as a theologian, and Barth's theology itself had a beneficial impact on European politics. His view of political activity as a ‘free, direct approach to human beings and their welfare’ is said to have contributed in Europe ‘toward breaking down ideological politics in favour of a more pragmatic and practical approach to problems of state’ (Herberg
Lastly, the church should position itself among those who focus on things such as justice, life and sustainability, rather than among the ‘faith-based’ communities, which is a category that has been defined by government and may relegate the church to purely religious matters.
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
Jeffreys, H., in Beeld, 12.12.2014,