Creation's Praise of God: An Ecological Theology of Non-Human and Human Being

Please note, for copyright reasons an amended version of the thesis with images removed is available to view and download: CoadD_TPC.pdfThis thesis is the articulation of a doctrine of creation centred on the concept of creation’s praise. It aims to make care for the environment a habitual expression of Christian faith by fostering a kinship between human and non-human. The thesis attempts to achieve this by developing the claim that non-humanity and humanity are united in a joint project of praise. This argument is developed through bringing biblical texts into conversation with voices from the Christian tradition and, in so doing, trusting that Scripture might allow us to know the presence of God in our own context. Creation’s praise consists in its ontological relationship to God, the source of all being and sustainer of the cosmos. In the diverse particularity of each thing the glory of God is actively displayed as an offering of praise and there is no created thing in the cosmos which does not participate in this symphonic worship. Yet suffering and death are intrinsic to the character of living things and God actively resists natural evil which God did not will. Creation joins God in this resistance and suffering and death are transfigured into ever-greater flourishing which deepens creation’s praise. Evil, however, remains a painful mystery and its final resolution awaits the Eschaton. Creation’s praise, therefore, looks to a heavenly fulfilment. Such fulfilment will be found in Christ and be characterised by the final unity of all creation, a unity which will not dissolve its particularity. Anticipating this fulfilment, humanity act as priests of creation, summarising and uniting creation’s praise in themselves and presenting it to God. Humanity’s priesthood is a task of service which does not mask but rather highlights the particularity of non-human praise.AHR

“The Stones Would Cry Out” (Luke 19.40): A Lukan Contribution to a Hermeneutics of Creation’s Praise

publication-status: Publishedtypes: Article© 2011 by Cambridge University Press. Publisher's version.Beginning from Richard Bauckham's proposal that the biblical theme of creation's praise is of considerable importance for an ecological spirituality, this article takes a close look at Luke 19:40, a text largely ignored in ecological readings of the Bible. An examination of Luke's distinctive account of the entry into Jerusalem and a consideration of the relevant Jewish parallels to the motif of the crying stone leads to a view of the stones’ cry as one of both praise and protest. The ecotheological potential of this text is then discussed and, in contrast to Bauckham's view of creation's praise as something creation always and already does simply by being itself, an eschatological view of creation's praise – and the combined expression of praise and protest – is presented as important, not least for its ecotheological and ethical potential.AHRCResearch project: Uses of the Bible in Environmental Ethic

Creation's Praise of God

The theme of creation's praise of God has occasionally appeared in ecological theological literature but its full potential has not yet been realized. An engagement between the biblical text and Christian tradition, exemplified by Psalm 148 and the work of Thomas Aquinas, may allow this theme to take on a greater importance. Understanding praise as essential to creation's being allows humanity and non-humanity to be identified much more closely while producing a theology which is firmly grounded in the richness of orthodox Christian tradition. </jats:p

Creation's praise of God : an ecological theology of non-human and human being

This thesis is the articulation of a doctrine of creation centred on the concept of creation’s praise. It aims to make care for the environment a habitual expression of Christian faith by fostering a kinship between human and non-human. The thesis attempts to achieve this by developing the claim that non-humanity and humanity are united in a joint project of praise. This argument is developed through bringing biblical texts into conversation with voices from the Christian tradition and, in so doing, trusting that Scripture might allow us to know the presence of God in our own context. Creation’s praise consists in its ontological relationship to God, the source of all being and sustainer of the cosmos. In the diverse particularity of each thing the glory of God is actively displayed as an offering of praise and there is no created thing in the cosmos which does not participate in this symphonic worship. Yet suffering and death are intrinsic to the character of living things and God actively resists natural evil which God did not will. Creation joins God in this resistance and suffering and death are transfigured into ever-greater flourishing which deepens creation’s praise. Evil, however, remains a painful mystery and its final resolution awaits the Eschaton. Creation’s praise, therefore, looks to a heavenly fulfilment. Such fulfilment will be found in Christ and be characterised by the final unity of all creation, a unity which will not dissolve its particularity. Anticipating this fulfilment, humanity act as priests of creation, summarising and uniting creation’s praise in themselves and presenting it to God. Humanity’s priesthood is a task of service which does not mask but rather highlights the particularity of non-human praise.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceAHRCGBUnited Kingdo

Pangolin hunting in Southeast Nigeria motivated more by local meat consumption than international demand for scales

Thousands of species are threatened by overexploitation, often driven by a complex interplay of local and global demand for various products—a dynamic frequently overlooked in wildlife trade policies. African pangolins, regarded as the world’s most trafficked wild mammals, are a heavily exploited group for different reasons across geographic scales. However, it remains unclear how far the burgeoning trafficking of their scales to Asia for medicine drives their exploitation compared with local meat demand. Here, using data collected from questionnaires distributed to 809 hunters and meat vendors in Nigeria, the world’s biggest hub for pangolin trafficking, we show that targeted pangolin hunts are uncommon in the country’s largest pangolin stronghold. Instead, 97% of pangolins are captured opportunistically or during general hunting, with 98% of these caught for meat and mostly either eaten by hunters (71%) or traded locally (27%), potentially due to the meat’s exceptionally high palatability. Meanwhile, around 70% of scales are discarded, with less than 30% sold. In addition, local meat prices are three to four times higher than those for scales. Our findings highlight the need to consider entire wildlife trade chains in international policies