I while back I was teaching at Equip on how to live ethically. One of the practical suggestions I made was that instead of turning up your heating thermostat, or putting your heating on for longer, you should put on a jumper or extra layer of clothing.
You see in face of Stark warnings on climate change or James Lovelock's warnings of impending doom, we often feel like there's no point in even trying. I think that a poor understanding of eschatology bolsters this passive, "oh well it's all going to fry anyway" attitude. Indeed whenever I've heard a theological reason for being involved in environmental issues it's always been protological and has not considered sufficiently escatological concerns. Indeed for a theological environmentalism that propels us into action we need a robust understanding of both the protological "mandate" (I dislike the mandate term but it will do for brevity) and the escatological.
My understanding of the New Creation is firmly rooted in the resurrection of Jesus. Just as there was both discontinuity and continuity between the risen and pre-risen Lord, so there will be a discontinuity and continuity between the world now and the new creation. This means that I don't subscribe to a New Creation ex nihilo but a New Creation as transformatio mundi.
Now God is not limited in this transformatio mundi by the brokenness of the present world, but as beings made in his image, as his co-workers, as Sons of God described in Romans 8 we have a part to play in this transformation now.
So turn your heating down and put on a jumper!
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