1. Introduction
The
primary purpose of this research is to liberate the earth from suffering painfulness
caused by human in the light of Divine Providence. Ecologically, the earth is
under the trials of natural disaster in which human are unaware to sustain the
mother earth. It has been said that Myanmar is rich in natural resources and
the rarest natural disaster country. However, natural disasters such as flood,
landslide and cyclones slide some areas which have never been encountered. In
Genesis 1:31, we see that God saw everything He made from chaos into order, and
it was good. However, it is certainly true that the earth is subdued into
irregularly and disorderly. Thus, the earth is suffering from painfulness which
must be healed. This research will attempt to reconstruct the disorder of earth
into the regular order and to heal the wounds and pain of the earth in the
light of Divine Providence approach.
2. Background
This
section will deal with the problems of ecology and theology, ecology and
biblical concept, and the present ecological issues and natural disaster which
are recently occurred especially in Myanmar. The causes and effects of
ecological issues and natural disasters will be emphasized with brief issues of
ecology from biblical perspectives and present ecological issues.
2.1. A Brief Issues of Ecology from Biblical Perspectives
The
term “ecology” designates one of the basic divisions of biology and was first
employed by Ernst Haekel, tehe German zoologist, in the 19th
century. In the mid-20th century ecology emerged as one of the
primary scientific and ethical concerns of humanity. The word comes from the
Greek root oikos (“house” or
“dwelling”) and refers to the systematic relationship of abiotic environmental
factors with biotic components such as plants, animals, and microbes.[1]
The first instance of human being told to do something is contained in Genesis
1:28. It is a notorious verse, for, more than any other passage of Scripture,
it has been understood as giving humans license, even a command, to exploit the
earth and all biotic and abiotic in creation. “Be fruitful” and “multiply” are
commands given to all creatures but “subdue” and “rule” are given to humanity.
In fact the Hebrew terms Kabas means
to tread down or to bring into bondage. Radah
means to trample or to press. Therefore we have no way any softening of
these forceful words would not be an adequate translation. So we practice
faithfully to the words “subdue and rule” throughout generation by generations
as much as we could until today. Especially the rest of third world countries
have had many experiences of exploitative attitudes toward nature for many
years.[2]
Almost all commentators interpret Romans 8:22 in the light of very futuristic
approach and anthropocentric. There is no liberation for God’s creation, i.e.
the creature; apart from God, in the universe might be destroyed after the Son
of God will come. The creation is groaning with pain. However, creation might
not be sustained, but it is considered to wait for the future salvation. Then
the Son of God will rapture all creatures in the New Heaven and New Earth. This
notion neglects the importance of ecological liberation, the importance of the
present works of God—Providential caring of God.
The traditional "City of
God" imagery can be politically helpful, but it tends to mold theological
thought in an insular-anthropocentric fashion, virtually excluding any
meaningful substantive interpretation of nature. The various metaphors from
nature, on the other hand -- organism, process, body, ground of being— tend to
rule out full explication of the historical dimension as it is attested by the
biblical writers.[3]
There are many evangelists and preachers who emphasize on only the futuristic
reign of Christ—life after death, and anthropocentricism which neglects the
importance of natures. There are many Christians who never study the awareness
of ecology, the importance of environment. The affirmation that God created the
universe stand over against a number of alternative theories of origins:
(i) Materialism
holds that matter is the prior reality, out of which mind develops, and
that the universe is eternal in its own right. There is no need for God, for
matter has always been there, and is self-existent. Marxism, as dialectical
materialism, accepts this view of the universe.
(ii) Pantheism assumes
that the world itself is God, or part of god, and therefore there is no need
for creation. Everything that is simply a manifestation of God, and is
identical with him.
(iii) The
Illusionism of Maya. The advaita tradition
of Hinduism can in one sense be called pantheistic, as it holds that everything
is Brahman (tat tvam asi and aham Brahman asmi); but it is also illusionistic,
as it asserts that all created things are in fact simply maya, illusory. The creation has no existence independent of Brahman.
(iv) Dualism. In
the history of religions there have been several types of dualism, such as the
Manichaeism opposed by St. Augustine,
or the Zoroastrianism of the Parsis. According to this belief, there are from
all eternity two mutually opposed forces—that of light and that of darkness.
The material world originates from the power of darkness, and is therefore
opposed to God.[4] Most
misunderstandings on the creation works of God are resulted from the Bible
interpretation. This research will attempt to rediscover the purpose of God’s
entrustment to human in the light of Divine Providence Approach. The next
section will concentrate on the present ecological issues which human encounter
in our environments.
2.2. Present Ecological Issues
The survival of millions of people
in tropical Asia is mostly dependent on what the earth can be coaxed to
produce. In fact, it is usually the only productive asset of the people apart
from their own labor. Therefore, any damage done to the earth directly affects
the people who daily depend on what the earth gives them. Today, the sad
situation is that, in addition to the population explosion, greed is causing
massive exploitation of the earth’s natural resources. Almost everywhere in
South and Southeast Asia, peoples’ relationship with their natural habitat is
becoming alienated. The Asian environment is heading for a catastrophe.[5]
Myanmar is one of the world’s most thickly forested countries but its forests
are threatened by neighbors such as China and Thailand as well as Myanmar cronies
and generals anxious to enrich themselves. According to the environmental group
Global Witness, “Burma is resource rich but surrounded by resource-hungry
nations and that this regime has used this fully to its advantage.” Large
swaths of virgin rain forest have been cleared by Chinese logging companies,
the military regime and insurgent groups to make money. Ethnic insurgents use
money earned from selling timber to fight the regime, who in turn uses money
earned from selling timber to fight the ethnic insurgents.[6] Abiodiversity and
biodiversity are our life, our future. Abiodiversity means the diversity of
non-living things, such as dust, sand, atomic nucleus, smoke, waste material
paper, plastic etc. diversified by weather, storm rubbish—wasted by human and
animal. Biodiversity brings enomous benefits to mankind. Tress, plants, animals
and other species provide basic supplies of food, medicines, timber, fibers,
fuel and mnay other products. Biodiversity performs important ecological
function. Overexploitation, over-harvesting, illegal hunting and trade, illegal
logging and loss of habitats are some of the main cause of biodiversity loss.
Land use changes such as agricultural expansion, mining and urban development
also result in degradation and loss of habitats. Depletion of wetlands is also
an important cause of a decline in fresh water fish and waterfowls. Marine life
is also being threatened due to overexploitation and pollution.[7]
Severe flooding in Myanmar began in July 2015 and continued into September,
affecting twelve of the country's fourteen states and resulting in about 103
deaths and up to 1,000,000 people otherwise affected. Most of the
casualties were reported from the Irrawaddy Delta. Torrential rains that began
on 16 July destroyed farmland, roads, rail tracks, bridges and houses, leading
the government to declare a state of emergency on 30 July in the four worst-hit
regions in the west—Magway Division, Sagaing Division, Chin State and Rakhine
State. Myanmar's Ministry of Agriculture reported that more than 1.29 million
acres of farm land have been inundated and 687,200 acres
damaged. Moreover, 15,239 houses were destroyed, according to OCHA figures.[8]
The
current issue of the world today is the crisis of the environment.
Environmentally our land is devastated, and it suffers, hurts, and cries. All
reaction is devalued, degraded and depleted in everywhere of the world. The
earth is under threat from a wide range of destructive forces unleashed by
human greed. The results of these pollutants that permeate the very life
systems of earth; killing rain forests that sustain our essential oxygen
supplies, and spread chemicals and toxins that render the land barren and
species extinct.[9] The
created world—including the human body—is not something evil to be shunned or
abandoned; it is something good, designed and made by God, and worthy to be
used and enjoyed in the way that God intended. In words ascribed to C.S. Lewis,
‘God likes matter: he made it.”[10]
However, people are full of pride and selfish. Materialistic view is very
common in Myanmar people. Materialistic view holds that human have dominion
over matters and nature, and there is no overuse; however we destroy natures,
it cannot be lost and it will automatically exist.
2.3. Problems and Theological Critiques
Ecological
issue is one of the big theological problems in the world. In the galaxy, the
earth is one of planets where human beings are able to survive. In Genesis
1:31, God created the earth systematically, and saw everything that he had
made, it was very good. God created everything and provided enough need to
survive. There is no any incompletion in creation, and no half-finished. He
provided food for human, for snakes, for lions and so on. Nature flies on its
own path. Everything that He created is good, orderly, regular and systematic. In
the previous section, however, it is found that the earth is suffering from
painfulness, and the earth is injured by the cause of human. In a month ago,
natural disaster occurred in some area of Myanmar where natural disaster,
landslide and flood have never been encountered. In the twentieth century,
natural disasters such as global warming, climate change, earthquakes, cyclones
and flood are currently occurred in Myanmar. The orderly, regular and systematic
creations which God created become disorder, irregular and unsystematic
circumstances where human would not be able to survive.
(1) Can we reconstruct
the disorder earth into regular order?
(2) Why does
the earth become order into disorder?
(3) Why does
God let natural disaster?
(4) How can we
heal the disorder earth into regular order?
3. Methodology
Concerning
the problems and its theological critiques, I believe Divine Providence
approach might be suitable and adequate to solve the problems and achieve
theological goals. There are some approaches which can be considered as
appropriate such as Creationcentric
Approach, Sacramental
Commons, God-Human-Nature
Interconnectedness, Ecumenical Approach, etc… However, I assume that Divine
Providence approach will be more suitable and enough adequate in this research
purpose for Myanmar
people.
3.1. Divine Providence Approach
God not only
created the world: he maintains it in existence, and continues the work of
creation, still guiding everything towards the ‘end’ which he purposes. This
work which he still continues today is called by theologians ‘providence’, from
a Latin word meaning ‘over-seeing, caring for’. When a watch-maker has made a
watch, he leaves it alone, and has no further concern with it; but God is not
like that; he constantly watches over all that he has created, and his loving
work of creation and providence continues as long as the universe lasts. What
scientists know as the ‘laws of nature’—the laws which govern the regular
operation of all created things—are really God’s laws of creation and
providence.[11]
Divine providence does not mean a general benevolence, but God’s care of human
being in times of difficulties, hardships and natural disasters. Traditional
understanding of Myanmar Christians on Divine Providence sees as general
benevolence and free from all natural disasters. Jesus Christ describes God’s
universal provision for the human race in terms of nature, saying, God “makes
his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust” (Mt 5:45). Our theological vision is to interpret God’s educative
providence, sharing the sufferings of the victimized—in the side effects known
as the natural disasters. Three basic views of Divine Providence are: (a) it
does not means a general benevolence (b) it does not mean protections from
danger, (c) it does not mean escapes from difficulties and suffering, (d) it
does not mean escapes from the tragedies of life,[12]
(e) it does not mean futuristic care of God. I expect that this Divine
Providence approach will help us to solve the problems and achieve the goals.
4. Towards Reconstructing the Disorder Earth into Regular Order
4.1. The Pain of Earth (Regular Order of the Earth into Disorder)
If we consider only 21st
century environmental issues: such as global warming, climate change, various
pollution, deforestation, making a lot of dams, illegal timber export, mineral
export, gem, jade, ruby, fossil fuel, natural gas, at the same time bear,
rhino, elephant, tiger are huge decline probably already extinct due to trade.
Consequences: apan earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis on March 11, 2011.
To be considered is how come the said: it was very good "becomes"
groaning? If we study some environmental issues in Myanmar country: deforestation is
made by human dominion. Man made timber exportation legal and illegal.
Imbalance of planting and cutting couldn't make compensation. Not only cutting
and exporting but also uprooted trees are illegally exporting because of the very
good way of making money.[13]
This is the report of Doherty
extracted from Facts and Details [factsanddetails.com], saying: "Illegal
logging and destructive forest conversion are hand-in-hand with corruption,
crime, cronyism and a multitude of other societal ills suffered by the people
of Burma for so long," Logging has also raised conflict between local
ethnic groups and the Myanmar government, an issue that the “The Environmental
Investigation Agency” EIA says could lead to government instability at this crucial
time. "There are no safeguards at all in place in Burma. Its forests are
in crisis, as are the people who rely on them for their livelihoods and as a
life-sustaining resource," says Doherty.[14] The waters in the rivers
unclean, making the impure water and fish to eat have been made sick and are
dying. Chemicals from the factories run into our drinking system. Fertilizers
and pesticides used widely in the agricultural sector today for higher yields
are drained into the rivers making the water toxic.[15] Driving fresh air out from
our environment which controls our living environmental security, filling with
air-pollution and changing into global warming continues to occupy in our
country. Now the stewardship given by God has gone away that demands us to make
fruitful and increase in number, to fill the earth and subdue, to sustain over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living (Gen. 1:28).
But God created the world to be good, and He himself saw it was good.
Today, the
whole world is groaning with pains and sufferings. Global warming is still
increasing. Natural disaster like fires, air-pollutions, earthquakes, cyclones,
hurricanes and floods are sweeping different parts of the world where we are
living. Quite recently, 30th September 2009, a severe earthquake
happened again in Indonesia. Several approaches have been maintained by
different people in different places. For instance, liberation theologians try
to solve the problems of evil and sufferings in terms of identifying with the
poor. Process theology locates the origin of sufferings and evils within the
world in a radical limitation of the power of God. Another trend is
concentrating the OT for the solution of sufferings in the world. However,
since contemporary world phenomena are really difficult to explain and remain
mysterious. In fact, it is beyond our understanding. Admittedly, what we know
is very limited. However, we approach these issues with our limited knowledge
and find the cause and the effect in the light of the Bible and contemporary
theological discourses.[16]
“In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form
and void and darkness was over the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:1-2, ESV). Chaos Theology claims that this is an ancient
way of describing chaos. The highlighted is what comes next: the Spirit
“hovering over the face of the waters,” followed by a narrative in which God
brings order to this dark, unruly deep, creating something remarkable. Then,
Chaos Theology sees that the first thing God created was not order. He brought
order, but the first thing He created was chaos. Before there was a created
order, there was a created chaos over which the Spirit hovered, contemplating
its dark and perfect beauty.[17] From
the perspective of Chaos Theology, the earth was formless and void, disorder
and chaos. Then God formed chaos into order, but the formless chaos had been
created already by God earlier. Whether the world was created from chaos or
not, is beyond our understanding and limited wisdom for human beings. What we
can know is God created the earth systematically, orderly and regularly, and it
was very good for all biotic and abiotic, even for God Himself. What this
research attempts to discover is the unconditional ways of human’s destruction
over God’s creation and creatures, and to bring back the regular earth. Human
recreate the regular order of God’s creation into the irregular chaos form. The
earth becomes gradually into irregular so that natural disaster currently occur
in our environment. In this earth, there is something wrong which need to be
healed because of its groaning with pain. Our task is to heal and recreate the
irregular into regular as it was good when God created.
4.2. Towards Reconstructing the Pain of Earth (Disorder into Regular Order)
It
is found that almost all commentators interpret Romans 8:22 in the light of
futuristic approach. The interrelationship of man with the physical creation of
which He is a part and in which He lives was established in God’s sentence of
judgment on Adam after the Fall (Gen.
3:17-19). The Creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be
revealed, and God judged the totality of His Creation along with people for
their sin. Then the Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay
when the Son of God will return. Thus, there will be a new heaven and new earth
for believers.[18] I
am not surely satisfied with such interpretation because the necessary of
present care and stewardship of human is marginalized. Then the vital point of
Divine Providence becomes declined. As the earlier reported says, it is found
that the earth is tied under the bondage made by human. The earth is being
transformed the way we handle so that the regular order of the earth become
into disorder. In Genesis, God entrusted human to maintain all that existed in
the earth. However, the responsibility given by God has not been worked out
until today. The earth is groaning with pain, like the pain of childbirth. In
the light of Divine Providence approach, God is not apart from His creatures
and not judge us, but He is still caring for His creatures. When the earth is
groaning with pain, God is also in pain because God is a suffering God with
those who suffer; for He shows Love to hated.
To
consider on the essence of the pain of earth, let us look at the meaning of
pain. Pain is the gift of God. Physically, when some part of our body is pain,
we automatically know that there is something wrong, injured which need to be
cured. As the same way, we know that the earth is pain so that we currently
face natural disasters in this present day. The reason why the earth is pain is
that there is something needs to be healed because of something wrong. To heal
the earth from painfulness is our task because God had entrusted us to care for
all over creatures. However, as most commentators insist, that the earth will
be liberated from its bondage when the Son of God will return will not be
emphasized in this study. Rather, the main point is that human being can build
New Heaven and New Earth here on earth.
Ecological
approach sees that ecological destruction is destruction of God’s creation.
Destruction of God’s creation is self-destruction as well as destroying the
work of God. This approach sees that certain natural disasters are caused by
human beings. The natural destruction caused by human being consequently brings
about natural disasters in the world. In this sense, human beings are
responsible for the climate change and ecological destruction. It can be termed
as man-made disaster. Today, some
criticize and blame the Christian interpretation of the Bible in terms of
domination over creation instead of ‘stewardship’. This approach calls for
ecological justice which calls for eco-justice.[19]
The idea that Christianity is the main source of environmental problems has
become something of an axiom in the environmental movement. It was first
proposed clearly by Lynn
White in his 1967 essay, "The
Historic Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis." His famous and often-repeated
conclusion in that essay is that "Christianity is the most anthropocentric
religion the world has ever seen."[20] In
His 1985 work God in Creation, Jürgen
Moltmann first points out that the exploitation of the world is a recent
development, reflecting the rise of technology rather than anything to do with
Christianity. However, he goes further than this, and argues for the need to
recover a sense of the immanence of God within nature. Moltmann develops a
strongly Trinitarian theology of creation, based on the statement that God
created heaven and earth through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. The Father is
the originator of the creation; the Son provides the creation with its
distinctive shape and form; and the Holy Spirit breathes life into the
creation. Through the form; and the Holy Spirit breathes life into the
creation. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit in creation, God experiences
the sufferings of that creation. (There is a clear parallel here with his view,
expressed in The Crucified God, that
God shares in human sufferings in the suffering of Christ).
This strong sense of God’s presence and involvement within creation leads to
Christians valuing the creation, and treating it with proper respect.[21]
Yahweh
places Yahweh’s throne on the flood. That
is, the waters are so tamed and obedient to Yahweh in this moment that what was
threatening chaos becomes an adequate locus for the power of Yahweh. In Psalm
46 the restless threat of chaos is characterized:
Therefore
we will not fear,
Though the
earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
Though its
waters roar and foam,
Though the
mountains tremble with its tumult…
The nations
are in an uproar, the kingdos totter;
He utters
his voice, the earth melts. (Ps 46:2-3, 6)
In the face of such dangers and threats that
jeopardize creation, Yahweh speaks and immediately all the threats of chaos
subside:
Be still,
and know that I am God!
I am
exalted among the nation,
I am
exalted in the earth. (Ps 46:10)
The imperative, “Be still,” is not a pious,
devotional act of contemplation. It is, rather, a forceful, sovereign decree, a
lordly command to chaos, which chaos promptly obeys (cf. Mark 4:39).[22]
In this sense, we are not Yahweh, nor even God. God never destroy the earth.
God created the earth and it was His will. The flood and storm listens to God’s
command because God created the nature as good. Do we treat the creation of God
as the way God formed? NO! We gradually transform the creation into chaos. The
chaos situation is not suitable for human so that God designed chaos into
orderly. The encounter of natural disaster may happen in chaos—our earth. Our
stewardship given by God has been thrown. The central Christian
claim is that Jesus Christ, the creating Word in whom all things hold together,
"became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Through His life,
death, and resurrection the alienation between ourselves and God has been
broken down, and we are invited, through the power of God's Spirit, to take
part in the healing and reconciliation which or Creator and Redeemer is
bringing about.[23]
Divine Providence sees God’s creation, God and human are interconnected and
interrelated.
Hans
Küng expresses that we should maintain God is not identical with the cosmos.
And Einstein would not have had such insuperable difficulties in accepting
quantum theory had he not identified God with nature or natural laws like his
“house philosopher” Spinoza. So God is not a being within the earth, not a
“thing” in this world; he does not belong to “factual reality,” nor can He be
observed empirically. God is not a “worldly being,” and that means he is no
“father” or “Mother” in the human/all-too-human sense. He is not a
superterretrial being above the clouds, in the physical heaven. This naïve
anthropomorphic notion is obsolete: God is not a “supreme being” who is in a
literal or spatial sense “above” the world, in a “word above.” God does not
live beyond the stars in a metaphysical heaven. Hans Küng insists that God is
not isolated in this universe. His immeasurability embraces space; it cannot be
localized. He is present everywhere, omnipresent:
-God
is immanent in the world: from within he permeates the cosmos and influences
it. At the same time, he participates in its fate, has a share in its processes
and suffering.
-And
at the same time, God transcends the world: permeating the cosmos, at the same
time he transcends it. In his infinity he embraces all finite beings,
structures, and processes. He is the all-embracing, transempirical reality of
relationship.[24]
A
creation-centered or creationcentric consciousness
is a holistic understanding that the Creator, abiotic creation, and the biotic
community are interrelated. John Hart expounds the sacramental commons on the
creation:
All
creation, from the grandeur of the stars to the life of creatures of the air,
land, and waters, all the energies, elements, events, and entities of the
extensive sacramental universe and its localized sacramental commons, stimulate
Creator-consciousness and creation-consciousness, creation care and community
care. This results in conscious immersion in creation communion, and conscientious
concern and care for, and commitment to, the human family as a whole and the
biotic community that is its extended family…
The
created universe is dynamic, not static. When people are open to the presence
of Spirit in creation, they can experience the creative power of God at work
and believe that the universe is evolving, meaningful, and ultimately good.
When they view creation as sacramental, people become conscious not only of who
they are and what and where their place (their role and their location) is in
it but also of their integral ecological relationship.[25]
All creatures in the universe are
sacramentally united in Christ. Nature, animals and human are equally the same
before God. As Divine Providence sees, human, nature and God are interrelated
with the mutual responses each other constantly. As it is mentioned, Jesus
Christ describes God’s universal provision for the human race in terms of
nature, saying, God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends
rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt 5:45). Our theological vision is to
interpret God’s educative providence, sharing the sufferings of the
victimized—in the side effects known as the natural disasters. Three basic
views of Divine Providence are: (a) it does not means a general benevolence (b)
it does not mean protections from danger, (c) it does not mean escapes from
difficulties and suffering, (d) it does not mean escapes from the tragedies of
life, (e) it does not mean futuristic care of God.
5. Concluding Remarks and Future Expectations
God creates the earth for His
creatures; it was good. All things come from God. He creates human in His own
image. He gives and entrusts great responsibility to maintain and dominion over
all creatures. God provides everything for His creatures needs: He feeds the
birds of the air and the fish of sea. God designs the universe systematically,
regularly and orderly. After God created the earth, it was very enough suitable
for abiotic and biotic. God makes His sunshine and sends His rain. Today, however,
the earth is groaning with pain and the earth is cursed because it is wounded
by its creatures. The earth becomes unbalance round. Economic approach sees
natural disaster as the causes of illegal and legal excessive use of natural
resources, exploitation of natural resources, and corruption by cronies, elites
and indigenous. It is found that Myanmar is one of the world’s most thickly
forested countries but its forests are threatened by neighbors such as China
and Thailand as well as Myanmar cronies and generals anxious to enrich
themselves. The waters in the rivers unclean, chemicals from the factories run
into our drinking system, fertilizers and pesticides used widely in the
agricultural sector today for higher yields are drained into the rivers making
the water toxic.[26]
Driving fresh air out from our environment which controls our living
environmental security, filling with air-pollution and changing into global
warming continues to occupy in our country. There is no place for justice in
our society. From Christian perspective, human do not obey God’s will so that
our selfish and pride drive us to destroy our earth. Ecological approach sees
this as the destruction of God’s creation, His work and His will and
self-destruction. The orderliness of earth designed purposefully by God became
regular to irregular. Because the people are full of pride and selfish, they do
not care for the environment. To love our environment became to overrule. In
Romans 8:22, it is found that the earth is groaning and suffering from the
burden of painfulness. God invites us to ease the pain of the earth by the
stewardship of human as the same way God’s providential care and sacramental
commons. The teaching on the future Kingdom and Heaven of God do not care of
the necessarily of the present Kingdom. I would like to insist that God calls
us to build His Kingdom and Heaven on this earth. Jesus Christ always
transforms sinners to just, evil into good, for He came to the world to change
the world. It is better to protect our mother earth before she is injured, for
protection is better than curing. However, the present condition of the earth
is being injured. The one vital point for the present condition is to protect
and to heal our mother earth before it is death. God continues His caring for
the creation, He never ceases. Even though natural disaster happens, this is
not God’s retributive punishment. Rather God always sees us and caring of us,
sharing His suffering with us. God’s continuous caring means God’s will to
maintain the nature as the way He designs and maintains. The pain of earth is
calling us to heal and rebuild God’s Kingdom on this earth. Therefore, it is a
big expectation to build God’s Kingdom, new earth and Heaven on this earth, by
maintain and loving our environment and the regular order of earth which God
designs purposefully and systematically where God provides everything His
creations needs in enough. In this way, we can attain the fullness of God’s
Providence Caring for His creation in Myanmar and perceive the
interconnectedness of God, human and nature.
[1]
J.C. Logan and J.F. Haught, “Ecology” in Berard L. Marthaler et al eds., New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd
Edition, Vol. 5 (Washington, D.C: The New Catholic University of America Press,
2003), 51.
[2]
Thang Suan Pau, Ecology and Ethics, Lectures
notes from M.Div-I, Myanmar Theological College, Mandalay, 2014-2015, 19.
[3]
H. Paul Santmire, Ecology, Justice and Theology: Beyond the Preliminary Skirmishes, [article online] Available from http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1845, Internet accessed September 12nd, 2015.
[4]
R. H. S. Boyd, Khristadvaita
(Melbourne: KLK, 1975), 48-49.
[6]
Jeffrey Hays, Deforestation And Illegal Logging In Myanmar, from Facts and Details [article online]
Available from http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5h/entry-3145.html, Internet accessed on September 11, 2014.
[7]
Ibid, Thang Suan
Pau, Ecology and Ethics, 21-23.
[8]
2015 Myanmar Floods, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [article online]
Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Myanmar_floods,
Internet accessed on September 15th, 2015.
[9]
Vung San Cing, “Cooperation in Ecological Issues from Ecumenical Perspective”
in Ngurliana et al, eds., Myanmar
Theological Bulletin, Vol. 4 (Mandalay: Myanmar Theological College, 2009),
130.
[10]
Ibid, R. H. S.
Boyd, Khristadvaita, 48-49.
[11]
Ibid, 57.
[12]
Ngurliana, “A Quest for a Theology of Disaster: Reading the Bible in the
Context of natural Disaster” in Salai
Pum Za
Mang, Myanmar Theological Bulletin, Vol. 5, (Mandalay:
Myanmar Theological College, 2010), 27-31.
[14]
Ibid, Jeffrey Hays, Deforestation And Illegal Logging In Myanmar, from Facts and Details [article online]
Available from http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Myanmar/sub5_5h/entry-3145.html, Internet accessed on September 11, 2014.
[16]
Ibid, Ngurliana, “A Quest for a Theology of Disaster: Reading the Bible in the
Context of natural Disaster” in Salai
Pum Za
Mang, Myanmar Theological Bulletin, Vol. 5, 2-3.
[17]
Mark Galli, Chaos Theology: Finding Hope
In The Midst Of The Terror Of Creation, [article online] Available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/juneweb-only/124-43.0.html,
Internet accessed September
20, 2015.
[18]
John A.
Witmer, “Romans” in John
F. Walvoord
et al, eds, The Bible Knowledge
Commentary (Andhra
Pradesh: Authentic Books, 2004),
471-472.
[19]
Ngurliana, “A Quest for a Theology of Disaster: Reading the Bible in the
Context of natural Disaster” in Salai
Pum Za
Mang, Myanmar Theological Bulletin, Vol. 5, 9-10.
[21]
Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology:
An Introduction (Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1997), 273.
[22]
Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old
Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
1997), 657
[24]
Hans Küng, The Beginning of All Things:
Science and Religion, trans., John Bowden (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans
publishing Company, 2008), 105-106.
[25]
John Hart, Sacramental Commons: Christian
Ecological Ethics (Toronto: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006), 13.
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