Eramatare

A Missional and Theological Approach to Environmental Stewardship

Abstract

While climate change is not a ‘settled science’ (it is not the nature of scientific inquiry to be ‘settled’), the fact of climate change is incontrovertibly obvious and its real effects on real communities (perhaps especially in the majority world) are devastating, including in East Africa. For Christians, environmental stewardship (also known as ‘Creation Care’ or ‘Earth Keeping’) should be an automatic part of Christian ethos and praxis. Failure to steward the earth or to ‘care for creation’ represents both a failure to keep the second ‘greatest commandment’ and also theological irresponsibility. Examining local evidence in East Africa in the contexts of biblical theology, Christian witness, and Maasai indigenous knowledge, this paper proposes approaches for Creation Care for world Christianity. In keeping with the author’s positionality amidst African orality, the article attempts to maintain the styles of oral communication.