Relational Justice: Global Lutheranism, Neighbor Love, and Decolonizing Human Agency

This paper argues that Luther’s account of sacramental realism can prompt self-criticism for the sake of embodied justice. In Jesus’s telling of the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan’s actions make a claim to being the sort of person who can love the embodied neighbor: a way of being moved with compassion toward others—that is, moved in one’s guts. The trouble is that one’s gut is both the seat of compassion and the seat of bigotry and bias. Becoming self-critical for the sake of embodied justice will require an openness to sacramental meaning in the world that can destabilize one’s unreflective normative commitments. It is the sacramental presence of God in the bloodied man that lights up for the Samaritan and moves him with compassion for the man. In this way, sacramental meaning in the world offers an ethics of self-criticism for the sake of embodied justice.

In Norway, conflict has recently evolved between Sami indigenous people and the government due to a decision to erect 277 wind turbines at a specific coastline, not taking into consideration that this coastline is also winter pasture for 2,000 reindeer. Huge wind turbines and grazing reindeer do not go well together. Thus, the concession violates the Sami's right to reindeer husbandry and mobility, according to the seasons. Due to their nomadic lifestyle and close interaction with nature, the Sami also differ from the non-Sami Norwegians in terms of “spirituality”. This will be critically discussed in comparison to Scandinavian Creation Theology.

This paper seeks to engage questions of human agency within the Lutheran theological tradition in light of the climate crisis. Historically, the centrality of the doctrine of justification within Lutheran theological frameworks has caused the tradition to have, at best, an ambiguous relationship with questions of human agency. Utilizing insights from Nordic Luther research and placing them in conversation with contemporary eco-theological scholarship, this paper demonstrates that Luther’s legacy leaves room for generative openings for the development of innovative agential models that take into consideration our entanglement with and dependence on more-than-human creation. While fully appreciating the work of scholars who argue for agential models to be based on the indwelling Christ motif, this paper will seek to broaden the field by discussing the need to balance such models with Pneumatological considerations. Such balancing is essential in guarding against heightened anthropocentrism within Lutheran theological frameworks.

When ecotheological questions are discussed in Arctic context, the focus is on the part of the region located closest to the glacial meltdown. By turning the geographical focus northwards, one gets a stronger sense of intercultural indigeneity, f.ex. Inuit and Sámi cultures. While all of the Nordic countries have have strong historical roots in the Lutheran traditions through national majority churches, the view from the Arctic shows different baptismal practices  than further south in the Nordic region.  The need to decolonize histories of oppression is emerging with a new force now while TRC´s are at work in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The first part of the paper discusses baptism as ecological source through environmental, decolonial, and Indigenous perspectives on liturgy, while the second reflects on Icelandic baptismal practices past and present. The last part argues for baptismal practices as an eco-liturgical sources.