This panel explores the relationship between Christianity and ecological concerns in the Global South. The first paper investigates the activities of twentieth-century Congregationalist missionary Ray Phillips in South Africa and connects the environmental consequences of gold mining to the broader program of western subjugation all too often expressed through missionary endeavors. The second draws on the work of two African women theologians, Wangari Maathai and Afua Kuma, which amplifies the voices of contemporary African women affected by climate change. The third analyzes Ling Ma’s 2018 novel, Severance, through the lens of religion and focuses on the novel’s uncanny prescience concerning the emergence and effects of COVID-19. The fourth highlights and engages the phenomenon of green churches in Korea, which seek to restore relations with non-human creation. The fifth highlights the American Marathi Mission’s attempts to mobilize transnational evangelical assistance during the famine of 1899–1901 in the India’s Deccan Plateau.
For over a decade in the first half of the twentieth century, the Congregationalist missionary Ray Phillips worked with men on the mines of South Africa, attempting to combine both social control measures and evangelistic programs. This paper considers Phillips’s pre-1930 activities on the mines as representative of the larger missionary population and the violence inherent in their activities – both in social control and the remaking of indigenous minds, as well as in the environmental consequences of gold mining, and argues that they are related as part of the same program of western subjugation, through combining theories and practices from colonial/imperial studies, missiology, ecotheology, and history.
This paper will argue that Wangari Maathai and Afua Kuma represent two African women with significant theological insights, neither of whom were formally trained in theology, and illustrate a prophetic activism that promotes creation care, acknowledging the presence of Christ within his creation. By drawing on their works, I intend to demonstrate their prophetic warnings and prophetic hope which I will argue fuels an activism which challenges existing powers and lifts up the poor and oppressed, whilst also turning our eyes to the rest of creation. Their works declare theological truths that we desperately need to hear in an era of climate crisis. Their contributions also give voice to contemporary African women, particularly those suffering the effects of climate change, leading towards an egalitarian theological emphasis that cares for creation and for people who groan along with it.
Ling Ma’s 2018 debut novel, Severance, weaves intimately three types of fiction: the storyline of a post-apocalyptic survival narrative, interlaced with the coming of age tale of the narrator/protagonist (Candace Chen) struggling to find meaning and make a living in a globalized economy that was posing increasing ecological threats to its inhabitants, and through the flashbacks of her memory, a traumatizing story of her immigrant parents and her own childhood facing unfathomable heart-breaking tragedy. Religion permeates each of those three strands. Published in the year before Covid-19, Ling Ma’s Severance offers an uncanny and unsettling depiction of the spread of a global pandemic and humanity’s chaotic response to it. While seamlessly rooted in the trajectory of a Chinese-American immigrant family, Severance can be placed in the long line of what Father Marc Rastoin (2018) termed “post-apocalyptic genre” in recent decades in which religion constitutes an important dimension.
I will argue that churches are to embody a messianic fellowship, uniting in solidarity to grapple with environmental exploitation and violence. This mission seeks to heal the natural environment by expanding the collective ‘han’—the deep-seated grief stemming from unresolved frustrations to the natural world. This embraces the natural environment and non-human creatures into a “*bapsang* community” or a table community of Jesus Christ.
In so doing, I will explore the engagement of local churches across various denominations in Korea, known as *green churches* selected by the Christian Environmental Movement Solidarity with green theology and practice, in dialogue with similar ecological churches in North America. I will highlight the need for organic solidarity among counterparts in Korea to enhance the effectiveness of their ministries by drawing upon core ideas of Minjung theology and expanding their scope into the natural environment. The green churches in North America provide viable examples for helping the Korean counterparts stand in solidarity, while also drawing insights from the Korean green churches to enrich the efforts in North America.
Deccan in the last quarter of the nineteenth century experienced nine famines, two of which were great famines. The second great famine happened over the turn of the century in 1899, de-populating the region of human life and livestock. Neil Charlesworth’s monograph Peasants and Imperial Rule points out that along with the natural phenomena, the implementation of a flawed land revenue settlement policy accentuated the agrarian crisis. Scarcity of food and credit capital had left multitudes dependent on moneylenders.
Amartya Sen in Hunger and Public Action has asserted that famines are triggered by the collapse of exchange entitlements rather than food availability decline. Based on archival research, this paper will highlight largely unexplored work of the American Marathi Mission in the famine period. The paper will focus on the actions taken by AMM missionaries to mitigate the immediate suffering of the famine population and efforts in mobilizing evangelical transnational help.