9 - God–body: un/natural relations, un/natural communityin Jesus Christ

Summary

From distorted sociality to the common realm: God–body

The subject of a political theology of nature is the distortions of social relations of un/natural humanity with nature, in relation to God's Trinity. At the conclusion of this theological inquiry, the contours of such a political theology are now evident: a theological social anthropology in a doctrine of creation has emerged, constructed out of an intensive engagement with political ecology, which is both Trinitarian and founded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the God–body. Some of the central concepts and commitments of Christianity have therefore been deployed in a dynamic, yet critical, articulation with political construals of nature. Important political issues – for example, the otherness of nature; democratic negotiation – have emerged during the inquiry. Yet these political issues have emerged always within a theological argument. The Christology of chapter 7 stresses the placing of human society in its wider environment: the situatedness of un/natural relations. The pneumatology of chapter 8 stresses fellowship towards overcoming distorted social relations of humanity with non-human nature and the overcoming of distorted social relations of nature with human habitats.

The concepts of common realm and pedagogy of the commons have emerged through consideration of the identity of the creator God and the identity bestowed by God on creation. The identity of God revealed in Jesus Christ is Trinitarian. As Trinitarian, God invites consideration of God's non-identical presentation in the economy of the world.