¹ Schillebeeckx, Edward, Church: The Human Story of God (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 238–39Google Scholar.

² Among the scarce scholarly resources, the most extended engagement with Schillebeeckx's theology of creation is in Phillip Kennedy's work, both in his introductory text Schillebeeckx, Outstanding Christian Thinkers Series, ed. Brian Davies (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1993) and in his essay “God and Creation” in The Praxis of the Reign of God: An Introduction to the Theology of Edward Schillebeeckx, 2nd ed., ed. Hilkert, Mary Catherine and Schreiter, Robert (New York: Fordham University Press, 2002), 37–58Google Scholar). This collection also contains chapters on Schillebeeckx's theological context, method, experience and revelation, Jesus Christ, salvation, spirituality, the church, ministry, and eschatology.

³ Boeve, Lieven, Depoortere, Frederiek, and van Erp, Stephan, eds., Edward Schillebeeckx and Contemporary Theology (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2010)Google Scholar.

⁴ Mary Catherine Hilkert, in the introduction to the second edition of The Praxis of the Reign of God, writes that Kennedy's Schillebeeckx first drew attention in the academic world to the importance of creation in Schillebeeckx's work and resulted in the inclusion of his chapter on God and creation for the second edition (“Introduction,” The Praxis of the Reign of God, xix–xxx, at xxvGoogle Scholar). As she explains, the publication of Schillebeeckx's Church (1990), with its emphasis on the ecological crisis, sensitized Schillebeeckx's commentators to the importance of creation in his theology and thus created a need for a chapter devoted to this topic in the second edition of this book (ibid., xxi). (The first edition was published in 1989).

⁵ A distinction is made here between a creational and ecological theology. A creational theology is one that views humanity and the natural world through the lens of creation theology, beginning with the creator God and asking how being creatures of God affects our identity, role, and interactions in the world and transforms our theological understanding. An ecological theology starts with the contemporary experience of ecological crisis and proceeds ethically (considering our identity, role, and interactions in the world in light of this crisis) and theologically (considering how our conceptions of the major loci of theology are altered by our experience of ecological crisis).

⁶ Kennedy, , “God and Creation,” 58Google Scholar. In this essay, Kennedy also seems to be unaware of the rapidly blooming field of ecological theology when he comments that most contemporary theologians have avoided the topic of creation: “Schillebeeckx has not followed the general trend of neglecting the theology of creation” (ibid., 39).

⁷ Kennedy, , Schillebeeckx, 82Google Scholar.

⁸ Jacko, Dorothy, “Schillebeeckx's Creation-Based Theology as Basis for an Ecological Spirituality” in An Ecology of the Spirit: Religious Reflection and Environmental Consciousness, Annual publication of the College Theology Society, vol. 36, ed. Barnes, Michael (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1994), 147–60Google Scholar. Jacko, 's doctoral dissertation, “Salvation in the Context of Contemporary Secularized Historical Consciousness: The Later Theology of Edward Schillebeeckx” (Regis College, Toronto School of Theology, 1987)Google Scholar, which deals at length with creation-faith in its third chapter, is another important resource for understanding Schillebeeckx's theology of creation, although it does not specifically take up ecological concerns.

⁹ Jacko's five elements of a Schillebeeckxian ecological spirituality are: the subject of spirituality—the human person, the locus of spirituality—creation, the content of spirituality—mystical, political, and ecological action, the norm and criterion—Jesus, and the goal of spirituality—a new creation (Jacko, , “Schillebeeckx's Creation-Based Theology,” 148Google Scholar). She also high lights three particularly helpful elements of Schillebeeckx's theology for thinking about humanity's relationship to the environment: his understanding of the human subject as dynamic, relational, ecological, and eschatological (ibid., 148); creation as the location of theology (and for her purposes, spirituality) (ibid., 153); and salvation as holistic, global, and including ecological wholeness (ibid., 156–57).

¹⁰ For Jacko, this mystical/political-ecological action is seen in the dialectic between religious reflection and social action, paradigmatically enacted in the liturgy. In articulating what she means by social action for an ecological spirituality, she mentions protesting unjust, inhumane, and ecologically-damaging practices and engaging in life-giving, just, and ecologically-sound practices (ibid., 153–54).

¹¹ It is also significant to note here that Jacko's 1990 essay does not make reference to Schillebeeckx's newly published Church (published in 1989, first translated into English in 1990). She does note in her dissertation that she had the opportunity to speak with Schillebeeckx in person regarding his soon-to-be-released Church (Jacko, , “Salvation in the Context of Contemporary Secularized Historical Consciousness,” 124Google Scholar). Church, Schillebeeckx's most environmentally-conscious text, which culminates in ecological concern in its fifth and final chapter, must be included in any account of his ecological concerns. Thus, Jacko's work deserves updating to reflect Schillebeeckx's late work.

¹² Schillebeeckx, , Church, 90Google Scholar.

¹³ Schillebeeckx, Edward and Strazzari, Francesco, I Am a Happy Theologian: Conversations with Francesco Strazzari, trans. Bowden, John (New York: Crossroad, 1994), 47Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Henricus [Schillebeeckx's religious name] Schillebeeckx, , “Christelijke situatie,” Kultuurleven 12 (1945): 82–95, 229–242, 585–611Google Scholar, at 88, cited and translated by Boeve, , “Introduction,” in Edward Schillebeeckx and Contemporary Theology, 1–24, at 10Google Scholar. The early Thomistic Schillebeeckx rests his concern for the physical world on the analogy between the natural and the supernatural. Boeve comments that while the early Schillebeeckx sees the natural and supernatural as hierarchically related, the later Schillebeeckx will translate this vertical relationship into a horizontal one as he comes to emphasize the autonomy and integrity of creation (ibid., 11–12).

¹⁵ Kennedy, , Schillebeeckx, 82Google Scholar. Kennedy notes that a copy of this material is available in manuscript form at the Schillebeeckx Foundation in Nijmegen (ibid., 94n.).

¹⁶ The most extensive treatments of creation in Schillebeeckx's work are found in chapter 16 (“I Believe in God, Creator of Heaven and Earth”) of God Among Us: The Gospel Proclaimed, trans. Bowden, John (New York: Crossroad, 1983)Google Scholar, chapter 6 of the Interim Report on the Books Jesus & Christ, trans. Bowden, John (New York: Crossroad, 1981)Google Scholar, and chapter 5 of Church.

¹⁷ Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 126 and God Among Us, 104Google Scholar.

¹⁸ “Parent of creation” is not an image Schillebeeckx uses but one that befits his theological project, emphasizing creation as other, born of God but independent, loved by God but free to act.

¹⁹ Schillebeeckx distinguishes between creation and “protology” and argues that protology is an eschatological projection onto the past of our future hope. We see this, for example, in Genesis 1 and 2. Creation, instead, is a statement about God's ongoing relationship with the world (Schillebeeckx, , I Am a Happy Theologian, 67Google Scholar).

²⁰ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 245Google Scholar.

²¹ Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 127Google Scholar.

²² Schillebeeckx, Edward, For the Sake of the Gospel, trans. Bowden, John (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 93Google Scholar.

²³ Ibid., 93. While other theologians at this time were speaking of God as powerless or impotent, Schillebeeckx uses the language of “defenselessness” for speaking of God as vulnerable and giving up power, but not as powerless (ibid., 93, 97).

²⁴ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 85Google Scholar. With “defenseless superior power,” he is searching for usable terminology for speaking of God's power. He clarifies that with this term he is avoiding a number of problematic understandings, including thinking of God's power as strongly omnipotent, as outside of human realities and sufferings, or as powerless as in “death of God” or some post-Holocaust theologies (ibid., 85–91). He seeks to preserve an idea of God as active and involved in the history of the world in a way that does not eliminate creation's agency. As always for Schillebeeckx, this understanding of God is rooted in his belief in the creator God “who has taken the risk of creating the world” (ibid., 91).

²⁵ Schillebeeckx, , For the Sake of the Gospel, 98Google Scholar.

²⁶ “True partnership presupposes a contribution, freedom, and initiative from both sides; otherwise there is no partnership!” (ibid., 93).

²⁷ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 230Google Scholar.

²⁸ Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 115Google Scholar.

²⁹ Ibid., 114.

³⁰ Ibid., 113.

³¹ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 237Google Scholar.

³² Ibid., 245.

³³ Ibid., 238. There is a tension in Schillebeeckx's thought here. He emphasizes the co-creatureliness of humanity, but at the same time he places humanity over creation, unique and in a role of responsibility. It seems that Schillebeeckx believes that this human duty to creation does not cause humanity to be valued more highly than creation, but simply gives humankind a unique and crucial task.

³⁴ Ibid., 243.

³⁵ Ibid., 237, 238, 243.

³⁶ Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 109Google Scholar.

³⁷ Schillebeeckx, Edward, “God, Society, and Human Salvation,” 99Google Scholar, quoted in Jacko, , “Salvation in the Context of Contemporary Secularized Historical Consciousness,” 106Google Scholar.

³⁸ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 237Google Scholar.

³⁹ Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 127Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Schillebeeckx, Edward, “The ‘God of Jesus’ and the ‘Jesus of God’” (1974)Google Scholar in The Language of Faith: Essays on Jesus, Theology, and the Church (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1995), 95–108, at 106Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Schillebeeckx, , I Am a Happy Theologian, 50Google Scholar; Schillebeeckx comments elsewhere that Jesus is “the man in whom the task of creation has been successfully accomplished” (Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 111Google Scholar).

⁴² Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 128Google Scholar.

⁴³ Schillebeeckx, Edward, Christ, the Experience of Jesus As Lord, trans. Bowden, John (New York: Seabury, 1980), 516Google Scholar. On this point, Roger Haight comments that “Schillebeeckx conceptually simplifies the relationship between God as creator-savior and humankind. The creator God is savior; God as savior is creator” (Haight, Roger, Future of Christology, [New York: Continuum, 2005], 112Google Scholar).

⁴⁴ Schillebeeckx, , Christ, 530Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Schillebeeckx, , God Among Us, 100Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 132–134Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Ibid., 133.

⁴⁸ “Perhaps (though I am not sure, since biblical visions have something classical and immortal about them) in 1990 we must look for other more telling metaphors which suggest the same thing. For this we need poets who are tuned to the same wavelength as the sensitivity of the Bible” (ibid., 134n.).

⁴⁹ Schillebeeckx, Edward, “God the Living One,” New Blackfriars 62 (1981): 357–70, at 359CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schillebeeckx, Edward, On Christian Faith: The Spiritual, Ethical, and Political Dimensions, trans. Bowden, John (New York: Crossroad, 1987), 18Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Schillebeeckx, Edward, “Five Questions Facing the Church Today,” in Congar, Yves et al. , The Crucial Questions: on Problems Facing the Church Today, ed. Fehmers, Frank (New York: Newman Press, 1969), 50–66, at 54Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Hinze, Bradford, “Eschatology and Ethics” in The Praxis of the Reign of God, 167–83, at 174Google Scholar.

⁵² Schillebeeckx, , God Among Us, 97Google Scholar.

⁵³ Paul, Pope John II, “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility,” in And God Saw That It Was Good, ed. Christiansen, Drew and Grazer, Walter (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1996), 215–22, at 218, 221Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Renewing the Earth (Washington, D.C.: USCCB, 1991), http://www.nccbuscc.org/sdwp/ejp/bishopsstatement.shtmlGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁵ Hinze, Christine Firer, “Catholic Social Teaching and Ecological Ethics,” in And God Saw That It Was Good, 165–82, at 170Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 239Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Schillebeeckx, , God Among Us, 99Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 240Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Schillebeeckx, , God Among Us, 99Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 239Google Scholar. He goes on to say that these ecological contrast experiences have made us increasingly aware of their ethical implications: “The modern ecological experiences of contrast have led us to the insight that here too, and not just at a personal and social level, ethical dimensions are present” (ibid.).

⁶¹ Schillebeeckx, , Interim Report, 118Google Scholar.

⁶² Johnson, Elizabeth, Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit (New York: Paulist Press, 1993), 2Google Scholar.

⁶³ Schillebeeckx, , God Among Us, 100Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Schillebeeckx, , On Christian Faith, 31Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ Pope John Paul II, in his World Day of Peace address, also puts forth the idea that creation has its own integrity (“The Ecological Crisis,” 218).

⁶⁶ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 238Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Schillebeeckx, , Christ, 530Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ As Schillebeeckx envisions humans as co-creators with God and as members of the community of creation taking upon themselves the task of creation, I am reminded of Susan Power Bratton's delightful essay on “environmental deacons.” She suggests that since Christianity has missed participating in the great forthtelling of the early environmental activists, Christians would best serve creation by ordaining environmental deacons to lead us in care for our planet (“Response to Daniel C. Maguire: The Church Should Call not Just Prophets but Environmental Deacons,” in Christianity and Ecology, ed. Hessel, Dieter and Ruether, Rosemary Radford [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000], 429–37, at 431Google Scholar).

⁶⁹ This is an image also used by Orthodox Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon. In a statement printed in the United Nation's journal Our Planet, he commends just such an environmental asceticism: “An ‘ecological asceticism’—if we may coin such a term—always begins with deep respect for the material creation, including the human body, and builds upon the view that we are not masters and possessors of this creation, but are called to turn it into a vehicle of communion, always taking into account and respecting its possibilities as well as its limitations” (John [Zizioulas] of Pergamon, “‘Ecological Asceticism’: A Cultural Revolution,” Our Planet 7/6 [1996], http://www.unep.org/ourplanet/imgversn/76/pergamon.html).

⁷⁰ Schillebeeckx, , God Among Us, 99Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Schillebeeckx, , “God the Living One,” 368Google Scholar.

⁷² Schillebeeckx, , God Among Us, 105Google Scholar.

⁷³ The U.S. Catholic bishops in their document also turn to Jesus' life and consider his praxis as model for right ecological action.

⁷⁴ Nash, James, Loving Nature: Ecological Integrity and Christian Responsibility (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 63–67Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ Schillebeeckx, , Church, 91Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Haught, John, “Ecology and Eschatology,” in And God Saw That It Was Good, 47–64, at 63Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ “Letter from Edward Schillebeeckx to the Participants in the Symposium ‘Theology for the 21st Century: The Enduring Relevance of Edward Schillebeeckx for Contemporary Theology’ (Leuven, 3–6 December 2008),” in Edward Schillebeeckx and Contemporary Theology, xiv–xv, at xv.