VISION ON THE BIBLICAL CITY OF GOD AND PRAGMATIC ISSUES INVOLVED IN UNDERSTANDING ECOLOGICALLY

Authors

  • Solomon Victus Tamilnadu Theological Seminary

Keywords:

ECOLOGY, CITY OF GOD

Abstract

Nowadays most of us think that city life could be the ultimate place where all will have their life at the end of human history and so the gradual transformation from rural to urban is inevitable. Almost everyone wants to live and enjoy the urban facilities, where modern cities offer affluence, easiness, galaxies and luxuries. Julian Saldanha feels that the city is the result of historical process, which is the intelligent interaction of humans. Together with language, the city is among the best achievements of human culture; though it has its shadows, it offers freedom, economic advance, social mobility and extraordinary possibilities of development.1 Simultaneously there is a tendency towards a growing attraction for ecological taste to have an effect on living residences and atmosphere. Most of the city builders and urban planners in India today are picking up green ideas incorporating green location, atmosphere, green energy and green disposals, although it is very much linked with their commercial purposes. Names like Garden city, Green Cascade, Green Field, Lake View, Park Avenue and such views are inevitably coming up at least in the advertisements. The urban high rise housing flats are depicted as ‘sanctuary in the sky.’ The fundamental question arises here whether we are really marching towards a completely different city life orientation or just giving a lip service to the green city model since it is an attraction of our time. There are both positive and negative arguments emerging on the question of green citification process.

Author Biography

Solomon Victus, Tamilnadu Theological Seminary

Rev. Dr. Solomon Victus is Professor in the Department Social Analysis of Tamilnadu Theological Seminary. He is author of six books: Religion and Ecoeconomics of J.C. Kumarappa: Gandhism Redefined; Jesus and Mother Economy: An Introduction to the Theology of J.C. Kumarappa; Christian Response to Fundamentalism; Rainbow: Eco-Theology; Sacrifice for the Dawn; Water Bubbles: Convulsion of Pain and Suffering, and of more than 100 articles. He is former Visiting Fellow of Birmingham University (UK) and regular resource person for the Society for International Pastoral Care and Counselling and pioneer in exploring Indian Christian theology of J.C. Kumarappa.

References

Julian Saldanha, “From Garden to City,” Asian Horizons: Dharmaram Journal of Theology 6, 2 (2012).

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Raymond Williams, Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy, Socialism, London: Verso, 1989.

Harvey Cox, The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective, New York: Penguin Books, 1968.

Roger S. Greenway & Timothy M. Monsma, Cities: Missions’ New Frontier, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1994.

Albert Verdoot, “The Gospels in Comparison with the Pauline Letters: What We Can Learn from Social-Scientific Models,” in The Social Setting of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Wolfgang Stegemann, Bruce J Malina, Gerd Theissen, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002.

Bruce W. Winter, Seek the Welfare of the City: Christians as the Beneficiaries and Citizens, Michigan: William B. Edermans Publishing House, 1994.

H. Paul Santmire, Ritualizing Nature: Renewing Christian Liturgy in Time of Crisis, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.

Ray Blakke, A Theology as Big as the City, East Sussex: Monarch Publications, 1997.

aral E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson, ed., The Two Cities of God: The Church’s Responsibility for the Earthly City, Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997.

Odil Hannes, Steck, World & Environment, Nashvile: Abingdon, 1980.

Sunita Narayan, “A Tale of Two Cities,” Editorial - Down to Earth, October, 18, 2012.

E. Calvin Beisner, Where Garden Meets Wilderness: Evangelical Entry into the Environmental Debate, Michigan: Action Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty & Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997.

Solomon Victus, Religion and Eco-Economics of J.C.Kumarappa: Gandhism Redefined, New Delhi: ISPCK, 2003.

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Published

2013-06-30

How to Cite

Victus, S. (2013). VISION ON THE BIBLICAL CITY OF GOD AND PRAGMATIC ISSUES INVOLVED IN UNDERSTANDING ECOLOGICALLY. Asian Horizons, 7(02), 387–404. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/ah/article/view/2823