| abstract |
In this dissertation, I connect the work of activists in the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PC[USA]) calling for divestment from fossil fuels to Protestant Christian ideas of ecological vocation. I use an interdisciplinary and grounded method that highlights an integrated care for the earth in a time of global climate crisis, centering the wisdom and experiences of a cross section of faith-based organizers. The purpose of this study is to understand how and why a faith-based movement for climate justice built people power so that other scholars and organizers can organize for a better world.
In conversation with the interviews, I construct a concept of Christian ecological vocation using Hiebert's biblical scholarship on ecology and human vocation and Ayres' work on human inhabitants of the world, with a particularity toward Protestant Christian understandings. I review the use of divestment as a tactic in two other international social movements, noting how it has been used by communities with social power to build solidarity with people who have been marginalized, as called for by those marginalized people. Then, I review how divestment from fossil fuels has been used in the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the PC(USA), with some background on its use in colleges and universities. Finally, I pull the biblical, cultural, and theological contexts of the PC(USA)'s ecological work into conversation with divestment as a tactic that had previously been employed by activists in the denomination to make change to analyze if this movement has been a success .
|
