Indwelling Word and Spirit

Luther and Calvin as Resources for an Ecological Theology

Abstract

This article revisits Martin Luther’s and John Calvin’s doctrines of creation in light of persistent claims that the Reformation inspired theological dualisms that set God above the earth and humans above creation, thus contributing to ecological domination and disaster. Such interpretations represent a misreading of the reformers’ accounts of divine presence in the world. Luther’s christological doctrine of creation centers on the Word’s ongoing, sustaining speech-act of creation, while Calvin insists on the Spirit’s life-giving indwelling of all things. Read together, their complementary visions resist mechanistic and dualistic cosmologies and offer rich theological resources for articulating a faithful ecological theology.