The Impact of Climate Change on Biblical Interpretation and Theology
Richard Osei Akoto 
Issue: Vol.6 No.8 Article 7 pp. 1371 – 1388
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025687 | Published online 11th July, 2025
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This study investigates how climate change influences biblical interpretation and theology, with the aim of aligning ecological concerns with scriptural and doctrinal perspectives. Key goals include examining reinterpretations of scripture, assessing the ethical and theological dimensions of ecological crises, and evaluating denominational responses. Using a qualitative, interdisciplinary approach, the study incorporates literature review, ecological hermeneutics, and theological reflection to explore how environmental issues reshape core biblical themes and doctrines. Engaging scholars like Jürgen Moltmann, Sallie McFague, Richard Bauckham, and Pope Francis, it analyzes eco-theological insights on creation, stewardship, sin, redemption, and eschatology. The findings suggest that climate change compels a renewed focus on stewardship, reimagines eschatology with ecological justice, and inspires churches to integrate climate action into doctrine and practice. The study recommends educational initiatives in churches, ecological integration in theological training, and advocacy by faith leaders for sustainable policies—contributing a framework that brings ecological awareness into theological discourse.
Keywords: Climate Change, Biblical Interpretation, Theology, Impact
Ademiluka, Solomon Olusola. “An Ecological Interpretation of Leviticus 11-15 in an African (Nigerian) Context.” Old Testament Essays 22, no. 3 (2009): 525–34.
Adger, W Neil. “Vulnerability.” Global Environmental Change 16, no. 3 (2006): 268–81.
Amos, Clare. “Ecological Lament: Learning to Cry Out in a Time of Crisis.” Anglican Theological Review, 2020.
Anderson, Bernhard W. From Creation to New Creation. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994.
Antal, Jim. Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change. Rowman: Littlefield Publishers, 2018.
Barr, James. “Man and Nature–The Ecological Controversy and the Old Testament.” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 55, no. 1 (1972): 9–32.
Bauckham, R. Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation. Baylor University Press, 2010.
Bauckham, Richard. Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation. Texas: Baylor University Press, 2010.
———. Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity. Eerdmans Young Readers, 2008.
Berry, Thomas. “The Dream of the Earth: Our Way into the Future.” CrossCurrents 37, no. 2/3 (1987): 200–215.
Boff, Leonardo. Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. New York: Orbis Books, 1997.
Bouma-Prediger, Steven. For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010.
Brady, Veronica. “Preface.” Reading From the Perspective of Earth Habe. Edited by Norman C. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.
Brueggemann, Walter. Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy. Fortress Press, 1997.
Cajete, Gregory. Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. Clear Light Publishers, 2000.
Chryssavgis, J. On Earth as in Heaven: Ecological Vision and Initiatives of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012.
Cobb, John B. Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology. Beverly Hills, CA: Bruce Publishing Company, 1972.
Conradie, E. M. The Earth in God’s Economy: Creation, Salvation and Consummation in Ecological Perspective. LIT Verlag, 2012.
Conradie, Ernst M. “Towards an Ecological Biblical Hermeneutics: A Review Essay on the Earth Bible Project.” Scriptura: Journal for Contextual Hermeneutics in Southern Africa 85, no. 1 (2004): 123–35.
Creegan, Nicola Hoggard. “Theological Foundations of the Ecological Crisis.” Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought & Practice 12, no. 4 (2004).
Cumbey, Constance. The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow: The New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism. Lafayette: Huntington House, 1983.
Davis, Ellen F. Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Deane-Drummond, C. Eco-Theology. Darton: Longman & Todd, 2008.
Deloria Jr., Vine. God Is Red: A Native View of Religion. Fulcrum Publishing, 2003.
Dietz, Thomas, Gerald T Gardner, Jonathan Gilligan, Paul C Stern, and Michael P Vandenbergh. “Household Actions Can Provide a Behavioral Wedge to Rapidly Reduce US Carbon Emissions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. 44 (2009): 18452–56.
Dykstra, Laurel. Roots and Branches: Relational Discipleship in a Forgotten Wilderness. Church Publishing, 2011.
Eckberg, Douglas Lee, and T Jean Blocker. “Christianity, Environmentalism, and the Theoretical Problem of Fundamentalism.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1996, 343–55.
Enns, Elaine, and Ched Myers. Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2021.
Fowler, Robert B. The Greening of Protestant Thought. London: North Carolina University Press, 1995.
Francis, Pope. Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. Our Sunday Visitor, 2015.
Groody, D. G. Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice: Navigating the Path to Peace. Orbis Books, 2017.
Habel, Norman C. “Introducing the Earth Bible .” In Reading From the Perspective of Earth, edited by Norman C. Habel, 25–37. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000.
———. The Birth, the Curse and the Greening of Earth: An Ecological Reading of Genesis 1-11. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011.
Hall, Douglas John. The Steward: A Biblical Symbol Come of Age. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1986.
Hansen, J. Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. Bloomsbury, USA, 2009.
Hart, J. Sacramental Commons: Christian Ecological Ethics. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.
Hayhoe, K., and A. Farley. A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions. Brentwood, TN: FaithWords Publishing, 2009.
Hessel, D. T., and R. Ruether. Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Hoffman, Andrew J. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015.
Holmes, R. “Anglicanism and Ecological Ethics.” In A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming, edited by M. Northcott. New York: Orbis Books, 2012.
Horrell, D. G., C. Hunt, and C. Southgate. Greening the Church: Theological and Ethical Responses to Climate Change. London: SCM Press, 2019.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Jacobson, Mark Z, Mark A Delucchi, Mary A Cameron, and Bethany A Frew. “Low-Cost Solution to the Grid Reliability Problem with 100% Penetration of Intermittent Wind, Water, and Solar for All Purposes.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 49 (2015): 15060–65.
Jennings, Willie James. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. Yale University Press, 2010.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. “She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse.” . New York: Crossroad, 1992.
Jones, James. Jesus and the Earth. SPCK, 2010.
Keller, Catherine. Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed editions, 2013.
Limburg, James. “The Responsibility of Royalty: Genesis 1–11 and the Care of the Earth.” Word and World 11, no. 2 (1991): 124–30.
Loader, James A. “Image and Order: Old Testament Perspectives on the Ecological Crisis.” Are We Killing God’s Earth, 1987, 6–28.
Lovins, Amory B. Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018.
Mann, Michael E. The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
McDaniel, J. Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism. Chalice Press, 2008.
McFague, Sallie. A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming. Minnesota: Fortress Press, 2008.
———. The Body of God: An Ecological Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
McGregor, Peter John. “Leitourgia: The Missing Link in Evangelii Gaudium.” Irish Theological Quarterly 84, no. 1 (February 5, 2019): 57–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021140018815855.
Moltmann, Jürgen. God in Creation: An Ecological Doctrine in Creation. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 1993.
———. “The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology,” 1977.
Moo, Douglas J. Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019.
Newell, Peter, and Matthew Paterson. Climate Capitalism: Global Warming and the Transformation of the Global Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Nixon, R. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2019.
Nogueira-Godsey, Elaine. “African Eco-Theologies and Environmental Justice.” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 2016.
Nordhaus, W. D. The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World. Yale University Press, 2018.
Nordhaus, William D. The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.
Northcott, Michael S. A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming. New York: Orbis Books, 2007.
Oreskes, N., and E. M. Conway. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010.
Palmer, Clare. Creation, Care and Conservation: Science and Religion in Dialogue. Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark International, 2006.
Pope Francis. ““Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” [Encyclical] .” The Vatican, 2015. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html.
Primavesi, Anne. From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991.
Rad, Gerhard Von. “The Theological Problem of the Old Testament Doctrine of Creation.” In The Problem of The Hexateuch and Other Essays, 131–43. London: SCM Press, 1984.
Rasmussen, Larry L. Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Rockström, Johan, Will Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, F Stuart Chapin III, Eric Lambin, Timothy M Lenton, Marten Scheffer, Carl Folke, and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. “Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity.” Ecology and Society 14, no. 2 (2009).
Rosenzweig, Cynthia, Joshua Elliott, Delphine Deryng, Alex C Ruane, Christoph Müller, Almut Arneth, Kenneth J Boote, Christian Folberth, Michael Glotter, and Nikolay Khabarov. “Assessing Agricultural Risks of Climate Change in the 21st Century in a Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 9 (2014): 3268–73.
Rossing, Barbara R. The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation. Basic Books, 2005.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. . HarperOne, 1994., 1994.
Santmire, H. Paul. The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological of Christian Theology Promise. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 1985.
Santmire, H. Paul. Nature Reborn: The Ecological and Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology. Fortress Press, 2000.
———. The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological of Christian Theology Promise. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press, 1985.
Schabas, William. Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Sider, Ronald J. “Biblical Foundation for Creation Care.” In The Care of Creation: Focusing Concern and Action, edited by R. J. Berry, 43–49. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2000.
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Snyder, H. A. Salvation Means Creation Healed: The Ecology of Sin and Grace. Cascade Books, 2010.
Steck, Odil H. World and Environment. Nashville: Abingdon, 1980.
Stern, Nicholas. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. London: HM Treasury, 2006.
Stiglitz, Joseph E., and Andrew Charlton. Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2005.
White Jr, Lynn. “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis.” Science 155, no. 3767 (1967): 1203–7.
Wirzba, Norman. The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2003.
Woodley, Randy. Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2012.
Wright, C. J. H. The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.
Wright, N. T. New Heavens, New Earth: The Biblical Picture of Christian Hope. Cambridge: Grove, 1992.
———. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. HarperOne, 2008.
Dr. Richard Osei Akoto is a Ghanaian theologian and biblical scholar specializing in New Testament Studies and African Biblical Hermeneutics. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies (Biblical Studies), with a research focus on Pauline theology and socio-political ethics—particularly the interface between Church and State in African contexts. He also holds a Master of Philosophy (Mphil) in Religious Studies, a Bachelor of Arts in Theology (B.Th), and diplomas in education and pastoral ministry.Dr. Osei Akoto’s academic formation reflects an interdisciplinary approach, integrating biblical exegesis, theological ethics, African ecclesiology, and contextual theology. He is an experienced theological educator, teaching courses such as New Testament Theology, Greek Exegesis, Biblical Hebrew, Old Testament Studies, Biblical Hermeneutics and Research Methodology at both undergraduate and graduate levels. His scholarship engages pressing contemporary issues, including the Church’s role in governance, the rise of digital prophets, and the socio-cultural dimensions of Christian mission in Africa.He is a postdoctoral research fellow with research interests in ecclesial authority, African missional theology, and contextual biblical interpretation. Dr. Osei Akoto is also a committed ecclesiastical leader, serving as an ordained minister and theological consultant within Pentecostal-charismatic and ecumenical spaces.He is a member of the African Theological Fellowship (ATF), the Institute of Biblical Scholarship in Africa (IBSA), and Ghana Association of Biblical Exegetes (GABES), actively contributing to the growth of contextual theological discourse on the continent.
Akoto, Richard Osei. “The Impact of Climate Change on Biblical Interpretation and Theology,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6, no.8 (2025): 1371 – 1388. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2025687
© 2025 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
