‘A God Who Cares?’ In conversation with Prof. Ernst M. Conradie

What does it mean to believe in a God who cares for every creature at a moment when humanity itself has become a geological force capable of reshaping the planet? This is the question at the heart of A God Who Cares?: Reformed Perspectives on God’s Providence amid the Shift from the Holocene to the “Anthropocene”, a thought-provoking monograph published by AOSIS.

The book’s author, Prof. Ernst M. Conradie, is one of South Africa’s most distinguished theologians. A Senior Professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape, where he teaches systematic theology and ethics, he holds an A-rating from the National Research Foundation as a leading international scholar. He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion, and the series editor of An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the “Anthropocene”—a growing collection of narrative theology to which this monograph serves as a constructive supplement.

In A God Who Cares?, Prof. Conradie revisits the Christian doctrine of providence through the traditional Reformed distinctions of conservatio, gubernatio and concursus. He argues that providence is best understood not as a detached, rational world order, but as the deeply held conviction that God cares for every creature. Along the way, he traces how these classical concepts find rough secular equivalents in contemporary debates on sustainability, mitigation and adaptation, and confronts the unsettling reality that, in the Anthropocene, human beings have begun to sideline and even usurp the agency once attributed to God.

In the conversation that follows, Prof. Conradie reflects on the ideas, tensions and convictions that shaped the book.

1. What inspired you to revisit the doctrine of providence in the context of the “Anthropocene”?

This book is closely related to Volume 4 of the series titled An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the ‘Anthropocene’ which also addresses the theme of God’s providence. Working on that volume together with various other scholars from around the world inspired me write a few additional essays on God’s providence.

The reason for the reference to the so-called “Anthropocene” is that this deeply contested term captures the context of doing Christian ecotheology. It is no longer just about local or regional ecological destruction or even about global environmental problems. These problems are integrated with one another through what is best understood as a rapture within the Earth system, i.e. the way in which the biosphere, the hydrosphere, the geosphere and the atmosphere interact with each other.

2. At the heart of your book is the idea that God “cares for every creature.” Why is this emphasis so important today?
There are many diverging views on what God’s providence is all about. The English word providence comes from the Latin pro-videre, which literally means to see ahead. This leads some to suggest that God sees ahead not only what we need but also predetermines what will happen. This may be a way of emphasising God’s sovereignty but misses the heart of the matter, namely God’s care for God’s own beloved creatures. I regard this as the very core of daily Christian faith, namely a trust that ultimately our most basic needs for food, water, shelter and clothing are being provided for not simply by our own efforts but by a God who cares.

However, this also raises the thorny problem of whether God actually cares, given pain, suffering, injustice, oppression and tyranny in the world. This includes natural and social sources of such suffering. One must therefore note the question mark in the title of the book.

3. You draw on the traditional Reformed concepts of conservatio, gubernatio, and concursus. Why do these still matter, for example amid ecological destruction?
Yes, the three main essays in the book focus on these three concepts, namely God’s work of conservation (protecting the world from self-destruction), God’s good governance in history, steering the direction of history, and then the interaction between divine and other forms of agency, including human agency. Does God save us or do we ultimately have to save ourselves?

In my view these three concepts remain remarkably fruitful in the context of ecological destruction. In the various essays I related these to secular discourse on sustainability (keeping things as they are), on the quest for justice (requiring a transformation of the global political economy) and a critique of anthropocentrism, thinking that the world turns around human well-being and that humans may in fact replace God to rule the world. I seek to engage with the tacit theological assumptions of such secular debates.

4. How does the shift from the Holocene to the “Anthropocene” challenge the way Christians think about God’s role in the world?
My sense is that discourse on sustainability is in the end about sustaining Holocene stability. The quest for ecojustice (including ecological and economic justice) is about a transformation of the energy basis of and power relations within the global economy, but still assumes Holocene stability for “putting things right”. However, the message from scientists working on the “Anthropocene” is that we are already living for three generations in the “Anthropocene”. Our time is best understood as a transition period which will imply multiple thresholds, tipping points and therefore instability. I liken this to canoeing down a broad fast flowing river with treacherous rapids and lethal waterfalls. Tranquil waters may only be far ahead. There are multiple decisions that we have to take on the available channels that may prove decisive.

One biblical symbol of God’s providence is the covenant with Noah. Although the story is probably mythical, I think its narrative context may be best situated at the end of the last ice age, in the transition from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene. We cannot assume that God is always on the side of order and stability. We may be in for a rough ride. But the symbols of the ark and the rainbow may help to sustain us amid the treacherous waters of this period of transition.

5. Your work highlights tensions between maintaining order and transforming unjust systems. How should theologians and faith communities navigate this?
Given the image of canoeing down a rapid broad river, the term “navigate” is apt. I try to explain that the emphasis on sustainability and on transformation are both valid but also that they are indeed in tension with each other. In over-simplified terms this is a tension between the Global North and the Global South, also on issues such as climate change. Should the focus be on mitigation or on adaptation?

Faith communities cannot address this in isolation from each other. What we need is ecumenical dialogue and fellowship. This is a core impulse behind the series on “An Earthed Faith”, namely to bring radically diverging perspectives from around the world in conversation with each other. On providence it is particularly important to draw in voices that are marginalised, notably Indigenous ecological wisdom. The test case for any talk about God’s providence may well be with reference to small island states that are threatened by sea level rise. How can God’s care be understood in a context where people’s very livelihoods are threatened?

6. If readers take away one key insight from A God Who Cares?, what would you hope it is?
The concluding essay of the book is titled “Wo Cares a Damn? On God’s Care, Caring for God, and Taking a Next Step”. I commend a “spirituality of the road” where one may follow the (W)ay, with other companions, by shifting one’s body weight from one leg to another in taking a next step, with confidence, ultimately trusting in a God who does care!

Prof. Conradie’s reflections remind us that the most pressing questions of our age, about care, responsibility and our place within creation, demand rigorous and courageous scholarship. A God Who Cares? is a fine example of the kind of constructive, boundary-pushing work that advances debate within ecotheology, systematic theology and Reformed theology alike.

The book is available now through AOSIS in our AVARSITY Books imprint as a free open-access PDF, as well as in Kindle and print editions for purchase. As with all our titles, it has undergone rigorous independent peer review and is listed in leading indexing and repository services, ensuring your research reaches scholars across the globe.

If you are a scholar or author with a project of your own to share, we invite you to publish with us. AOSIS offers extensive global open-access publishing for stand-alone monographs, edited collections (collected and collective), book series and reshaped MA and PhD dissertations as monographs.

Getting started is straightforward:

1. Visit our website at books.aosis.co.za to explore our full catalogue.
2. Download the electronic book proposal form.
3. Create your profile on our website to submit your proposal.

Embark on a rewarding publishing journey with us, and help us unlock knowledge to the world.

Quick links

• Submissions guidelines
• Submission procedure
• Publication fees
• Book proposal form