Original Sin and Fossil Fuel Industry Spin

Abstract

My aim in this paper is to suggest the theological concepts of sin and evil as the most appropriate forms of language available to the church, and the most powerful, in addressing human-induced climate change. As we witness the planet being convulsed by the reckless use of fossil fuel, and its increasingly irreversible damage to the Earth System, the church is called to name the responsibility and sinful culpability of those who wilfully imperil life to satisfy their greed. I will deploy the Serpent in Genesis 3 to provide a biblical motif to connect the theological language of sin and evil with the “merchants of doubt” serving the fossil fuel industry. They are deeply implicated in the harm being wrought upon creation by human-induced climate change. Only in correctly naming the sinfulness of these powers theologically is the church fulfilling its prophetic calling.