of creation is destined to be reconciled to the Creator: not only human beings but also the entire cosmic order. This is so that all things may be reconciled to God in Christ (Col. 1:15-20) and that ‘God may be all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28b): ‘For from him and through him and to him are all things’ (Rom. 11:36, italics added). The dynamic engine driving this eschatological reconciliation, however, is the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit of creation and redemption is also the coming Spirit, the one who enables the renewal and restoration of all things to the image of God in Christ. So if in Act 2 the redemptive work of the Spirit enables her inhabitation of human flesh – first the flesh of Jesus and then that of all flesh – then in Act 3, the eschatological work of the Spirit transforms and transfigures all creation as the dwelling place of the divine Spirit.
Poured Out on All Flesh – To the Ends of the Earth: Towards a Pneumato-Missiological Praxis I conclude by suggesting three lines of mission praxis. First, if the Spirit of God is also the Spirit of creation as well as the Spirit of mission, then Christian mission ought to be intentional about engaging with the environment. The Spirit is said to groan through human creatures for the redemption and renewal of all creation. If so, then while not all mission work will be environmentally or ecologically directed, such ought not to be wholly ignored. The Spirit poured out at Pentecost on all flesh (Acts 2:17) means that some Christ-followers340 (not only Pentecostals) will be called towards Creation care even to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), and those who are called ought to respond positively to such a vocational undertaking.341 Second, it is not only that Spirit-empowered Christian mission is environmentally sensitive and focused, but theological thinking about mission (missiology) ought also to be cognisant of the environmental or ecological horizon within which Christian mission unfolds. This means that every aspect of Christian mission is or ought to be carried out within such an environmental and ecological frame of reference. Missiologies of development, for instance, should be explicated in the light of such constraints, probing not only the challenges but also the opportunities to 340. See also Christopher Wright. 341. Such an environmental missiology is further developed in the final chapter of my book, The Cosmic Breath: Spirit and Nature in the Christianity-Buddhism-Science Trialogue (Philosophical Studies in Science & Religion 4: Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2012).
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