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Reading Scriptures in an Era of Ecological Crisis: The Day of Yahweh in Zephaniah

  • Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies
  • Abbr : KJOTS
  • 2022, 28(3), pp.372-401
  • DOI : 10.24333/jkots.2022.28.3.372
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Old Testament Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : July 15, 2022
  • Accepted : August 11, 2022

Hyo Myong Lim 1

1캠프 케이시 카투사 교회

Accredited

ABSTRACT

It has been pointed out that the anthropocentric worldview of Christianity is culpable for the ecological crisis. Diverse biblical and theological responses have been made to address ecological issues, one of which is the development of ecological hermeneutics. In this article, after giving an overview of the emergence of ecological readings of the Bible, I apply the hermeneutics, which is formulated by the Earth Bible Project, to the book of Zephaniah. I approach the text with suspicion (of anthropocentric bias), identification (with Earth) and an effort to retrieve the voice of Earth from the text. I measure the text against the ecojustice principles proposed by the Earth Bible Project. My reading of the Day of Yahweh as doomsday, which is the main message of the prophetic book, reveals its anthropocentric bias. Earth and Earth community become innocent victims of human-caused calamity. Apostasy and injustices on the part of the human bring divine wrath upon the whole creation, resulting in a reversal of creation. Prophetic justice does not include Earth and Earth community in the underprivileged (orphans, widows and sojourners) who are traditionally patronized by God. This picture of total destruction runs the risk of devaluing this world’s intrinsic worth. Moreover, the prophet’s descriptions and imagery of desolation of the neighboring countries after divine judgment epitomize anthropocentric pragmatism. Such an imagery may promote and legitimize the abuse of Earth and the destruction of the life-web of Earth community. I suggest that readers’ awareness of anthropocentrism embedded in biblical texts and their interpretations contributes to a better appreciation of Earth and a reformulation of more just relationship with Earth.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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