Ecotheology from the Sámi Church Council in the Church of Norway – an ecocritical analysis of statements
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Date
2025Metadata
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Original version
Bredal-Tomren, T. S. (2025). Ecotheology from the Sámi church council of the Church of Norway: An ecocritical analysis of statements. Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/0039338X.2024.2443491Abstract
Since as far back as the 1990s, different theologians have proclaimed that Sámi spirituality provides useful wisdom for churches seeking to develop ecotheological reflection. I explore to what degree statements from the Sámi church council (SCC) confirm this claim. I do so by analysing statements from the SCC on environmental questions, using methods from established ecological hermeneutics. I show that the minutes from the SCC contain an ecotheology that places more emphasis on social than on ecological sustainability and that the theology embedded in the statements reflects the dominant ecotheology of the Church of Norway (CoN). This finding stands in contrast to previous studies that conclude that Sámi ecotheology challenges the CoN and other Western churches to focus more on the connection between humans and non-human nature in future ecotheological statements. The gap between previous findings and those presented here invites discussion of whether this type of text and the Western analytical methods used here are suitable for studying Sámi ecospirituality. In the conclusion, I state that Western researchers and church leaders are faced with a challenge in terms of selecting relevant data and developing a methodology that bridges Sámi spirituality and Western contemporary ecotheology.