‘Signs of the Times’ – a Theological Basis of Ecotheology and the Christian Competence within the Frame of the Environmental Discourse

Abstract

The essay formulates four criteria for identifying the topos “signs of the times” and applies them for a specific Christian understanding of the ecological crisis. The aim of the argumentation is to decide why and in what way climate change, ecological degradation but also the new awareness of the value of nature is a theological issue. The second part of the essay deals with the question which competence the churches can contribute to the ecological discourse of a pluralistic, partly secular or atheistic society. I speak also about the encyclical Laudato si’.