This Earthly Life Matters: The Promise of Arnold A. Van Ruler for Ecotheology

Arnold A. van Ruler was one of the most original Dutch Reformed theologians of the twentieth century. Through the term “re-creation” (Dutch: herschepping) he offers a radical affirmation of God’s sustained loyalty to that which is material, bodily, and earthly. God’s work of salvation and of consummation is necessary but then for the sake of creation. The path that he followed was diametrically opposed to that of Karl Barth and is also distinct from that of Jürgen Moltmann (who was influenced by Van Ruler). As an early exponent of Christian ecotheology, Van Ruler’s oeuvre provides exceptionally rich resources for contemporary debates.

This volume offers an English translation of selected essays by Van Ruler on the themes of God, creation, providence, humanity, sin, this earthly life, and animal protection. It includes some famous essays, for example, on God and chaos, the “sunny side of sin,” joy as the fundamental Christian attitude to life, and this earthly life. The selection is based on volume 3 of the Dutch scholarly edition of Van Ruler’s Collected Works (published in 11 volumes). Few of Van Ruler’s texts are available in English, so this volume provides a welcome addition.

Arnold A. van Ruler (1908-1970) was a major Dutch Reformed systematic theologian, based at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands.


Ernst M. Conradie is a senior professor in the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He works in the intersection between Christian ecotheology, systematic theology and ecumenical theology and comes from the Reformed tradition. He is the author of The Earth in God's Economy: Creation, Salvation and Consummation in Ecological Perspective (2015), Redeeming Sin? Social Diagnostics amid Ecological Destruction (2017), and Secular Discourse on Sin in the Anthropocene: What's Wrong with the World? (2020). He was the international convener of the Christian Faith and the Earth project (2007-2014), the leading editor (with Sigurd Bergmann, Celia Deane-Drummond, and Denis Edwards) of Christian Faith and the Earth: Current Paths and Emerging Horizons in Ecotheology (2014), and coeditor with Hilda Koster of The T&T Clark Handbook on Christian Theology and Climate Change (2019). He is responsible for registering the project "An Earthed Faith: Telling the Story amid the 'Anthropocene'" at UWC.