The Salvation to All Creation Motif in Rom. 8.18–25: Implications for Asase Yaa Care in Ghana

Abstract

This article explores the impetus towards creation care that can be found in Rom. 8.18–25, particularly in dialogue with the Ghanaian Akan concept of Asase Yaa (Mother Earth). New Testament scholars have variously interpreted Rom. 8.18–25 to emphasize the contrast between the two ages or aeons, the eschatological glory of believers, the cosmological theory of κτίσις, and the relationship between humans and inanimate creatures. This study draws on the analytical lens of socio-rhetorical criticism propounded by Vernon K. Robbins (1996) to re-interpret Rom. 8.18–25, with particular focus on the terms κτίσις (creation, creature) and ἐλπίς (hope). It attempts to construct the world in the text by examining what the implied author expects from the implied reader, and how the world in front of the text—in particular Ghanaian Christians—can interpret the text in light of Asase Yaa and the ecological threats that illegal mining poses to the creation. This exercise makes Rom. 8.18–25 a lived Pauline text that can readily resonate in the Ghanaian Christian context as a biblical passage advocating care for creation.