ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the theological interrogation of the concept of sustainability, a concept that is itself of pressing contemporary concern, and which may be taken as a test case for the mutual interrogation of particular philosophical, political and theological discourses. As such, the idea of 'sustainability' is open to theological analysis and critique; but it also arises from within a sphere of contemporary thought that has been dismissive of, or explicitly opposed to, theology in general and Christian theology in particular. In broad terms, sustainability predicated of a system, a process or an activity refers to the inherent possibility of its long-term continuance, and to its place within larger systems the continuance of which it also makes possible. The chapter also discusses by referring to a central problematic in sustainability discourse — the mutual substitutability, or otherwise, of various aspects of a 'sustainable' system.
