COURSE ON WATER CRISIS ELICITS CREATIVE RESPONSE

What do musical theater and theology have to do with water? They are "Christian Responses to the World Water Crisis," to use the title of a recent ABSW course.

Taught by Dr. Marian Ronan, associate professor of contemporary theology and religion, the course unpacked the components of the world water crisis — population growth, environmental degradation, and privatizat— in light of Christian scriptures and tradition.

One billion people lack access to safe drinking water. And unsafe water is a leading cause of disease. The World Health Organization estimates that of the 1.8 million deaths each year from cholera and other diarrheal diseases, 88 percent are due to unclean water and inadequate sanitation.

Ronan invited students to consider creative responses to the crisis, including Christian education. They designed and taught courses in their churches to raise awareness. And two students wrote a musical that was performed by the entire class.

The responses to their Christian education classes, including the resistance they encountered, "helped students to get better purchase on what's involved in helping congregations to understand and respond to the crisis," Ronan says. "Students were also amazed by the musical."

In a recent paper on the water crisis, Ronan outlines the factors that have contributed to this crisis, including population growth, increase in water consumption, agricultural and industrial use, pollution, deforestation, destruction of wetlands, and global warming. Growing privatization of the earth's water supply has made safe drinking water a commodity that is increasingly out of reach for the world's poor, Ronan explains.

The commitment to justice for the poor that is explicit in Hebrew and Christian scriptures provides a foundation to address the water crisis, Ronan writes.

"I often begin my classes with the passage in Matthew 25 in which the gathered multitudes say to the Human One, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you thirsty and gave you something to drink?' And Jesus replies, 'Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me' (Matt 25: 37, 40)."

Visit Faculty Books, Articles, and Papers to read Ronan's paper.