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The paper examines the practical consequences of Christian faith in creation for environmental ethics and climate protection. Both are interpreted as a practical form of faith in creation, distinguishing between faith in creation and reflected theology of creation. Methodologically, the article proceeds by interpreting classical statements of the Bible and the Christian tradition in light of modern insights. The article pays special attention to the conversation between creation theology and modern evolutionary theory. In this context, the problem of theodicy is posed in a new way. The author criticizes tendencies to reduce the faith in creation to ethics. In the Christian tradition, he interprets faith in God as a form of courage based on presuppositions that are not absorbed in anthropology and ethics. Christian faith does not produce, but proclaims a meaning of life and of the world, which can come to both only from God and will endure even in view of the possible self-destruction of mankind. This conviction has ethical implications and consequences for a realistic commitment to environmental protection. On the one hand it is motivating, on the other hand it is critical of an apocalyptic view of the world and its consequences.

Over past decades a concept of ecological ethics has taken root, which is often equated with environmental ethics. Church and theology have also responded to the environmental crisis. In the last third of the past century an intense discourse about the concerns and extent of a so called creation ethics was conducted. In connection with the question of a creation ethics, and the global responsibility of humans for the biosphere of our planet, the topic of creation has also gained new attention in dogmatics. In this way, ecology has also become a topic of systematic theology. The article focuses on the debate in the German speaking context. Occasionally, a quasi-religious elevation of ecology to the status of a doctrine of salvation is observable. Because theology always also has a function of critique of religion, it must also critically engage the sometimes open and sometimes hidden religious contents and claims of eco-ethical concepts. For this purpose, the first step of the present contribution is to more precisely determine the concepts of creation and nature. Thereafter, the problem of anthropocentrism is analysed. In a further step, the concept of sustainability is analysed. In conclusion, the main features of a responsibility-ethics model of ecological ethics are outlined.