Gezelle, natuur en ‘duurzaamheid’

Sustainability, a term used by the poet Guido Gezelle as early as 1871, is now a key concept in the environmental debate, such as in the Brundtland Report (1987), which contained an influential definition of sustainable development: ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. This always concerns economic, social and ecological needs. This essay explores Gezelle’s interpretation of sustainability as a theological concept: God is sustainability, His creation is expressed in nature and in the cosmos; nature is the teacher of theology.