The Ecotheological Movement of the Muhammadiyah Enviromental Council in Responding to the Enviromental Governance Crisis

This article describes the ecotheological movement of the Muhammadiyah Environmental Council (Majelis Lingkungan Hidup abbreviated MLH in Bahasa Indonesia) in response to the environmental crisis. The birth of the ecotheological movement in Muslim communities such as Muhammadiyah is a new awareness in the Islamic world. This is because, so far, the issues of environmental crisis have only grown and developed in the secular countries. As a result, it raises the question of how the role of religion, more precisely the Muslim community, has tended to be passive in responding to environmental crises. Therefore, the spirit of Muhammadiyah theology of Al-Ma’un (a chapter in Holy Quran) in recent years has begun to find its relevance in identifying the environment as ecotheology. The research methods used in this study are descriptive and qualitative aiming to analyze the ecotheology movement in MLH. Liberation theology theory (Gustavo Guiterez) and ecotheology are used to analyze the environmental movement in this Muslim community. The findings of this study show that the ecotheology movement at MLH was a manifestation of the theology of Al-Ma’un. After more than a century after its establishment, Muhammadiyah’s response to the issue of environmental issues were considered limited. However, since the liberation theology of the 1980s has become a global narrative, the theology of Al-Ma’un has found its relevance and pioneered the religious community movement. The involvement of religious communities, including MLH, in the environmental issues is a new chapter in how religion is relevant in bringing theological messages to contemporary challenges. © 2022, Program Studi Ilmu Agama Islam Program Magister, Universitas Islam Indonesia. All rights reserved.