© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/15685357-02102004 Worldviews 21 (2017) 152–174 WORLDVIEWS brill.com/wo Constructing the Environment as a Faith Issue Environmentalists at Work in the Lutheran Church of Sweden Anders Per Lundberg Linnaeus University anders.lundberg@lnu.se Abstract This paper seeks to understand how the environment is constructed as a faith issue by environmental coordinators and activists in the Lutheran Church of Sweden. The main results are: 1. On the whole, respondents do not feel environmentalism emanates out of their religious engagement, but that it is something they brought with them. 2. Respondents emphasize instrumentality. A wealthy Church is considered to be an important resource for the sake of creating a sustainable society. Conversely, respon- dents emphasize environmentalism as a way of proving the relevance of the Church to an estranged society. 3.Theologically, respondents struggle to negotiate between main- taining a communitarian, anti-individualistic eco-theology, while staying within the boundaries of classic Christianity, not crossing over to pantheism. Eco-theology is felt to be stretching the boundaries, developing biblical motifs beyond what they are tradi- tionally thought to mean. The data is analyzed using Peter Beyer’s concepts of religious function and religious performance. Keywords Lutheran Church of Sweden – environmentalism – eco-theology – religious perfor- mance – religious function 1 Introduction According to Evan Berry (2014), Lynn White’s (1967) thesis of religious anthro- pocentrism has been “the grain of sand around which the field of religion and ecology has labored to form a pearl”. Although criticized from the start, White’s article has given rise to a large body of research of which some emanates from the social sciences.