Theology and Ecology in Dialogue

The Wisdom of Laudato Si'

Dermot A. Lane

• Publisher: Messenger Publications
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9781788121934
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ecology

This book opens with an examination of the meaning of the innocent sounding category of “Integral Ecology” in contemporary thought and its significance for theology today. According to well known Irish theologian Dermot Lane, Integral Ecology changes everything. In this book he focuses on the neglected implications of Integral Ecology for systematic theology. Ecology challenges theology to reimagine who we are, who the Spirit of God is, who Christ is, where creation is going, and what is the role of liturgy in society-- all in the glare of the ecological crisis. This book also mines the theology within and behind the ground-breaking encyclicalLaudato Si’ On Care for our Common Home. Until fairly recently, climate change was left to the scientists, politicians, and activists. More is needed. Now is the time to hear voice of religion in that debate in the public forum with a view to initiating new, transformative practices in society, in politics, and in religions. This new book will be of interest to activists, politicians, priests, christian educators, and theologians. The book is born out of the conviction that climate change is not just one more problem to be addressed by politicians; rather it isthechallenge facing humanity in the 21stcentury and as such isthechallenge underlying all other challenges at this moment in history.

CHAPTER 1

Theology and Ecology

THE PURPOSE of this opening chapter is to map out the context for what is to follow. The subject of ‘ecology and theology’ is vast and therefore requires not only context but some parameters. To that end a brief and selective overview of Laudato Si’ (LS) will set the stage. The chapters that follow are selective in the areas they cover and do not claim or pretend in any way to be a comprehensive overview of ecology and theology, or of Laudato Si’.

Introduction to Laudato Si’

This chapter will focus on the adoption of an integral ecology and what this means for the important dialogue that can and should take place between ecology and theology. In opening up this dialogue between ecology and theology, the question arises: is theology up to this new challenge? Can theology see the ecological crisis as not only a challenge but also an opportunity for the renewal of theology in itself, and an opportunity for theology to participate in public debate about the environment? Within a few years of the publication of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis challenged theology to renew itself in the service of the Gospel and the care of creation.

2015 is an important date for anyone interested in the environmental crisis and the ever-increasing loss of biodiversity. On 24 May 2015, Pope Francis wrote an encyclical entitled: Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home. It was addressed to ‘every person living on the planet’ and expressed a deep desire ‘to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home’.1 The encyclical was received positively by scientists and politicians, and hailed by believers and non-believers alike as a significant document. An Islamic Declaration on Climate, released in August 2015 in Istanbul, spoke positively of Laudato Si’. In the summer of 2015 a statement by US Jewish rabbis warmly welcomed the encyclical.

In December 2015 a United Nations conference on climate, COP21, was held in Paris. It hailed the encyclical as an important contribution to a worldwide problem. In fact, Pope Francis had published his encyclical deliberately in anticipation of the upcoming conference. The conference, with the participation of 198 delegates, acknowledged openly the value of Laudato Si’. According to respected journalist Austin Ivereigh, many international figures associated with the climate debate, such as Al Gore, Lord Nicholas Stern (the World Bank economist) and Jeffrey Sachs spoke openly of the influence of Laudato Si’ on the proceedings of the Paris Agreement. According to one commentator, ‘the common wisdom is that, without Laudato Si’, it is far from sure that the Paris Agreement would have been signed’.2

Laudato Si’ has been praised globally and enthusiastically received and described in the following way:

• A prophetic challenge for the twenty-first century3

• A game-changer4

• The most important encyclical in the life of the Catholic Church5

• A wake-up call for the world and the Church6

• A moral milestone7

• A pastoral landmark

• A revolutionary document8

My own view is that Laudato Si’ is a theological treasure chest waiting to be explored.

It is important to note that Laudato Si’ has a background in the teaching of Francis’s predecessors. John Paul II issued a document for the World Day of Peace in 1990, entitled ‘Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all creation’. Benedict XVI wrote a similar document, entitled ‘If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation’ (2010). In addition, Benedict addressed the question of ecology and theology in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (7 July 2009), in which he spoke about the ‘grammar’ of the natural world. Francis builds on the work of his predecessors and goes well beyond it by connecting ecology with theology, politics, the modern sciences, liturgy and morality.

Laudato Si’ is made up of six chapters. The opening chapter offers an analysis of ‘What is Happening to Our Common Home?’ This is followed by ‘The Gospel of Creation’. Chapter 3 examines ‘The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis’, which offers, among other things, a nuanced critique of the technocratic paradigm without ignoring what can be of value in modern technology. Chapter 4 addresses the meaning of integral ecology. The next chapter maps out ‘Lines of Approach and Action’. The final chapter highlights the importance of ‘Ecological Education and Spirituality’.

A number of radical calls are scattered throughout the encyclical. These include:

• The call for a ‘bold cultural revolution’ (LS, 114)

• An ‘intense dialogue’ between religion and science (LS, 62)

• The adoption of an ‘integral ecology’ (LS, Chapter 4)

• An ecological education and spirituality (LS, Chapter 6)

• A radical ecological conversion (LS, 5, 216, 217, 219)

• A call to hear the cry of the poor and the earth (LS, 49)

The encyclical also raises huge deeply connected moral questions, such as the need to critique market-driven capitalism; the importance of recognising that climate change affects the poor most; an emphasis on solidarity between the developing world and the so-called developed world, between the generations and between humans and the natural world; the centrality of justice: social justice, climate justice and intergenerational justice.

These ethical questions have rightly been to the fore in most debates about the environment, and should continue to be central. However, the time has now come to take an explicitly theological approach to the challenges and opportunities that the climate emergency raises. It would be contrary to the spirit, philosophy and theology of Laudato Si’ to separate theology and ethics. Instead, a theological approach should be seen as complementary to ethics. Further, by focusing on ecology and theology, it is hoped to show that ecology is not an add-on to theology; instead, ecology should permeate the whole of theology, moral, systematic and liturgical.

Integral Ecology

A little historical background will help us to grasp the far-reaching significance of the turn to integral ecology in Laudato Si’. In 1866 Ernest Haeckel, a German biologist, coined the term oecologie from the Greek oikos, meaning household/dwelling place. One of the earliest definitions of ecology goes back to Haeckel, who described it as ‘the study of relationships between organisms and their environment, both organic and inorganic’. Along with others, Haeckel drew attention to the importance of Charles Darwin and the need to take account of the complex relations that act as the conditions of the struggle for existence. Darwin is described by most environmental historians as a key figure in the history of ecology over the last couple of centuries.

Another important figure in the history of ecological thinking is Eugene Odum who, in 1970, described ecology as an ‘integrated discipline’ committed to holism and opposed to materialistic reductions of reality. As an integrated discipline, ecology seeks to bring together the natural and the social sciences, the integration of economic and environmental values, and the interface of science and society. For some reason, Odum’s integrated ecology neglected the humanities, philosophy and religious studies.

In 1977 Arne Næss came up with the concept of ‘deep ecology’, which claimed that non-human organisms and their environments have intrinsic value and are not just of value as objects for humans to use. The idea of ‘deep ecology’ has become important in contemporary spirituality and in Christology.9 The term ‘integral ecology’ surfaced first in a marine ecology textbook by Hilary Moore in 1958. Moore saw ecology as a discipline that crosses the boundaries of divergent fields of study. In effect, integral ecology is about the realisation that environmental issues cannot be dissociated from social, political, economic and cultural issues.

In the mid-1990s, the language of integral ecology appeared in the theologies of Thomas Berry, who emphasised cosmology, in Leonardo Boff, who wrote about the cry of the earth and of the poor, and in Ken Wilbur, who had a keen awareness of the unity of all life in the universe. In 2000 Wilbur came up with a well-known quadrant describing the different levels of relationship within ecology: subjective (‘I’); inter-subjective (‘We’); objective (‘It’); and inter-objective (‘Its’).

Within these voices and many others, integral ecology seeks to overcome modern dualisms of:

• Sacred and secular

• Objective and subjective

• Spirit and matter

• Anthropocentrism and biocentrism

• Political and mystical

• Spiritual and material

• Nature and culture

Among inter-faith voices, there emerged a focus on human dignity, solidarity, the common good and the mystical.

One commentator on integral ecology, Guattari, sums up the challenge facing integral ecology in the following way:

How do we change mentalities, how do we re-invent social practices that would give back to humanity – if it ever had it – a sense of responsibility for its own survival, but equally for the future of all life on the planet, for animals and vegetable species, likewise for incorporeal species such as music, arts, cinema, relations with time, love and compassion for others, the feeling of fusion at the heart of the cosmos.10

Sean Kelly, philosopher at the Californian Institute of Integral Studies, examines the diversity of ecological visions and, in the light of that diversity, outlines what he calls ‘Five Principles of Integral Ecology’. For Kelly, ecology is integral:

• If it is situated in an evolutionary context

• If it is planetary in scope

• If it reaches beyond disciplinary boundaries

• If it affirms a sacred or enchanted universe and

• If it is committed to practical engagements11

Kelly goes beyond what he calls ‘the spiritually deadening, mechanistic and materialistic views of reality that much of contemporary culture takes for granted’. The time has come to let go ‘of the perspective of mainstream science’ which sees the cosmos as ‘composed of essentially lifeless particles, which, without inherent meaning or purpose, have more or less accidentally given rise to life and self-conscious beings such as ourselves’.12

A good example of these perspectives on integral ecology can be found in the Earth Charter (2000), an international declaration drawn up after six years of worldwide consultation. The document recognises that ecology, economics, and social, cultural, ethical and spiritual issues are all closely connected. Chapter 2 deals explicitly with ‘ecological integrity’, which commits the international community to the protection and restoration of the earth’s ecological system, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.

It is against the background of this selective history of ecology, the entry of ecology into public discourse, and the Earth Charter that we can now situate the ground-breaking encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. Integral ecology is a red thread running through Laudato Si’ and, in addition, it also has a chapter to itself, entitled ‘Integral Ecology’ (Chapter 4:137–142).

Integral ecology is mentioned explicitly at least ten times in the encyclical. St Francis of Assisi is held up as an ‘example par excellence … of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically’ and, as such, ‘is patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology’. He also ‘shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace’ (LS, 10). Further, St Francis helps us to see that integral ecology ‘calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and takes us to the heart of what it is to be human’ (LS, 11). Laudato Si’ acknowledges that some will deny ‘the rich contribution which religions can make towards an integral ecology’ (LS, 62), and this helps us to understand why the encyclical is a blend of human principles and Christian perspectives. In addition, ‘integral ecology needs to take account of the value of labour’, as noted by John Paul II in Laborem Exercens (LS, 124).

The encyclical opens Chapter 4, ‘Integral Ecology’, by noting that ‘since everything is conne...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword: Seán McDonagh
• Chapter 1: Theology and Ecology
• Chapter 2: Theological Anthropology and Integral Ecology
• Chapter 3: Integral Ecology and Deep Pneumatology
• Chapter 4: Deep Ecology and Deep Christology
• Chapter 5: Eschatology and Ecology
• Chapter 6: Ecology and Liturgy
• Chapter 7: Laudato Si’ and the Cosmic Eucharist
• Endnotes
• Bibliography