Education to the “integral ecology”. Focus on the social teaching of Pope Francis and his encyclical „Laudato si’”

Integral Ecology As Theosemiotic: A Case For A Pragmatist Theological Ethics

The Future of Work after Laudato si’ Martin Maier SJ The encyclical Laudato Si’ of Pope Francis is a document that is both dramatic and hopeful. Dramatic because it leaves the reader in no doubt that the prevailing global system, with its reckless exploitation of natural resources and dangerous climate change, is heading for catastrophe. Hopeful because the pope does not consider this dynamic to be inevitable, but instead indicates ways to alter our course and opportunities for transformation. Politicians, scientists, academics, business executives and representatives of a large number of social movements have responded to his invitation to join a dialogue on the shaping of the future of our planet. The issue of ecology is an issue of justice. We have to hear both ‘the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’ (LS, 49). The Pope calls for a ‘bold cultural revolution’ (LS, 114). This is closely connected to his concept of an ‘integral ecology’ and an ‘ecological conversion’. He calls for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of the planet and for another way of looking at things, ‘a way of thinking, policies, an educational programme, a lifestyle and a spirituality which together generate resistance to the assault of the technocratic paradigm’ (LS, 111). This also, of course, includes work. A major contribution of Catholic Social Teaching to the concept of work is an understanding of it as part of human dignity. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states: ‘The human person is the measure of the dignity of work’.1 In a Christian perspective work is much more than merely a source of income. It is an integral part of human identity and fulfilment. Martin Luther, the great church reformer, put it this way using a wonderful metaphor: ‘As the birds to flying, so is man born unto labour’.2 Laudato si’ underlines, similarly, that ‘we are created with a vocation to work’ (LS, 118). This helps us to care for creation, to define and integrate ourselves in society and to unleash the rich personal growth inherent in all of us. It clearly appears with Laudato si’ that the future of human work is linked with the question of the care of creation and the future of life and the human community on the planet. We cannot separate the future of human work, the Studies • volume 108 • number 432 454 Martin Maier SJ future of ‘our common home’ and the future of the human community. Any innovation has to be evaluated with this trilogy in mind: the planet, social justice, the future of humanity. From a theological perspective, human work is seen as a participation in God’s creation. In Ignatian spirituality, which underlies Laudato si’, God is imagined as labouring in creation. He acts in the manner of a person at work. By working humans imitate the creating God and they cooperate in his continued creation (LS, 80). The Second Vatican Council states: ‘By offering his labour to God, a man becomes associated with the redemptive work itself of Jesus Christ’.3 The apex of biblical teaching on work is the commandment of the Sabbath rest. The memory and the experience of Sabbath constitutes a barrier against becoming slaves to work, whether voluntarily or by force, and against any kind of exploitation, hidden or evident. Consequently Laudato si’ emphasises: ‘We are called to include in our work a dimension of receptivity and gratuity, which is quite different from mere inactivity. Rather, it is another way of working, which forms part of our very essence. It protects human action from becoming empty activism; it also prevents that unfettered greed and sense of isolation which make us seek personal gain to the detriment of all else’ (LS, 237). Sunday is linked with the fundamental right to enjoy a time to rest. An inherent dimension of human work is social justice. Through just wages and social security systems, work promotes social justice. A fundamental orientation in shaping work is the preferential option for the poor: ‘Helping the poor financially must always be a provisional solution in the face of pressing needs. The broader objective should always be to allow...

Pope Francis, in the encyclical Laudato Si’, speaks of an “integral ecology” that combines environmental, economic, social, cultural and spiritual ecologies in caring for our common home. Pope Francis also sees the important role of environmental education in increasing awareness and creating a “culture of care” for our common home and promoting quality of life or well-being. While promoting environmental education, many researchers argue in favor of the effectiveness of the indigenous ecological knowledge and practices to protect and maintain natural environments. Indigenous ecological knowledge systems are based on a process of an intimate relational perspective and a sort of symbiotic relationships between people and the ecological system. These assumptions of indigenous relational perspective and symbiotic relationships demand a holistic or global consciousness, which involves that people recognize the importance of other people and of other species to the global community’s integrated and comprehensive well-being. Based on the premise that indigenous knowledge and ecological systems should be recognized as a foreground in ecology; as an antidote to globalization in sustaining the environment, and as an invaluable tool in providing better quality of life, this paper proposes an integral ecological education model of an “indigenous relational perspective of ecological education and comprehensive well-being.” In this integral ecological education model, specific emphasis is placed on interconnectedness between indigenous aspects of environmental knowledge, kincentric ecology, ecological conversion and harmony, and ecological spirituality in creating a ‘culture of care’ for our common home and in promoting our common good, quality of life, and well-being. In the light of Laudato Si’ and the proposed model, some concrete examples implemented at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan are elucidated.

The recent Encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, On Care for our Common Home, is a remarkable document, both original and continuous within the tradition of Catholic social doctrine. Emerging from and grounded in a very specific religious tradition and constrained by the peculiar encyclical literary form, the document nonetheless seeks to open a dialogue with “every person living on this planet,” about care for our common home. Using the urgency of addressing global climate change as its point of departure, the Encyclical does a superb job summarizing the scope of the present environmental crisis and the disproportionate harms suffered by vulnerable populations of the poor and excluded. It also provides a careful analysis of the root causes of environmental degradation, mapping out the complex linkages and tensions between globalization, economic growth, liberalized trade, unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, environmental degradation, involuntary migration, immiseration and growing inequality. In this respect, the Encyclical, may well come to serve as a useful position paper for the upcoming Paris climate change negotiations or as a background text for a course on climate change or sustainable development. Yet, properly understood, this is not its true purpose. Rather, in its deepest sense, the Encyclical is an appeal to all of humanity to listen to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” to reject the “throwaway” culture of consumerism, and to embrace a culture of care and a commitment to pursue integral ecology. It is, in other words, a call to ecological conversion: a call addressed not only to individuals but also to individuals-in-community.

of trust between the negotiators, but also the development of a common ability to comprehend their respective mind sets. The two are not the same, as several contributors testify in the context of the lead-up to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The four panel overviews are the most frustrating elements in the book. This is not because they lack depth or insight, but rather because they whet the appetite for yet more contributions to the archive, not least from those who participated in the discussions that followed the oral presentations. One such audience member was Wally Kirwan, who is commended by Margaret Thatcher’s biographer for having read her state of mind well in recommending to Garret Fitzgerald that the Irish government should seek to engage her attention on the Northern Ireland problem with a security-led approach. Fortunately, he has given an interview to Graham Spencer in a two volume set entitled Inside Accounts and published earlier this year. Margaret O’Callaghan gets it right: these public officials and other actors in the drama should be encouraged to keep writing and talking. The last words should, however, be from Barbara Jones’s overview. She quotes one of John Hume’s memorable speeches to emphasise his creative presence, which ripples throughout. That itself is a well-judged epilogue, though she makes a more general point which deserves its moment, namely, the value of the ‘continuity of public service expertise’ in Dublin over the decades of the process. Sustaining that capacity has not always been a sufficient priority on the British side of the equation. Sir Jonathan Phillips worked in the UK Government’s Northern Ireland Office from 2002–2010, first as Political Director and then Permanent Secretary. He is now Warden of Keble College, Oxford. Dermot A Lane, Theology and Ecology in Dialogue: The Wisdom of Laudato Si’ (Dublin: Messenger Publications, 2020), 176 pages. In Theology and Ecology in Dialogue: The Wisdom of Laudato Si’, Dermot A Lane responds to the invitation offered by the encyclical of Pope Francis to investigate the intrinsic relationship between these two long-distanced disciplines. The publication of a monograph by Dermot Lane is always a significant event. Already he has written works on God, Christology, Winter 2020-2021: Book Reviews Studies • volume 109 • number 436 469 eschatology, inter-religious dialogue and religious education. This latest book gathers many insights of this theologian-pastor to address a new and pressing concern, as converging forces threaten the very existence of our common home. In chapter 1, Lane considers Laudato Si’ ‘a theological chest waiting to be explored’ (p.12). The key to unlocking the treasure is the concept of ‘integral ecology’, mentioned explicitly at least ten times in the encyclical. Lane (p.16) quotes Pope Francis’s description of St Francis of Assisi as an ‘example par excellence … of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically’, that ‘shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace (LS, 10)’. Integral ecology is the space where theology and ecology come into dialogue. Here, ‘ecology must interrogate the way theology is done. Equally, theology must engage critically and constructively with ecology’ (p.20). Ecology challenges the ‘domination’ understanding of Genesis 1; theology challenges the anthropomorphic stance of science. In Laudato Sì, Pope Francis calls for an ‘appropriate hermeneutic’that reads the creation narrative in context and that unmasks any interpretation that grants humans dominion over the earth (LS, 67). The corollaries of this vision permeate Lane’s book. Integral ecology, Lane justly claims, allows us to overcome many of the dualisms of modernity: sacred and secular; objective and subjective; spirit and matter; anthropocentrism and biocentrism; political and mystical; spiritual and material; nature and culture (p.15). It commits us to realizing that climate change is connected to economics, healthcare, migration, food supplies and politics. Ecology, Lane insists, ‘is not an add-on to theology; instead ecology should permeate the whole of theology, moral, systematic and liturgical’ (p.14). In chapter 2, Lane argues that anthropocentrism is ‘a major cause of the ecological crisis’ (p.32). It de-sacralises nature and so alienates the human from...

Pope Francis' Global Spirituality:Mercy as Foundation for an Integral Theology Jean-Pierre Fortin (bio) "There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself."1 "Without mercy, without God's forgiveness, the world would not exist; it could not exist."2 Pope Francis In a recent article, Paul Younger provides the following synopsis of Pope Francis' latest encyclical letter: Chapter one reviews the multifaceted challenges of anthropogenic environmental degradation … The second chapter proposes a theological framework for analyzing the issues, drawing predominantly on biblical, patristic, conciliar and papal sources … The third chapter examines the disordered tendencies in individuals and society that give rise to ecological degradation. Chapter four explores many facets of what an integral ecology might look like, with environmental, economic, social, and cultural dimensions … The final two chapters set out some parameters for action, both at the level of policy-making and at the level of individual lifestyles.3 While accurate, this summary may incite readers of Laudato Si' (On Care for Our Common Home) to think that spiritual theology and formation only pertain to the final practical section of the encyclical and, therefore, have no determining influence on the structure and contents of its previous parts. Such an assumption, however, is seriously challenged by the fact that Pope Francis opens Laudato Si' with an explicit reference to the life and teaching of Saint Francis of Assisi. The words of the bishop of Rome are quite revealing: "I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically … He was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature, and with himself … To him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection."4 In these few sentences, Pope Francis states what he conceives to be an ecological vision able [End Page 64] to foster a sustainable interaction of humankind with the whole of creation and enable humankind to offer a creative response to the current ecological crisis. Moreover, he retrieves this vision from the heart of Christian tradition, finding it fully embodied eight hundred years ago in the person and life of Saint Francis. The successful overcoming of the prevailing attitude, which incites human beings to act as "masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters" of nature can be overcome only in and by the renewal of a profound sense of awe and wonder before the amazing gift of creation. Pope Francis argues that the renewed awareness of our creatureliness will incite us to live and act as brothers and sisters of all creatures, that is, to display restraint and respect toward others, and this precisely because natural beings are endowed with the dignity of creature of God. I. integral ecology as ecological spirituality The following reflection will attempt to demonstrate that Pope Francis' theology of creation profoundly alters the traditional understanding and practice of ecological theology. What Pope Francis proposes is an integral theology embodied in and lived out as a global spirituality centered on the reality and effective power of divine mercy, poured out in the Eucharist. This brief exposition of the spiritual theology undergirding Laudato Si' will demand the retrieval of the "missionary option" operative in Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel) and of the understanding of Christian faith and discipleship articulated in Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). Pedro Walpole rightfully emphasized the central importance of spiritual formation in and for the Pope's proposed solution to the current ecological crisis. He thus argues that authentic engagement with the text of Laudato Si' should lead its readers to "grow spiritually so as to express [their] concern, act with environmental justice and seek reconciliation with the pain of the land."5 Genuine concern for the environment stems from the realization that nature, and the earth in particular, are creations of God in and to which we are profoundly integrated and related. Concern for the environment supposes a communion with nature whereby humankind acknowledges and reforms its disrespectful, destructive behavior towards its fellow creatures. The challenge set before the whole human community...

The Encyclical Letter Laudato si’ On Care for Our Common Home gathers to dialogue all people, organizations and institutions that share the same concern — the care for our common home. Since Pope Francis promulgated Laudato si’ in 2015, many people have become better informed about Catholic social teaching which advocates concern for God’s creation, the environment included. In Laudato si’ Pope Francis describes what is happening to our common home, then considers a theological and sociological approach to today’s crisis — the responsibility of humanity — and examines the concept of “integral ecology” as a new social sustainability values framework. In this paper integral ecology is conceptually inseparable from integral society. The great contribution by environmental sociology is emphasized since the subject of analysis thereof are the social causes and effects of environmental change. In the encyclical Laudato si’ Pope Francis promotes the principle of the “common good” on three levels — individual, social, and global — in which we find all elements of the Church’s social doctrine, such as solidarity and subsidiarity, the common good, justice, participation and “commitment” to the poor.

This essay argues that the “common home” metaphor, when applied to planet Earth, falls short in its ability to provide an accurate analogy with the complexity and diversity of the planet itself since it has a limited epistemological, heuristic, and hermeneutical horizon; it is an analogy that proves inadequate in expressing common human representations of home and the two principles that should inspire an Ecotheology: the ontological value of creatures (Gaudium et Spes) and the recognition of the intrinsic relationship between all beings (Laudato Si’). In order to methodologically support this enquiry, a reflexive analysis and a metadisciplinary discourse are used through Emmanuel Levinas, Hannah Arendt, and the concept of integral ecology, proposed in Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato Si’. On care for our common home, 21 May 2015. The performativity of the “common home” metaphor is evaluated to review its use in Ecotheology. The conclusion reached is that the category of “common life” might be more appropriate than “common home” to characterize how humans inhabit the world for an Ecotheology, and to represent planetary and cosmic communion and interdependence.

Religious Liberty: The Next Big Thing? Patrick Riordan SJ Pope Francis’s timely letter Laudato Si’, on care for our common home, coincided with a general awakening of awareness of the crisis posed by climate change and the degradation of the natural environment. The Amazon Synod of Bishops has reinforced concern for our common home in the same year that saw not only extensive fires in the rainforests of Brazil but Siberia also in flame. The teenage Greta Thunberg and the protest movement of Extinction Rebellion have claimed the headlines and brought the issue to wider public awareness. What is the next big issue for the pope and the church that may evoke another prophetic statement comparable to Laudato Si’? In the spirit in which Francis insists on integral ecology, including the flourishing of humankind, I suggest that the next big thing already looms over us. It is the widespread and growing violation of the right to religious liberty. Ancient Christian communities in Syria and Iraq, dating back to the time of Christ, have been destroyed or decimated in the violence of the recent years; Yazidis and other minorities have experienced extreme persecution by Islamic extremists. Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern Islamic states continue to deny religious liberty to their non-Muslim inhabitants, and to their own citizens they deny the freedom to leave their ancestral religion. Resurgent religious nationalism is found not only among Islamic states: Hindu revivalism in India is accompanied by the persecution of Muslims as well as Christians, and Buddhism in Myanmar asserts itself by expelling to Bangladesh the Rohingya minority. Sri Lanka has also seen a bloody conflict in which a Buddhist majority has succeeded in asserting a form of religious nationalism. The status of the Uighurs in China points to another context in which a dominant cultural population is unable to accept the presence of a large minority religious group. Freedom of religion, although prominent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the subsequent Conventions, is not functioning to protect the vulnerable members of persecuted religions. Apart from the actual violations of religious liberty across the world, there is also a threat to the very idea of religious liberty posed by developments Studies • volume 109 • number 433 31 Studies_layout_SPRING-2020.indd 31 Studies_layout_SPRING-2020.indd 31 27/02/2020 13:59 27/02/2020 13:59 in the philosophical language used to discuss rights and specifically human rights. The question is being raised, whether there is anything distinctive about religion that would warrant the inclusion of a right to religious liberty in the international lists of human rights and in national Bills of Rights. Since freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from arbitrary discrimination on grounds including religion, are normally protected, why should religious liberty be included? Does it not reduce to the other rights? In what follows I will first recall what is asserted about religious liberty; second I will review philosophical trends that tend to question the need for a distinctive right; and third, I will summarise the arguments that are required to explain and uphold the right to religious liberty. Religious liberty TheAmerican Constitution’s FirstAmendment combines in a single sentence the non-establishment clause and the free exercise clause: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances’. It is a simplification to describe the free exercise provision as protecting religion from politics although that is its main effect, denying the US Congress the power to make laws restricting the exercise of religion. Here the free exercise of religion is linked with other freedoms, viz., the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly and the right to petition the government. Is the freedom of religion an additional freedom to those listed as the freedoms of speech, of the press and of assembly? If the state is obliged to respect and protect those rights of free expression, of publication and of assembly...

Four Commentaries on the Pope’s Message on Climate Change and Income Inequality. IV. Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, Global Environmental Risks, and the Future of Humanity.

Pope Francis’s new concept of “integral ecology”(Francis P, Encyclical: Laudato Si′ On Care of Our Common Home. The Holy See, Rome (http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa.francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html), 2015, nos 10, 62 and 137–162) appears to transcend “human ecology (Wackernagel M, Rees W, Notre empreinte ecologique, [Our Ecological Footprint]. Les Editions Ecosocietes, Montreal, 1999, p. 25: “The ecosphere is the place where we live; humanity depends on nature and not the other way around. Sustainability requires that we shift our focus from managing resources to managing ourselves, that is, learning to live as a part of nature. Finally, the economy becomes human ecology.” [Translation by Andrene C. Everson.]),” which has become popular worldwide through its iconic ecological and water “footprints” (Hoekstra A, The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society. Routledge, London, 2013). In his call for change and solidarity, the Pope incorporates spirituality as an additional dimension. Practically speaking, his encyclical could have at least two virtues when understood as follows. First, it could raise awareness among political leaders, global citizens and worshippers about the dangerous depletion of invisible water. Second, his remarks about the water’s problem being an educational and cultural issue could more specifically address women’s status with respect to water management in the developing world. These are two crucial matters that I will highlight in this essay. However, speaking to these issues from the standpoint of a moral authority is not enough. There must be justice too, and even more: specific action is required, in accordance with thought no. 298 from Blaise Pascal ’s Pensees: “[…] make what is just strong, or what is strong just” (Pascal B, Pensees. Trans. W. F. Trotter. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1958, p. 85, no. 298). Could Singapore’s success story in water management and economics be, with its unique combination of justice with force, a model answer to Pope Francis’s appeal? That is the question.

The Agenda provided by the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) represent an opportunity to eradicate poverty, preserve the planet, promote peace, and develop a more prosperous society. This global horizon is reinforced by the religious proposal of the Encyclical “Laudato si”, in which Pope Francis reflects on the anthropological, social, and spiritual repercussions of the interaction of human beings with their environmental reality. With the term integral ecology, the Catholic leader proposes processes to put an end of poverty, exclusion, and environmental degradation. This research aims to explore the cornerstones and application of the SDGs and integral ecology in the framework of the Catholic university. The study brings Agenda 2030 into dialogue with the Christian ethical perspective of human development and integral ecology by showing their complementarity. It develops the inclusion of the SDGs and integral ecology objectives in the mission and strategic plan of the Catholic university. For this reason, an action plan is projected in which the values of sustainability are transversally structured in the diverse areas of the university, such as governance, teaching, research, transfer of knowledge and social impact, extracurricular activity, green procurement, infrastructure, energy, waste, water, and mobility.

The concept of the integral speaks to the holistic nature of the globe. It is predicated on the claim that everything/everyone is related, and the destruction of one is the destruction of the whole. As such, it places a moral burden on each part to work towards the preservation and dignity of the whole. This ethics of union is aptly captured in Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home), a papal encyclical of Pope Francis. African moral theory perfectly captures this ethic: I am because we are. What this communal ethic does is constantly maintain the view that humans are interconnected to one another. We interrogate how this communalistic approach of the African is implicated and vindicated in integral ecology and the special place Laudato Si’ holds in the world. The end is to justify both the African and ecclesiastical approaches as decolonial ecology and then see how the uniqueness of both approaches can birth a universal approach. However, to achieve our aim, we employ the method of conversation that comes from the African place. We choose conversation because we believe that Laudato Si’ promotes a ‘theology from the borders’. If our statement is true, then we will best be able to project our argument using a method that comes from the borders but is universally possible in its application.

Pope Francis raised the alarm about ecology in his encyclical letter Laudato si’. On care for our common home (24 May 2015). He gathers all the aspects of the ecological crisis, which leads to the concept of ‘integral ecology’, in which the different sides of ecology are bound with human life, and in particular with the plight of the poor. The chapter explores this document and discusses its implications for the rights of and representation of nature. After an analysis of the situation and an evaluation of the ecological needs, the Pope adds paths of action and ways of contemplation. He stresses the fact that everybody is able to do something and to discover the joy in a new relationship of contemplation with his brothers and sisters, with the cosmos and with God. The encyclical is completed by the analysis of the Final Document of the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, held in Rome in October 2019. The Document proposes a concrete application of the encyclical Laudato si’ in the world of today.

The concept of integral ecology is at the center of Pope Francis’s call for the renewal of our common home. However, throughout Laudato Si’, this concept remains somewhat under-defined. In this article, I clarify both the structural and qualitative dimensions of Francis’s concept by demonstrating the ways in which it aligns with Gustavo Gutiérrez’s classic concept of integral liberation. In so doing, I argue that through the concept of “integral ecology” Francis calls for the radical conversion of the political and cultural dimensions of the global system, a metanoia that he roots in a vision of God’s desire for humanity and the earth.