Our Faith in Creation, God’s Faith in Humanity: Edward Schillebeeckx and Pope Francis on Human Transcendence and an Anthropocentric Cosmos

Abstract

Edward Schillebeeckx’s theology of creation can serve as a foundation for authentic Christian self-understanding in relation to the ecological crisis. Schillebeeckx provides a Thomistic view of humanity and creation as both autonomous and “given” from God. Schillebeeckx’s anthropocentric “creation faith” and nuanced view of secularization provide a way of preserving the uniqueness of humanity without devaluing nature. Structural parallels with Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ are developed in order to provide a fundamental-theological foundation for determining the proper role of human beings in relation to creation.