Toward A Theocentric Ecological Ethic of Inclusive Well-being

Abstract

Grappling with the ecological crisis as a crisis of culture and also an opportunity for emancipation, this paper attempts to suggest a theocentric ecological ethic of inclusive well-being as one of Christian environmental ethics in consideration of a methodology of hermeneutical reconstruction with reflective equilibrium. Firstly, it reviews paradigm change in environmental ethics and then confirms the contextual and provisional nature of ethical practice and theories. Secondly, this paper explores a hermeneutical reconstruction of five major moral grounds or theories for ecological ethics with reflective equilibrium and then affirms that no single ground or theory should be foundational. Rather the foundation lies in critical correlation between ethical practice and theories. Thirdly, it suggests a theocentric ecological ethic of inclusive well-being, which is its moral criterion by which moral judgments and theological sin are measured. In recognition of its inevitable moral ambiguity in the competing realities of life, its moral principle of inclusive well-being provides us with practical awareness that we might be drawing a narrower line of well-being than is necessary in specific contexts. Then, it challenges us to draw a more inclusive range of well-being for the sake of the good of creation and God more so than conventional anthropocentric or biocentric environmental ethics.