Integral Ecology for a More Sustainable World: Dialogues with Laudato Si'

Description

Laudato Si’ insists on a revolutionary human response to the public challenges of our time concerning the ecological crisis. The volume takes up the revolutionary spirit of Pope Francis and speaks to the economic, technological, political, educational, and religious changes needed to overcome the fragile relationships between humans and Earth. This volume identifies various systemic factors that have produced the anthropogenic ecological crisis that threatens the planet and uses the ethical vision of Laudato Si’ to promote practical responses that foster fundamental changes in humanity’s relationships with Earth and each other. The essays address not only the immediate behavioral changes needed in individual human lives, but also the deeper, societal changes required if human communities are to live sustainable lives within Earth’s integral ecology. Thus, this volume intentionally focuses on a plurality of cultural contexts and proposes solutions to problems encountered in a variety of global contexts. Accordingly, the contributors to this volume are scholars from a breadth of interdisciplinary and cultural backgrounds, each exploring an ethical theme from the encyclical and proposing systemic changes to address deeply entrenched injustices. Collectively, their essays examine the social, political, economic, gender, scientific, technological, educational, and spiritual challenges of our time as these relate to the ecological crisis. Dedication Contents Preface: The Evolution of the Concept of Integral Ecology in Papal Teaching • Cardinal Peter Kodwo Turkson Introduction • Dennis O’Hara, Matthew Eaton, and Michael Ross PART I: LAUDATO SI’ IN CONTEXT 1 Laudato Si’: Social Analysis and Political Engagement in the Tradition of Catholic Social Thought • Christopher P. Vogt 2 A Compassionate Science: Pope Francis, Climate Change, and the Fate of Creation • Stephen Bede Scharper PART II: THE THROWAWAY CULTURE: CONSUMPTION AND ECONOMICS 3 Growth is an Idol in a Throwaway Culture: Ecotheology against Neutrality • Timothy Harvie 4 Pope Francis Contra Twenty-First-Century Capitalism: The Power of Joined-Up Social Ethics • Gerard Mannion 5 Wealthy Hyperagency in the Throwaway Culture: Inequality and Environmental Death • Kate Ward 6 The Peril and the Promise of Agriculture: An Agroecological Reading of Laudato Si’ • Matthew Philipp Whelan PART III: THE GOSPEL OF CREATION: THEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY 7 The “Brown Thread” in Laudato Si’: Grounding Ecological Conversion and Theological Ethics Praxis • Dawn M. Nothwehr 8 Ecological Conversion in the Light of Ecofeminist Concerns: A Post-Lonergan Dialogue • Susan Rakoczy 9 Reframing Ecotheological Anthropology within a More Integral Ecology • Dennis Patrick O’Hara 10 Locating Laudato Si’ along a Catholic Trajectory of Concern for Nonhuman Animals • Charles Camosy PART IV: THE TECHNOCRATIC PARADIGM: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 11 From Galileo to Laudato Si’ • Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ 12 Cosmology, Theology, and Laudato Si’ • John F. Haught 13 The Technocratic Paradigm: Diagnosis and Therapy • Neil Ormerod 14 Personhood, Bodies, and History in Google’s Manifestation of the Technocratic Paradigm • Brianne Jacobs PART V: SOCIAL ECOLOGIES: POLITICS AND ACTIVISM 15 Ecological Citizenship and the New Habitus • Anne Marie Dalton 16 Preservationism, Environmental Justice, Smart Growth: Care for Our Common Home • Laura Stivers 17 Resisting Nuclear Energy in South Africa: Drawing Inspiration from Laudato Si’ • Andrew Warmback 18 An Integral Issue: Population and Birth Control in Laudato Si’ and Roman Catholic Teaching • Michael Taylor Ross PART VI: NEW LIFESTYLES: EDUCATION AND SPIRITUALITY 19 Placing Integral Ecology at the Heart of Education: Transformative Learning, Laudato Si’, and Cooperation • Christopher Hrynkow 20 Laudato Si’: The Ecological Imperative of the Liturgy • Peter McGrail 21 Understanding Catholic Engagement on Global Warming • Nicholas Smith Conclusion: Ecocide as Deicide: Eschatological Lamentation and the Possibility of Hope • Matthew Eaton Index About the Editors About the Contributors