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Pope Francis has made no secret of his conviction that human-induced climate change, along with other forms of environmental degradation, represents a grave threat to humanity’s future.
At times he even speaks in quasi-apocalyptic terms: “Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world!”
His forthcoming “ecological encyclical” – expected around the middle of this year – is shaping up as a decisive intervention.
We can surmise that he hopes it will help turn the world away from a path of self-destruction.
I want here to try to anticipate the message and the meaning of the encyclical by considering what appear to be the principal influences feeding into its preparation – namely, Francis’s own public statements, previous encyclicals on the environment, the science as expressed by the Pontifical Academy of Science, the example of Saint Francis of Assisi and the eco-theology of Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff.
The encyclical is anticipated with excitement by climate change campaigners and dread by some Catholic conservatives. But beyond the immediate political impact, a more enduring implication could lie in the theological shift it may represent.
In a valuable contribution, Irish theologian Donal Dorr has shown that Francis’s formal starting point will almost certainly be the encyclicals of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
After two decades of rising environmental concern around the world, John Paul’s 1991 encyclical, Centesimus annus, can be read as designed to keep the Church relevant to the times.
The core of the theological question is the relationship between humans and the natural world, and John Paul cleaved to theological tradition in representing nature as separate from man and to be used, albeit more prudently, as his instrument.
Thus: “It is through work that man, using his intelligence and exercising his freedom, succeeds in dominating the earth and making it a fitting home.” Continue reading
- Clive Hamilton in ABC Religion & Ethics
Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University, Canberra.
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