On April 22, the St. Basil Institute for the Theology of Creation will be hosting an online conference on ecology and the theology of creation. Pope Francis has spoken about the importance of the current ecological crisis throughout his pontificate. While the Holy Father discussed the need for a uniquely Catholic approach to this crisis in Laudato Si, unfortunately most Catholics who engage with these issues continue to do so from a secular perspective. Why is a uniquely Catholic approach so important?
On one side, we have the “conservative” approach to the current ecological crisis—which is essentially to deny that there is an ecological crisis. Such a view is untenable. Even if we set aside the dispute over climate change, it is evident that humans are destroying numerous ecosystems in numerous other ways, such as filling the land and oceans with garbage. No longer can we deny that such a crisis exists. If we truly desire to be conservatives, in the good sense of that word, should we not want to conserve the beauty of God’s creation? Of course, much of modern “conservatism” has no interest in actually conserving anything. Such “conservatism” once again shows itself to be nothing but a right-wing variant of liberalism, not a truly Catholic politics.
On the other side, we have the leftist approach to the ecological crisis. Many Catholic activists have taken up the Holy Father’s call to care for the creation by uncritically linking arms with the Left. However, a brief examination of the Left’s attitude shows that its solution is worse than the problem. Many leftist organizations promote contraception and abortion as a way to limit human population, as they argue that, since humans have caused the climate crisis, the only solution is to reduce the number of humans. Furthermore, many Leftists have supported uncritically the destruction of industries they deem harmful to the environment, without any consideration for the workers who will lose their jobs and the families that will suffer as a result. This anti-human approach to the ecological crisis is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching.
The real problem with both of these approaches is that they share a common false presupposition: that human flourishing is contrary to the good of creation. This is because they both adopt the Enlightenment principle that human nature is not part of the rest of nature. Humans become above nature, and so the flourishing of the natural world and the flourishing of mankind are set at odds with one another. There is no longer a common good in which humans and the rest of creation participate through an ordered hierarchy, but rather a set of private goods for which humans and other creatures must compete.
However, we see in Genesis that man is among the things created by God. He is a part of nature. The flourishing of human nature is not at all opposed to the flourishing of the rest of nature. In fact, the two are bound up together. Man is created last and is designated as the king and priest of creation—as is alluded to in Genesis 1 and 2, when man is called to “have dominion” over the creation (the language used of kings elsewhere in scripture) and to “work and till” the garden (abad and shamar in Hebrew, the language used of priests elsewhere in scripture). The creation account also shows that the whole creation was made in a proper harmony. We see this in natural philosophy, where all things naturally tend towards the end that God intended for them. As Aristotle demonstrates in Metaphysics Λ, all these natural teleologies string together into a great harmony that all points to God.
If we do not have a proper understanding of the harmony of creation and man’s place in it, we will not understand the climate crisis. As Pope Francis highlights in Laudato Si (65-75), man’s sin destroys the proper harmony of creation. We see this in the story of Cain and Abel, where Abel’s blood goes down into the ground and the ground ceases to yield seed for Cain. When the head falls, so does the body. When man falls, so does the creation. While the creation is harmed at the fall, it is not destroyed. Nature still remains. However, the story of Cain shows that further sin can further mar nature.
The current system of liberalism is inherently unjust. It replaces the rule of Christ with the rule of the passions. Furthermore, liberalism itself has become the cause of numerous evils, such as the sexualization of children, the exploitation of workers, and the mass murder of unborn babies. We should not be surprised that, in a time as evil as ours, the creation itself would be harmed.
Some on the American Right claim to defend nature when it comes to human sexuality, but they ignore it when it comes to creation. Even in the realm of sexuality, we should not be surprised that the American Right as a whole is drifting farther and farther from the natural law, given that their politics is rooted in classical liberalism, not in the world as God created it. The American Left, on the other hand, claims to love the natural world, but then hates human nature. Both sides reject some aspect of natural law, and thereby reject nature itself. If we wish to solve the ecological crisis, we must have a consistent respect for nature and a love for the One who created and sustains it.
So, what are the practical steps forward? I myself don’t have those answers. But I hope that you can join Pater Edmund Waldstein, myself, and many others next month in considering solutions. For more information about the St. Basil Institute for the Theology of Creation conference, and to register, check out our website: https://stbasilinstitute.org/conference. Use the code JOSIAS for 10% off. Early bird registration closes at the end of March, so register soon, and I look forward to seeing you there.