Abstract
This anthology was written contemporaneous with Laudato si’ and makes for interesting supplementary reading to the papal encyclical. The resources employed are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, but this collection is not bereft of references to other traditions or disciplines. Although, this anthology would have benefited from a stronger dialectic edge, these are excellent and innovative essays.
Robert Wilken draws on the Cappadocian Fathers to ‘unmask the caricature’ (p. 25) created by Lynn White’s famous article in Science (1967). Dean Thompson writes poetically about the wildness and the importance of location for faith and hope. Steven Long envisions nature as the “imprint” of divine wisdom so that natural law is a rational, passive participation in the eternal law. Marie George represents many of these authors by arguing that human sovereignty is as important as solidarity with non-human creation. Most intriguingly, Matthew Levering takes up the urgent but difficult topic of human (over)population in, ‘“Be Fruitful and Multiply, and Fill the Earth”: Was and Is This a Good Idea?’. Dawn Nothwehr uses Bonaventura’s call for humanity to imitate Christ as the cure to anthropogenic global warming calling.
John Cuddeback challenges the accumulation of comfort and wealth as the principle of household economy. Faith Pawl argues that humans have a responsibility towards the social flourishing of animals such as the savannah baboon. Paul M. Blowers examines the importance of eschatological hope in a universe where death and waste appear necessary and Christopher A. Franks simply calls on Christians to trust God regarding our material and ecological situation.
Jonathan Sanford argues for a non-competitive relationship between urbanization and nature. Paige Hochschild engages Augustine and George Grant to argue for a robust concept of ‘Nature’ to facilitate environmental justice. This call for justice is continued through an insightful retrieval of the concept of gluttony by Chris Killheffer. Vincent Meconi, in the boldest chapter, argues that God stands in an I–Thou relationship with nonhuman creation and so humanity should address nature, as Francis of Assisi did, in the second-person. Sr. Esther Nickel closes the volume by mapping the interwoven relationship between the environment and liturgy.
The conclusions reached in these diverse chapters remain fairly conservative, grounded in traditional Catholic teaching, but the way these authors draw upon philosophical and spiritual resources to address contemporary ecological responsibility is creative and highly informative. This text is clearly academic but could be enjoyed by a wide range of potential readers.