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Catholic
Scholarship on Faith and the Environment
Scholarship plays a critical role in developing
a distinctively Catholic approach to environmental
concerns. Careful thinking is needed to discern
a faithful path through the current welter of
conflicting secular and religious ideas about
God, humanity, nature, and society.
Catholic scholars have risen to the challenge. They are exploring:
- A God-centered understanding of creation,
and of human beings' special place in the web
of life and their relationship to their fellow
creatures.
- Applications of Catholic social teaching
to environmental issues — particularly
concepts of natural law, the common good, concern
for the poor, and respect for life.
- How Catholic liturgy and spirituality
can express God’s presence in the natural
world and nurture care for creation and the
pursuit of social justice.
- The insights of eminent Catholic theologians
into the nature of the physical world, and ways
to reformulate them in the light of current
science and identify their moral implications
for today.
Such thinking is not merely an intellectual exercise.
As tested ideas are integrated into teaching,
proclamation, and programs, the work of scholars
contributes a solid foundation for responsible
church involvement in the environmental arena.
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The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops Environmental
Justice Program has sponsored a series of conferences beginning in 1994. These events have engaged a
wider circle of Catholic scholars and universities
in research, writing, teaching, and discussions
of faith and ecology and have broadened awareness
of Catholic environmental thought both within
and beyond the Church. The most recent of these
conferences, “The Person, the Poor, and
the Common Good: A Catholic Dialogue on the Environment,” was held in October 2004 at the University of
St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Environmental concerns have also been entering
the mainstream of Catholic scholarship through:
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