Thomas Berry and the Reshaping of Catholic Environmentalism
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
Mark Graham
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This article criticizes the so-called "stewardship paradigm," which forms the theological basis for Catholic environmentalism, and argues that Thomas Berry's cosmology provides a more theologically palatable platform for developing Catholic environmentalism. The substantive ethical shift emerging from Berry's cosmology is the displacement of human well-being as the proximate norm for human behavior in favor of promoting biodiversity on planet Earth. In other words, biodiversity is the primary ethical good, and human well-being is secondary. This article criticizes the so-called "stewardship paradigm," which forms the theological basis for Catholic environmentalism, and argues that Thomas Berry's cosmology provides a more theologically palatable platform for developing Catholic environmentalism. The substantive ethical shift emerging from Berry's cosmology is the displacement of human well-being as the proximate norm for human behavior in favor of promoting biodiversity on planet Earth. In other words, biodiversity is the primary ethical good, and human well-being is secondary.
SET
Date of Publication
2020
Physical description
156-183
Title
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology