African Ecological Ethics And Spirituality For Cosmic Flourishing

This is the definitive African text on ecological ethics, African environmental spirituality, a theology of creation, and climate justice. The contributors to this important volume explore the common threats facing this earth our common home and the particular threats facing Africa because of our sick environment, unsustainable development practices, and the false narratives and programs of modernity in the African Motherland. Here, African environmentalists, theologians, and peace advocates in conversation with Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’, develop a roadmap for pastoral, local, and global education on ecological consciousness in order to bring about ecological conversion. African ecological wisdom is also offered as indispensable resources for recovering the intimate connection of all creatures and all peoples and as a praxis of solidarity for the poor, and our fragile earth.

This is the definitive African text on ecological ethics, African environmental spirituality, a theology of creation, and climate justice. The contributors to this important volume explore the common threats facing this earth our common home and the particular threats facing Africa because of our sick environment, unsustainable development practices, and the false narratives and programs of modernity in the African Motherland. Here, African environmentalists, theologians, and peace advocates in conversation with Pope Francis's Laudato Si', develop a roadmap for pastoral, local, and global education on ecological consciousness in order to bring about ecological conversion. African ecological wisdom is also offered as indispensable resources for recovering the intimate connection of all creatures and all peoples and as a praxis of solidarity for the poor, and our fragile earth.

This book is a critical comparative study of African (Shona) and Christian attitudes to nature. The purpose of initiating this discussion is to review the existing attitudes to nature in these two religions. This has important implications in an attempt to formulate a pubic environmental ethic in which traditional Shona and Christian adherents participate. This is crucial in the light of the ongoing inequity and ecological imbalance in Zimbabwe.

In the face of the emerging consequences of anthropogenic activities in relation to the environment, Africa is today united by the consciousness that individual destinies are caught up with the health of natural systems at the national, regional and continental levels. This Book of Readings on African Ecological Spirituality: Perspectives in Anthroposophy and Environmentalism focuses on scholarly and indigenous perspectives regarding the evolution of eco-spirituality in Africa. It provides answers to fundamental questions that have been looming at the horizon of thought for years on the contribution of African spirituality to ecological discourse.

As ecological degradation continues to threaten permanent and dramatic changes for life on our planet, the question of how we can protect our imperiled Earth has become more pressing than ever before. In this book, Daniel Scheid draws on Catholic social thought to construct what he calls the "cosmic common good," a new norm for interreligious ecological ethics. This ethical vision sees humans as an intimate part of the greater whole of the cosmos, emphasizes the simultaneous instrumental and intrinsic value of nature, and affirms the integral connection between religious practice and the pursuit of the common good. When ecologically reoriented, Catholic social thought can point the way toward several principles of the cosmic common good, such as the virtue of Earth solidarity and the promotion of Earth rights. These are rooted in the classical doctrines of creation in Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and in Thomas Berry's interpretation of the evolutionary cosmic story. The cosmic common good can also be found in Hindu, Buddhist, and American Indian religious traditions. By placing a Catholic cosmic common good in dialogue with Hindu dharmic ecology, Buddhist interdependence, and American Indian balance with all our relations, Scheid constructs a theologically authentic moral framework that re-envisions humanity's role in the universe.

This book explores how the mounting ecological crisis has religious, political, and economic roots that enable and promote social and environmental harm. It presents the thesis that religious traditions, including their ethical expressions, can effectively address the crisis, ameliorate its effects, and advocate social and environmental betterment, now and in the future. The ecological overtones of African traditional religions and Christianity are examined along with a discussion on African morality. Recognition is given to the conflict between ecological values and religious teachings in an examination contrasting the awareness of socio-economic problems caused by overpopulation.

In recent decades there has been a seismic shift in world Christianity. Whereas formerly Christianity existed as a Caucasian Euro-American phenomenon, the majority of Christians today reside in the Southern Hemisphere, or the Global South. And what is true for the demographics of Christianity has followed lockstep for its theological developments. The era of German theologians setting the tone for global church are gone. Today, some of the loudest and most creative voices in theology speak from the emerging contingencies of the Global South, for example, promoting Latinx, Black, Caribbean, and Asian theologies and their influence often influences the conversation in the United States and Europe. In addition, just as the center of Christianity has moved geographically from north to south, so with theological seminaries in the west, which have declined as training centers for clergy. These events coincide with new theological centers are opening in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America. The bottom line is—contemporary Christianity today looks significantly different than it did a century ago, and publications have been slow to acknowledge, let alone describe and elaborate upon, this major shift to the largest religion in the world. These shifts guide our intentions in this book. Such a reference book, which could also be used as a textbook, therefore is very much needed. In fact, there is nothing like the contents of this single-volume book in the publishing market which allows for high-quality, interdisciplinary, and international dialogue.

This volume is the first truly global commentary on a papal encyclical. Pope Francis published Fratelli Tutti in October 2020 in the midst of interrelated global crises: climate catastrophe, ongoing racial injustice, a widening gap between the rich and the desperately poor, battles over human migration, the rise of authoritarian politics, and the erosion of democracy, all exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The encyclical provided a sobering assessment of the devastation but also a hopeful vision of solidarity and healing. The responses in this book not only reflect on Fratelli Tutti from a great diversity of locations and perspectives but also attempt to model Francis’s call to fraternity and sorority within this volume. In these pages, scholars from around the world create a conversation meant to embody one of the virtues that Francis elicits in the encyclical: creative openness to the reciprocal gifts of others. This book takes up Pope Francis’s invitation to continue talking, thinking, and acting, always in a climate of both confidence and audacity, to promote social friendship among the people of the world.