1. Theology and the Environment Four key themes David Cloutier, Mount St. Mary’s University

2. Why the environment?  “Everything is connected to everything else”  Lumen Gentium  Universal call to holiness

3. Universal call to holiness  “the faithful must…acknowledge the inner nature and the value of the whole of creation and its orientation to the praise of God.” (no. 36)  “worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God.” (no. 34)

4. Theme 1: Beautiful order  Creation as an ordered whole  Gift from God  All creatures have a vocation to God

5. Theme 2: The Challenge of possessions  “Superdevelopment”  Universal destination of goods

6. Theme 3: Technocratic paradigm  Men and women have constantly intervened in nature, but for a long time this meant being in tune with and respecting the possibilities offered by the things themselves. It was a matter of receiving what nature itself allowed, as if from its own hand.  Now, by contrast, we are the ones to lay our hands on things, attempting to extract everything possible from them while frequently ignoring or forgetting the reality in front of us.  Human beings and material objects no longer extend a friendly hand to one another; the relationship has become confrontational.

7. Theme 3: Technocratic paradigm  “Technology is not neutral”  Limits for human living set by technology, not human nature  Technological choices really “decisions about the kind of society we want to build”

8. Theme 4: Spiritual development/sin  Education (=overcome sins of ignorance)  Conversion (=overcome sins of malice)  Sobriety and humility/restraint (=overcome sins of passion)

9. Words make worlds  Different ways of speaking are integral to different ways of seeing

10. Questions for application  1. How do we see concern for the environment and concern for the poor as one and the same problem? And what apparent challenges do we face in making this connection?  2. How do businesses combat the overall perspective of a “throwaway culture” or a “culture of waste”? What social structures need to be challenged?  3. How do EoC businesses already pay attention to appropriate scale and appropriate speed in their work? How do these then support the key values of Laudato Si?