1. Click to edit Master subtitle style ETHICS, the EARTH CHARTER and ECO- SPIRITUALITY Wild Law Conference Sept 27,2013 Noel Preston

2. Click to edit Master subtitle style AN ECO-CENTRIC ETHIC focussed on: “comprehensive right relating” (beyond anthropocentrism)

3. Click to edit Master subtitle style Aiming for: ECO-JUSTICE (as defined in the Earth Charter)

4. Click to edit Master subtitle style What is THE EARTH CHARTER?

5. Click to edit Master subtitle style Questions provoked: Can the prevailing economic paradigm deliver on this ethical vision? How is culture transformed? (think globally act locally) Is enlightened self-interest the way to go? And…

6. Click to edit Master subtitle style THIS PRESENTATION’S QUERY What sustains us individually and collectively in the struggle for change in quest of global eco-justice?

7. Click to edit Master subtitle style …the question is not simply how do we learn to put our ethics into practice, but rather, how do we journey through life with a maturing moral will and vision, despite the ambiguities and limitations of the human condition? (Preston, UE, 223)

8. Click to edit Master subtitle style Spirituality..the human quest to live with a meaning and purpose linked to a sense of transcendence….a consciousness that we are part of a reality beyond ourselves….questions of values, identity, community. We cultivate our spirituality in our “inner life”….concerned with fostering compassion and awareness of our connectedness to all life….more in harmony with the meditative and mystical approach associated with eastern religions….than the intellectual and hierarchical approach of western faiths hierarchical….eco-centric….ethical takes precedence over the doctrinal

9. LOVE is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character, which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one object of love…If I truly love all persons, I love the world, I love life. (E. Fromm, the Art of Loving)

10. Click to edit Master subtitle style Einstein: the most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger is as good as dead. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of all true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of devoutly religious men (sic.)

11. Click to edit Master subtitle style F.CAPRA: Ultimately, deep ecological awareness is spiritual or religious awareness. When the concept of the human spirit is understood as the mode of consciousness in which the individual feels a sense of belonging, of connectedness, to the cosmos as a whole, it becomes clear that ecological awareness is spiritual in its deepest sense.

12. Click to edit Master subtitle style ECO-SPIRITUALITY arises from connection to all beings and Earth…fosters an intimacy with the ever present Spirit of life…. Centred on compassion…draws from wellsprings both contemplative and prophetic….challenges illusions….necessary companion to the costly work of eco-justice…calls us to live graciously, act justly, love all beings tenderly and walk humbly with the Spirit of life

13. Click to edit Master subtitle style What then of a 21st century spirituality for humanity? The narrative pathway

14. Click to edit Master subtitle style Lloyd Geering (The World to Come) Religion’s future…will rest on a shared view of the universe, a common story of human origins, a shared set of values and goals, and a basic set of behavioural patterns to be practised in common.

15. Click to edit Master subtitle style “If I seek to cultivate an ethical life, a good life which is loving and life sustaining, committed to the common good, a compassionate life. I need to nurture inner resources and I need the support of a community. But I sense there is more: namely, the need to celebrate the wondrous mystery we are part of. ( All of this, for me, is consistent with the Jesus story as I have come to understand it.)”

16. Click to edit Master subtitle style