Abstract
According to Fernand Dumont, a utopia is an ideology which is a synthetic and systemic narrative and which motivates people to change an existing situation and, therefore, is oriented towards the future. This narrative is not a scientific theory but is made of scientific “residuals”. Eco-theology is, but not only, of this nature. The scientific residuals originate in the contemporary cosmology. Some writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin are of this utopian nature as well. After forbidding Teilhard from teaching over most of his life, the Catholic Church since John Paul II has gone a long way towards the former’s rehabilitation. Teilhard is mentionned in a Laudato si’ footnote, full of caveats. The chapter reviews catholic ecological teaching since the Council Vatican II up to Laudato si’ in order to assess the latter’s originality. Most of the latter’s originality resides in tone rather than in substance. A summary of catholic eco-theology is provided. It turns out it is very eucumenical and strongly influenced by protestant eco-theology which predates the former and, through it, by the orthodox one. The word “Cosmic Christ” is never used in Laudato si’ probably because it has been annexed by the New Age literature. Christians own a good ecological utopia which is underused, at least, in the Catholic Church.
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Notes
- 1.
The distinction between eschatology and utopia is pertinent here. However, a discussion of this distinction would lead us too far afield. Suffice it to say that in Dumont’s definition of utopia, the word “imaginary” never appears. I am indebted to Ron Engel for pointing out this distinction to me and for other valuable comments. However, remaining errors are mine alone.
- 2.
His rehabilitation by the Vatican began in 1981 with a letter, on behalf of Pope John Paul II, from Cardinal Casaroli, Secretary of State of the Vatican, to the Rector of the Institut Catholique de Paris. http://www.sj2014.net/blog/12-may-1981-important-letter-rehabilitates-teilhard-de-chardin retrieved March 4 2017.
- 3.
Figures between brackets refer to the paragraph and sub-paragraphs in the original document.
- 4.
This theme is developed in Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of creation. Moltmann uses various concepts from systems theory that the pope adopts in his encyclical.
- 5.
The signs of the times are the phenomena which, by their expanse and frequency, characterize an epoch and the concerns of mankind about them (Crabbé 2016, fn. 28).
- 6.
While “Laudato si” was published in several countries with comments (e.g. Belgium, France, U.K.), this does not seem to be the case in Canada and the U.S. The last two respective websites are sending their readers to documents which predated the encyclical. When is the last time you heard a homily on creation?
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Crabbé, P. (2017). Laudato Sì and the Christian Ecological Utopia. In: Westra, L., Gray, J., Gottwald, FT. (eds) The Role of Integrity in the Governance of the Commons. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54392-5_16
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