Our Mother Earth: A Christian Reading of the Challenge of the Environment

by Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Overview

Gathered from the writings and discourses of Pope Francis on the environment, Our Mother Earth sets forth a Christian vision of ecology. Responding to our global ecological crisis, Pope Francis says, will require a global approach in which "the whole human family in the search for a sustainable and integral development" unites to protect our common home. Pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and exploitation of resources will grow exponentially if we do not change our direction in the short term. We need an "environmental conversion," Pope Francis says. For this to be possible, we need a truly ecological education to create a renewed awareness and a renewed conscience. In an exclusive new essay that concludes Our Mother Earth, Pope Francis develops a "theology of ecology" in a profoundly spiritual discourse. This final chapter offers thoughts on how a Christian vision of care for the earth goes well beyond a secular vision of ecology. As Pope Francis writes, "This means that it is for humanity's capacity for communion to condition the state of creation. … It is therefore humanity's destiny to determine the destiny of the universe."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681926698
Publisher:	Our Sunday Visitor, Publishing Division
Publication date:	10/09/2020
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.30(d)

Table of Contents

Preface 7

An Integral Vision

A global collaboration 17

From Momentous Challenge to Global Opportunity

Pollution and climate change 23

Speeches, Audiences, and Homilies

Let us protect Christ in our lives 39

Creation is God's most beautiful gift 43

Caring for human life, caring for the planet 47

Spiritual motivations for caring for creation 53

Let us practice mercy toward our common home 57

Personal, social, and ecological conversion 67

The right to water 71

New lifestyles 75

Life-giving water 79

The earth must be treated with tenderness 85

Faith, inclusion, and sustainable development 89

Caring for our common home is an ecumenical challenge 97

A Great Hope 105

Notes 115