Calvin B. DeWitt
Nelson Institute
Laudato Si’
---Care for Our Common Home
 Published worldwide in a single day.
 Addressed to “every person on earth.”
 An impressively comprehensive treatise
on understanding and caring for
the Earth System
as Our Common Home
St. Francis:
Patron Saint
of Ecology
 “Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the
vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and
authentically.” (¶ 10)
 He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the
poor and outcast. (¶ 10)
Laudato Si:
On care for our common home
 An Encyclical Letter that ddresses:

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

climate change
biodiversity loss
ocean degradation
atmospheric pollution &
social degradation
 Its 246 paragraphs reintegrate fragmented disciplines
and specialties to propose
an
Integral Ecology
Integral Ecology
 Human Ecology & Natural Ecology come fully together
in “Integral Ecology, says Pope Francis.


“Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable
and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically.” (¶ 10)
He was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and
outcast. (¶ 10)
 There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature
without a renewal of humanity itself. (¶118)
 There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology.
(¶118)
Fragmentation of Knowledge:
 “fragmentation of knowledge and the isolation
of bits of information can actually become a
form of ignorance, unless they are integrated
into a broader vision of reality” (¶ 138).
 Each specialty promotes its “isolation and the
absolutization of its own field of knowledge”
 —all of which “prevents us from confronting
environmental problems effectively” (¶ 201).
My
University of Wisconsin
Assignment:
To Address the Problem of the
Fragmentation
of the
Disciplines
 The Wisconsin Idea views the boundaries of the University
of Wisconsin-Madison as the boundaries of the state, and
by extension, the boundaries of the biosphere and beyond.
 In this view the university consists of the people, the land,
and the systems that sustain planetary life
 —and thus the university is an institution in which
theoretical knowledge intersects with actual practice by
people and institutions in the state and around the world.
 Implementing the Wisconsin Idea means informing praxis with
knowledge and informing knowledge with praxis.…
.....Discovery
Posted by the Ecological Society of America
from its Past-President, President, and President Elect --
Jill Baron, David Inouye, and Monical Turner
ESA Past-President, President, and President Elect:
Jill Baron, David Inouye, and Monica Turner
“The Ecological Society of America commends
Pope Francis for his insightful encyclical on the
environment. Addressed to everyone on this
planet, the letter issued on 18 June 2015 is an
eloquent plea for responsible Earth stewardship.
“We hope his leadership will lead to serious
dialogue among – and action by –the world’s
religious, political and scientific leaders on the
environmental challenges facing this and future
generations of humanity.” -•
June 29, 2015
… with website links to Laudato Si’:
 Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America
 Friends Committee on
National Legislation
 Lutheran World
Federation
 National Council of
Churches
 Sisters of Mercy
 Maryknoll
 Columban
 Interfaith Power & Light
 NETWORK
 Church World Service
 Presbyterian Church USA
 CRC - Christian Reformed
Church in North America
Timmermans says the Christian Reformed Church
affirms that the gospel must
always be both proclaimed in word
and demonstrated in deed,
and that
a central component of this task
includes taking seriously God’s command
in Genesis 2:15
to serve and to protect
the rest of the created order and to
exercise responsible stewardship
The Biblical Stewardship Commission
“relación de reciprocidad”
 Fosters a “culture of care” (¶ 231)
 that implies a reciprocal relationship (“relación de
reciprocidad”)
 “a relationship of mutual responsibility between human
beings and nature” (¶67).
 Reciprocal service (avad)
“Con-Service”
The Stewardship Commission
 Genesis 2:15 gives the Stewardship Commission
to avad the Garden and to shamar it.
avad shamar
avad… (Joshua 24:15)
(Numbers 6:24): The Lord bless you and shamar you…
Choose ye this day whom you shall
0
The Stewardship Commission
Genesis 2:15

…to avad and shamar from garden to globe:
 “This implies a “relación de reciprocidad”
(mutual responsibility)between human beings &
nature.” (¶67)
 “Each community can take from the bounty of
the earth whatever it needs for subsistence,
 but it also has the duty to protect the earth & to
ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.”
(¶67)
--Laudato Si’ – Pope Francis
Mastery vs.
Responsible Stewardship
 Laudato Si’ confronts “an excessive anthropocentrism”
handed us as
 “ a Promethean vision of mastery over the world
 which gave the impression that the protection of nature was
something that only the faint-hearted cared about” (¶ 116).
 Laudato Si’ confirms the biblical commission of
Genesis 2:15 --- understood “in the sense of
responsible stewardship”(¶ 116)
The Con-Service Principle
(“mutual responsibility between human beings & nature”)
Con-Service
We must return
creation’s service to us
with service of our own.
‘avad
Genesis 2:15
—as a “culture of care” (¶ 14)
 Such caring relationship
 opens us to awe & wonder,
 speaks of fraternity & beauty, &
 unites us intimately with all that exists (¶ 11).
 It sees earth’s climate system as
 “a common good,
 belonging to all &
 meant for all
 ... a complex system linked to many of the essential
conditions for human life” (¶ 23).
Earth Stewardship as a Culture of Care
from the 246 paragraphs of Laudato Si’
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
the vulnerable (¶ 10)
all that exists (¶ 11)
creation (¶ 14, ¶ 211)
safeguarding species (¶ 42)
nature ¶ 64, ¶ 228)
the environment (¶ 64, 229)
neighbor (¶ 70)
our own lives (¶ 70)
a fragile world (¶ 78)
the world (¶ 144, 246))
indigenous communities and
traditions (¶ 146)
the land (¶ 146)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
the interior of homes of the poor
(¶ 148)
our body (¶ 155)
the ecosystem of the entire earth
(¶ 167)
our brothers and sisters (¶ 208)
the natural environment (¶ 208)
other living beings (¶ 211)
all creatures (¶ 213)
ecology (¶ 225)
the common good (¶ 225)
the quality of life for the poor
(¶ 232)
Parallel Actions on Integral Ecology
 Encyclical of Pope Francis
 Ecological Society of America’s
Earth Stewardship” Initiative (Chapin et al. 2015)
 Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency ---
“RCP2.6” scenario -meets 2 ̊C cap (van Vuuren et al. 2011)
 Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change-IIGCC
representing US$24 trillion assets—support of 2 ̊C cap
 Papal Discussions and Talks in the U.S. (Sept 23-25, 2015)
 White House, President Obama
 Joint Session of Congress
 United Nations
Toward a Global Culture of Care
Global society is now in transition toward a global
“culture of care.” This transition in many ways has
been a stormy one, and is described well by
Sir John Houghton’s The Eye of the Storm (2015).
Society is coming to understand earth’s climate
system and has begun working seriously toward
restoration of earth’s long-standing atmospheric
carbonic temperature regulation.
This transition has made Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’
required reading as the only comprehensive
treatise on understanding and caring for the earth
system as our common home.
And its title invites every person on earth to “gratefully
admire the beneficent arrangement which permits the
Earth to be clothed with verdure and abundant life.”
Earth Stewardship:
Science for Action
to Sustain the Human-Earth System
F. Stuart Chapin, III, Mary E. Power, Steward T. A. Pickett, Amy Freitag, Julie A.
Reynolds, Robert B. Jackson, David M. Lodge, Clifford Duke, Scott L. Collins,
Alison G. Power, and Ann Bartuska –--Ecosphere 2011
 As Earth Stewardship advances,
 it should broaden the scope of ecology
& integrate it with other sources
of knowledge & understanding

to stimulate new interactions & collaborations
that add to basic research
& better guide the actions needed
to shape a sustainable future.
Required Reading
 Restoration of earth’s long-standing atmospheric
carbonic temperature regulation.
 This transition in knowledge and action made Pope
Francis’ Laudato Si’ required reading as the only
comprehensive treatise on understanding and caring
for the earth system as our common home. And its
title invites every person on earth to “gratefully admire
the beneficent arrangement which permits the Earth
to be clothed with verdure and abundant life.”
“…when media and the digital world
become omnipresent, their influence
can stop people from
learning how to live wisely,
to think deeply &
to love generously.
In this context,
the great sages of the past
run the risk of going unheard…
---Pope Francis (¶ 47)
“…the first rule of the criticism of
books: you have to read them before
you criticize them.”
---Wendell Berry
Pope Francis’ visit to the United States
September 23-25 (W-F), 2015
• White House Meeting
with President
• Speech to Joint
• Address to
Obama, 9/23
Session of Congress, 9/24
U.N. General Assembly,
9/25
Take Home Talking-Points
• Integral Ecology
• Culture of Care
• Relación de reciprocidad
(Con-Service)
Decarbonization & Culture of Care
 With these and other significant actions,
world ecology and economy are moving toward global
“decarbonization” and “culture of care.”
 Society is coming to understand
earth’s climate system and its inseparable integration
within the earth system.
 Society is coming to work seriously toward restoration
of earth’s long-standing
atmospheric
carbonic temperature regulation
Explanation of Scenario RCP2.6
 Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency ---
The RCP2.6” scenario -meets the 2 ̊C cap (van Vuuren
and 18 other researchers 2011)
 This scenario reduced global
IR-active gas emissions by
70% from 2010 to 2100 and
by more than 95% in 2100-a “technically feasible goal.”
 The Carbonic Thermostat:
The Long-Standing
Stewardship Tradition

Emerged in Antiquity
 Ancients
recognized the ordered cosmos and
responded by working to sustain habitability

Developed in Classical Thought

e. g. Roman period: Varro, Columella &Pliny
 Expressed by Early Church Fathers
The Long-Standing
Stewardship Tradition

Flickered & extinguished in the
industrial revolution…
 Re-emerging in recent decades
in faith, civic, & scientific communities
 Re-kindled on June 18, 2015
Laudato Si’ from Pope Francis

“Integral Ecology”
Requires that we now hear
“both the cry of the earth &
& the cry of the poor.”
---Laudato Si’ - Pope Francis