A
CALL TO ALL THE EARTH!
Leonard
Swidler[1]
Precis
Pope Francis in
his encyclical Laudato si on the
environment has issued a Charter Document
for all peoples of the world—including
not only Christians and those of all religions, but also humanists, agnostics,
and atheists—of wisdom, vision, challenge with a richness of scientific acumen
and human sagacity, pointing the way for us to follow in engaging in deep
interreligious, intercultural learning, dialogue, and action about our one home
of all: Mother Earth. We are all connected, and we all must care for all,
especially the poor and marginalized.
Pope Francis’
Circular Letter (in Greek, “Encyclical”) is meant to encircle the whole Earth
and every one on it. In a way, like his namesake Francis of Assisi, he also is
addressing not only us humans, but also all the animals, as well as Sister
Water and Brother Wind…. In the midst of its abundance of sage wisdom, deep
philosophical insight, and manifold knowledge about scientific matters, I find
two main themes running throughout the entirety of Laudato si: 1) The fundamental need for multiple and constant
Dialogue, and 2) that everybody and everything is connected.
From
the very beginning of his time as pope Francis said to the youth of Latin
America that if there is a problem: “Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue!” In the 40,000+
words of Laudato si Francis uses the
term “dialogue” twenty-five times. Already at the very beginning of this
document he says: “I would like to enter into Dialogue with all people about our
common home.” (Laudato si, par. 3)
This
is a very important sentence, for in it he not only signals that he is not
going to simply state information and give marching orders. He wants to engage
in a Dialogue, that is, in this text
he is going to listen to the laid out scientific facts as carefully and critically
as he can, and invite his readers to do so also with him—and then speak to the
facts, and with each other. Not only that. He wants to have this Dialogue not
just with all the 1.3 billion fellow Catholics in the world, but with “all the
people.” Yet more, he wants this Dialogue to be “about our common home.” In
other words, he wishes to launch a Dialogue that is both as broad and as deep
as possible! And yet Francis strives to go even further when writes: “I
urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue
about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which
includes everyone.”
What
is this Dialogue that Francis makes so much of here and elsewhere, and why
should it be considered so necessary? Simply put, Dialogue means that “I want
to talk with you who think differ-ently from me so I can learn.” Yes, it
sounds simple. However, as we know, if we reflect but a little, until very
recently, when we met someone who thought differently from us we either
dismissed them as mistaken, or if we deemed the matter sufficiently important,
we proceeded to persuade them—with varying degrees of insistence—that they were wrong and we were right. In those matters
deemed important, most often the “other side” was equally convinced that they
were right and we were wrong. The usual result of such ubiquitous encounters
was that neither side learned anything new, but were simply reinforced in their
prior convictions.
However,
Dialogue, especially in important matters, is increasingly being seen as a
necessity because of a radical shift taking place in our “understanding of our
understanding.” We are increase-ingly aware that “Nobody knows Everything
about Anything—therefore, Dialogue!” This is all the more
important as the matter concerned is more important—and what could be more
important than the very foundation on which we all live—the Earth and the
envelope of life around it? Hence, in this Dialogue Francis is acting not just
as Catholic with a capital “C”, but
also as catholic with a small “c” for
katholos in its Greek origin means
“universal.”
Francis
calls for a serious Dialogue in five major areas: 1. Dialogue on the
Environment in the International Community, 2. Dialogue for New National and
Local Policies, 3. Dialogue and Transpar-ency in Decision-Making, 4. Politics
and Economy in Dialogue for Human Fulfilment, 5. Religions in Dialogue with
Science. Each is worthy of extended analysis and discussion, and I second
Francis’ appeal to all specialists in each of these areas to continue, expand,
and deepen the Dialogue in their areas of special competence and
responsibility. Here, however, I will focus for just a few minutes on the more
interconnected, and therefore more in need of integration, aspects of Francis’
vision for Humankind and the Earth.
To
begin, in the interest of full disclosure, Francis acknowledges that his
standpoint is that of a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, concerning whom he
notes, “lived in full harmony with creation…. His appearance was not that of an
ascetic set apart from the world, nor of an enemy to the pleasant things of
life…. He was far removed from philosophies which despised the body, matter and
the things of the world.” In the same breath, however, he recognizes that “Such
unhealthy dualisms, nonetheless, left a mark on certain Christian thinkers in
the course of history and disfigured the Gospel.” (par. 98) We here at Nazareth
College are, in fact, also following Rabbi Yeshua ha Notzri, Jesus of Nazareth,
in enjoying this palate-pleasing lunch today.
Also
in the way of “disclosure,” it needs to be noticed that this document is full
of current scientific data presented in a manner that makes eminently good
scientific as well as general sense. This gives the lie to those ill-willed—non-science
trained—political commentators who dismissed the encyclical saying that the
pope may know something about religion, but nothing about science. Doubt-less
Francis, like any busy thinker, had researchers checking sources for him, but in
fact he has a degree in the physical sciences and worked for some years as a
science researcher before studying theology. He understands well whereof he
here writes.
In fact, Francis
devotes a whole chapter to “The Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis,” laying
out carefully and so refutably the scientific case thereof that even the
Climate Change Naysayers have been largely stilled. Nevertheless, at one point
he writes: “The Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to
replace politics. But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so
that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.”
(par. 188) Rather, “science and religion, with their distinctive approaches to
understanding reality, can enter into an intense dialogue fruitful for both.”
(par. 62)
Francis
calls upon us to engage in a Dialogue not only about Earth, water, air, but
also with all humanity. Let me cite a few statements of Laudato si in this vein and exegete them at least initially:
“There
needs to be a distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking,
policies, an educational programme, a lifestyle and a spirituality.” (par. 111)
Here Francis is calling for not just some policy changes in our use of energy,
water, soil. He is challenging us all to a whole new way of life, inwardly as
well as outwardly! He is asking us to view, think about, and then enact
procedures about reality profoundly differently—and then build on that inner-outer
revolution a whole new approach to education, a new lifestyle, and even a new
spirituality!
In more nugatory
form he repeats the essence of that challenge: “We cannot presume to heal our
relationship with nature and the environment without healing all fundamental
human relation-ships.” (par. 119) Again, what a revolutionary vision: We cannot
heal our relationship with Mother Earth without at the same time seeking
healing with our Sisters and Brothers!
Lest the point
of interconnectedness not yet be sufficiently clear and urgent, he writes: “It
cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected. Time and space
are not independent of one another, and not even atoms or subatomic particles
can be considered in isolation.” (par. 138) Shades of Einstein highlighting the
intertwined quality of time and space, even into the subatomic level of quantum
mechanics! Here is lifted up the “Cosmic Dance of Dialogue,”[2]
and we humans need to be the preeminent conscious Dancers!
Once again
Francis stresses the responsibility of All for All, and obviously from the
perspective of the Golden Rule—which all major religions and ethical
philosophies hold[3]—the
All especially includes those who cannot sufficiently care for themselves: “We
are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social,
but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.
Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the
same time protecting nature.” (par. 139)
Francis details
how environmental degradation impacts negatively the poor exponentially, so
that those of us who are sufficiently blessed have a super responsibility for
those who for whatever reasons of birth or circumstances cannot alone adequately
meet the challenges of life. Francis notes that “Today, however, we have to
realize that a true ecological
approach always becomes a social
approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment,
so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” (par. 49) He
names one statistic in this regard that should stun us all into reflection, and
then action: “We know that approximately a third of all food produced is dis-carded,
and whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of
the poor.” (par.50)
I ask myself,
for instance, what virtue of mine separates me from my cousins whose parents—my
father’s sisters and brothers—were not able to escape from the pogroms in Czarist
Russia in 1912, as he did (as a fifteen-year old boy all by himself!), and
hence all perished in the Stalinist murder of the millions of so-called Kulaks
in the nineteen thirties? Indeed, had they escaped that genocide, how would
they have escaped that of the Nazis as they occupied their land only a few years
later? No, none of us are here in privileged fashion in Das goldene Land, as my father named America, solely on our merit!
We are all on “One World” together, and we have therefore, as Francis stresses
time and again, a special responsibility for the marginalized, who are not as
showered with gifts as we.
As noted already,
it is not just fellow Catholics who Francis is calling to join the Dialogue and
Life Transformation, nor is it just fellow Christians, but believers of all
religions. Hence, Francis notes, because “the majority of people living on our
planet profess to be believers. This should spur religions to dialogue among
themselves for the sake of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building
net-works of respect and fraternity.” (par. 201)
However, Francis
not only includes adherents of all religions in his call to Dialogue and action,
but goes beyond fellow religious believers. He even uses that term some hyper-conservative
Christians spit out as a derogatory: “Humanism.” He writes, “We urgently need a
humanism capable of bringing together
the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the service of a
more integral and integrating vision.” (par. 141) He goes on to speak of the
purpose of religion, and its functional equivalent, as focused not on heaven,
paradise, nirvana or some alternative other-worldly goal of life, but as this
side of the grave, that is, “our own dignity…. the ultimate meaning of our
earthly sojourn.” He writes: “We need to see that what is at stake is our own dignity. Leaving an inhabitable planet to future generations is, first and foremost, up to us. The issue
is one which dramatically affects us, for it has to do with the ultimate meaning of our earthly sojourn.”
(par. 160)
Francis definitively leaves behind
the “fortress mentality” which despises secularists, agnostics, atheists, and
reaches out to them as allies in saving human dignity and the world: “We also
sense our closeness to all those men and women who, although not identifying
themselves as followers of any religious tradition, are nonetheless searching
for truth, goodness and beauty, the truth, goodness and beauty of God. They are
our valued allies in the commitment to defending human dignity, in building a
peaceful coexistence between peoples and in safeguarding and caring for
creation.”[4]
Thus,
we have laid out before us here gathered at Nazareth College and its Hickey
Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue a Charter Document of wisdom, vision, challenge, and a richness of scientific
acumen and human sagacity pointing the way for us to follow in engaging in deep
interreli-gious, intercultural learning, dialogue and action.
[1] Leonard
Swidler, Professor of Catholic Thought &, Interreligious Dialogue at Temple
University since 1966, is with his wife Arlene Anderson Swidler the
Founder/Editor of the Journal of
Ecumenical Studies (1964), and the Founder/President of the Dialogue Institute (1978), and
author/editor of 80 books and 200 articles, including: Dialogue for Interreligious Understanding (2014), The Age of Global Dialogue (2016), Religion for Reluctant Believers (2016):
dialogue@temple.edu.
[2] http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137470690_3#page-1 --- abgerufen 07.09.2016
[3] The Study of Religion in an Age of Global Dialogue by Leonard J. Swidler,Paul Mojzes. Temple University 2000
[4] Address
of Holy Father Pope Francis, March 20, 2013, to Audience with Representatives
of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of the Different Religions w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/march/documents/papa-francesco_20130320_delegati-fraterni.html.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen