Contemplative Ecology

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In his encyclical on the environment, Laudato si', Pope Francis wrote that "more than in ideas or concepts as such, I am interested in how such a spirituality [an ecological spirituality] can motivate us to a more passionate concern for the protection of our world. A commitment this lofty cannot be sustained by doctrine alone, without a spirituality capable of inspiring us, without an ‘interior impulse which encourages, motivates, nourishes and gives meaning to our individual and communal activity.'" This course will explore the resources for such a "contemplative ecology" in both Christian writers and non- Christian ones, with a focus on the United States. There is a rich tradition in the United States of writing on nature—often with the intent of inculcating environmental sensitivity and promoting an environmental ethics. Many of these writings operate by inviting one into a deeper, contemplative stance of experiencing and relating to the natural world of which we are a part. While some of these authors (Thomas Merton, Denise Levertov) are Christian (Catholic, in these two cases), others are less formally associated with a Christian church (John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson). Yet even in some of the latter cases, there often is evidence that, minimally, a "biblical imagination" inspires their writing—just as great Christian mystics through the ages had a profoundly biblical imagination, which shaped how they prayed and how they taught. There is, thus, a rich opportunity in the United States for a "contemplative ecology" that is dialogical and ecumenical, even reaching out to those of other faiths, to agnostics and the "spiritual but not religious," while also exploring Christian doctrinal themes and spiritual practices with roots going back to the Desert Fathers and Mothers, and beyond that to the Bible itself. This course is intended as an initial exploration of this terrain. It aims to be integrative in nature, covering works in theology and Christian spirituality, but also from the genres of nature-writing, poetry and film; and it will have an experiential component that will take advantage of the beauty of the Irish countryside. It concludes with a close reading Laudato si' and Querida Amazonia, enriched by the consideration of resources unearthed earlier in the course, in order to explore the possibilities for a distinctively American, but also Catholic, way of receiving and implementing the pope's vision.