ProfWork 11.4 | Laudato Si' | Creation as Ground

Grounding Creation

Creation appears at the top of the preface to LSi, a foundational shift from environmentalism (as LSi appears to many) to the basic ground, in the ontological sense. Here is the logic that precedes Ch. 2, The Gospel of Creation.

1. Creation grounds Laudato Si'. Creation implies a unity between the Creator and Creation, Explore the Canticle of St. Francis. Keep St. Francis central to the LSi Project. Learn much more about both Francises. Spell out the mission of Pope Francis as the namesake of St. Francis. Refute that LSi is all about the environment or climate change.
2. bld_ground.html to deconstruct grounds.html. Use EVR note to define prototype. Need a workspace to expand and then to distribute.
3. Sect. #11 and #12, early, Francis takes Integral Ecology from the mission of St. Francis. Quote here, early, but inject Integral Ecology as the precursor to SE and then to WSE. This is a key move. Note the provocative sequence:
   1. IE #10 ==>
   2. transcending categories to biology, science, political economy implied ==>
   3. "refusal to turn reality into an object to be used and controlled," end. Thus, raises concern joining reality to domination. All this in the discussion of IE.
   4. Nature as sacred, #12: not a problem to be solved but a "joyful mystery."
   5. Take to the expansion: Find "Francis, build my Church" to expand the scope of LSi to all of creation as a reality providing a "joyful mystery" rather than as an object to be dominated. Thus, LSi opens up a Horizon of freedom and realization of human potential.
   6. Pope Francis follows his namesake, St. Francis inspired by the magnificent Canticle of the Creatures (link from pdf version). This orientation grounds LSi, distinguishing its orientation from environmentalism and other reductionisms. Say so.
4. Scope: Dialog among all the children of God #3 about our Common Home (my caps). Segue to Habermas on civil society implications and to the global Commons: Br. This opens up huge conceptual territory around Oikos. This thought culminates in #4 from John Paul quotes about industrial civilization and radical change in human conduct: Re-inhabitation. This moves the LSi Project toward ontology and WSE.
5. John Paul II calls from "global ecological conversion" toward an "authentic human ecology" that fosters life (make LSi intensely pro-life). Benedict quite specifically spells out this mission, #6, "dysfunctions in the world economy." Thus, the agency of concern lurks in the global political economy, not in, say, nativity (population). Two essential concepts follow:
   1. Benedict, #6: "Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature." This points to Aquinian hylomorphism, a turn in SE that I have identified but find nothing in the literature. This departs from the communitarian anarchist roots of classical SE (Murray Bookchin) and leads to a classical Aristotelian orientation (De Anime).
   2. Patriarch Bartholomew identifies sins against Creation (#8 and #9). Thus, industrial civilization itself, as currently practiced, is both a sin and a crime. Since we segue into Anthropocene through this lead, we see that the alternative has also been identified: spiritual conversion to a morally authentic human ecology.
6. After this introduction, Pope Francis states succinctly his conclusion: My Appeal (#13 - #16): a new dialogue toward a sustainable and integral development to "shape the future of our planet," spelled out as a project which I call Re-Inhabitation. Pope Francis states that his intention in this Papal Encyclical Letter is no less than to add to the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church a social teaching of immensity and urgency.
7. Pope Francis explains the themes built into LSi, #16:
   1. His first theme raises the fundamental concern of WSE: "the intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet." This points to the seminal work of Wolfgang Sachs (funded by the Catholic Church), Fairness in a Fragile World. This favors my wheelhouse.
   2. ". . . everything in the world is connected," a conviction that promotes the holism of SE and defies reductionism.
   3. Critique of the technocratic paradigm and other ideologies of power, all of which distract from the mission of Christ. This opens a Horizon through Guardino into a WSE critique grounded in Mumford, Bookchin, Habermas, Schroyer, et al. More the ATN model, not hidden but present, can be presented through LSi.
   4. Re-interpretation of power, the economy, and progress. Again, opens up a vast potential.
   5. Toward an ecological political economy: "the value (a loaded economic term) proper to each creature." That is, all life is sacred, a creation/gift of the Creatore, and demands human stewardship. Domination and objectification must be rejected.
   6. Toward Integral Ecology and WSE: "the human meaning of ecology."
   7. Dialog, even debate, full and honest. LSi is not the last word but an invitation to dialog.
   8. The inherent responsibility in global and local policy. Fills out the ThreeFolding model inherent in LSi.
   9. A frontal assault on consumerism: "the throwaway culture and a proposal for a new lifestyle." The avenue to Anny Goodman and the diminshment of consumption/materialism in favor of spiritual conversion.
   10. These themes must be "reframed and enriched again and again." My LSi project hears that call.
8. Therefore, to reduce Laudato Si' to a throw-away statement about the environment fails to acknowledge the mission of Laudato Si'. Ultimately, this call to action heals the rift of sin between the Creator and his Creatures: those blessed with the divine gift of being created in the image of God: all of humanity. And this immense and urgent moral challenge requires nothing short of a spiritual conversion to an authentic Integral Ecology. Amen.