The Relevance of Thomas Berry for 21st Century Catholicity

The ecological crisis continues to be identified as the most significant social breakdown in the world. One of the important foundational influences on the development of an adequate religious response is the thought of cultural historian Thomas Berry. He affirmed the critical role that the world’s religions have in developing a spirituality that supports the sacrifices, visions, and dreams needed to live in an integral way with the Earth’s community of life. Such a spirituality provides the psychic energies we need to adequately respond to the crisis. The author of this article argues that Berry’s thoughts continue to be relevant, especially in the context of the emergence of a renewed sense of Catholicity. This article presents an overview of the breadth and depth of the study that led to Berry’s articulation of a new human orientation needed to reverse the path of devastation. It offers Berry’s insights into the reasons why it is difficult for Christianity to effectively respond to the present crisis and calls for a new Catholicity that functions out of the comprehensive context of an evolutionary and emergent universe.

Narrating a Sacred Universe. A Study of The Universe Story through the Hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur

This essay examines the use of language in narrating a sacred universe, focusing specifically on the text of The Universe Story by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme. It applies the narrative hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, who argued for the role of narrative in influencing a life through its creation of a world, to the text. It focuses specifically on Ricoeur’s five traits of a phenomenology of the sacred. This step in Ricoeur’s hermeneutics is a reminder that religious language has been shaped by demythologisation, and this in turn impacts any attempt to articulate in language what is interpreted as an experience of the sacred. In designating the universe as sacred, The Universe Story is confronted with the task of narrating such an experience. In examining the language of the text, this essay analyses how this is preformed and the effectiveness of such an approach.

Narrative and ‘the Task’ of Subjectivity

This paper examines the relationship between narrative and subjectivity. It begins by examining the subject in the work of Paul Ricoeur and Thomas Berry and the way in which the task of subjectivity for both thinkers is related to narrative. Although occupying different disciplines, both men share a commitment to narrative. Ricoeur in his formation of narrative identity and the unity that this provides to a life, and Berry in his use of narrative in proposing a new human identity. Through an examination of Ricoeur and Berry’s approach to narrative, specifically in how it contributes to the development of subjectivity, this paper suggests that such an approach has validity as a method in addressing the ecological crisis.

Environmentalism is a Humanism

Ecocritics have long been at odds against humanism. What is needed is an “ecological” or “inclusive” humanism, which includes humans and nonhumans, rather than regarding humans as the crown of creation. Several contemporary French intellectuals affirm that one cannot be an ecologist without being a humanist. Claude Lévi-Strauss disparages traditional Western humanism, which denies dignity not only to nonhumans, but to non-Western humans. Pierre Rabhi calls for a “universal” and “true” humanism that respects the earth. Edgar Morin writes that “spaceship Earth” has no pilot: humans must be “ecologized” in order to save the planet. Michel Maffesoli’s “ecosophy” is a plea for Dionysian “progressivism” to replace Promethean “progressism.” His humanism—etymologically linked to “humus” and “humility”—entails a deep respect for the earth. Finally, the American Thomas Berry rejects traditional Christian humanism in favor of an ecological humanism that embraces an “interdependent biological community of the human with the natural world.”

Thomas Berry and the Reshaping of Catholic Environmentalism

This article criticizes the so-called “stewardship paradigm,” which forms the theological basis for Catholic environmentalism, and argues that Thomas Berry’s cosmology provides a more theologically palatable platform for developing Catholic environmentalism. The substantive ethical shift emerging from Berry’s cosmology is the displacement of human well-being as the proximate norm for human behavior in favor of promoting biodiversity on planet Earth. In other words, biodiversity is the primary ethical good, and human well-being is secondary.

UMA DIALOGIA ENTRE OS DIREITOS HUMANOS E A ÉTICA BIOCÊNTRIA: A TERRA PARA ALÉM DO “ANTROPOCENO”

O presente artigo analisa a necessidade de estabelecer um diálogo entre a linguagem dos direitos humanos e a ética da ecologia profunda, visando uma mudança do significado de sujeito de direito para reduzir os efeitos negativos da atividade humana no meio ambiente na nova época geológica do Antropoceno. Nesse intuito, é estudada a importância de uma mudança cultural da sociedade através de uma aproximação do homem com a natureza. Ainda, é analisado o conceito de sujeito de direito e sua relação com a propriedade, destacando as consequências disso para a relação do ser humano com os seres não humanos. Por fim, é estudada a possibilidade de uma intertextualidade entre o artigo 225 da Constituição Federal de 1988 com a teoria “Earth Jurisprudence” de Thomas Berry. Em conclusão, foi verificada a necessidade mudança do paradigma jurídico antropocêntrico atual através de uma ética biocêntrica que busque uma harmonia entre os direitos humanos e os direitos dos seres não humanos, sendo que, com esse intuito, também concluiu-se que a teoria “Earth Jurisprudence” se harmoniza com o positivismo brasileiro e com os direitos humanos. Para tanto, utiliza a pesquisa exploratória e descritiva, bibliográfica e documental, com uma análise de obras, artigos científicos e legislações. O método é dedutivo, partindo de conceitos universais, buscando-se sua particularização.