Environmental Justice

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Environmental Justice and Deep Incarnation Celia
Deane-Drummond
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Widespread and Severe Flooding
What is Environmental Justice?
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Widespread and Severe Drought
The World Health Organisation has estimated that
150,000 people are dying every year because of
climate change. Two billion people depend on the
fragile ecosystems of arid and semi arid regions,
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95 report changes in weather patterns
634 million people are living in low-lying areas
that are at risk of flooding or total
submergence Since the 1960s the number of
victims of natural disasters has increased by
900.
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A way of life that disregards and damages Gods
creation, forces the poor into greater poverty,
and threatens the right of future generations to
a healthy environment and to their fair share of
the earths wealth and resources, is contrary to
the vision of the Gospel The Call of Creation,
The Natural Environment and Catholic Social
Teaching, (Catholic Bishops of England and Wales,
Second edition, 2003)
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Towards EcoJustice and Environmental Justice
We owe respect to the environment for the sake of
those persons who are recipients of the earths
goods, both now and in the future. Justice is
wider, global Justice is broader, other creatures
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Text
What is required is an act of repentance on
our part and a renewed attempt to view ourselves,
one another, and the world around us within the
perspective of the divine design for creation.
Joint Declaration, Pope John Paul 11 and
Ecumenical Patriarchate Bartholomew 1, 2002
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Pope John Paul II and Bartholomew I
The problem is not simply economic and
technological it is moral and
spiritual.
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Ecological Conversion
A solution at the economic and technological
level can be found only if we undergo, in the
most radical way, an inner change of heart, which
can lead to a change in lifestyle and of
unsustainable patterns of consumption and
production.
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A genuine conversion in Christ will enable us to
change the way we think and act
Text
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What does incarnation mean? How is it connected
to creation?
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God does not cease being God in becoming human,
but is a different order of reality. God is able
to become what God is not. Christ as deeply
embedded in the material world.
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The Word Made Flesh
God can become what is radically other than God,
God can become finite.
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Take time to reflect on the meaning of the
incarnation
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The Logos is the Word made flesh We perceive
Christs divinity through his acts.
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Text
Christs obedience included the path of
suffering and death
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Gods action in Christ is self surrender
Text
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Does God Care?
Covenant is cosmic, that is, it extends to every
living creature through the promise given to Noah
after the flood.
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Christs obedience included the path of
suffering and death
God So Loved the World ..
What does the cosmic covenant mean in practice?.
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The covenant of God with all creaturely being is
expressed in physical becoming.
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In the Image of God He Created Them
Humanity has special responsibilities
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• Discussion Questions
• 1. What specific responsibilities do humans have
  today towards each other and other creatures?
• 2. How might this be related to bearing Gods
  image?

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"The incarnation of God the son signifies the
taking up into unity with God not only human
nature, but in this human nature, in a sense, of
everything that is "flesh" the whole of
humanity, the entire visible and material world.
(DV, 50) Dominum et Vivificantem On the Holy
Spirit in the life of the Church and the World
Text
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deep incarnation, deep into time, deep into
space, and deep in that it is complete
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Christ Is the Alpha and Omega
Christ is in one sense both present in the
creation of the whole material world, and also
points to the possibility of its future
redemption.
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Incarnation Made Fully Visible in Christ
Incarnation In last days of earths history
made visible
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God So Loved the World
Deep incarnation points to ecological
justice Why?
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Solidarity with Those who are Poor, Solidarity
with the Earth.
Christ is in solidarity with all creation
people and planet- and offers hope for its
renewal.
Photos Annie Bungeroth, Catholic Relief Services
(CRS), Eleanor Church, Marcella Haddad, Stephen
Hunt, Simon Rawles, Claudia Torres, Richard
Wainwright