From dominion to communion: Theology as an interlocutor towards planetary well-being

Abstract

This article advances an integral eco-theology by incorporating two major normative developments of 2025 – the Conference of the Parties (COP) COP30 outcomes in Belém and the Earth Charter+25 renewal – into a coherent theological response to the climate emergency. Building on my earlier integration of Pope Francis’s integral ecology and Ken Wilber’s ‘all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, and all types’ (AQAL) framework, theology is reconceived as a holistic engagement with reality across subjective, cultural, behavioural and systemic dimensions. This exposes the limits of anthropocentric dominion and opens a path towards kenotic communion with the community of life. A dialectical approach rooted in diastasis sustains creative tension without dissolving differences, allowing true transversal dialogue. Within this framework, the Belém Political Package is evaluated for its progress in adaptation finance and just transition mechanisms, as well as for its shortcomings in achieving a fossil fuel phase-out. Earth Charter+25 presents a renewed moral horizon focused on ecological integrity and intergenerational responsibility.
Contribution: By holding COP30’s policy trajectory and Earth Charter+25’s ethical vision in diastatic tension, the article provides a publicly accountable theological framework for Christian praxis, in which degrowth and rewilding function as normative expressions of ecodomy.