The environmental crisis is undoubtedly one of the most critical and urgent problems of our times. Many people are raising their voices in support of nature to build a better future for humanity and for our planet. In this article, the authors explore the specific contribution that Christianity and Islam can offer in this debate and how religions can help bring back into the ecological discourse the element of the sacred that abandoned the reflection about nature since the advent of the Enlightenment. Moving from the spiritual dimension of nature in the light of Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical on ecology
This article focuses on the spiritual dimension of nature in Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical letter
On earth everything is in a relationship of love with everything else: each thing with each thing. But we need to be Love in order to find the golden thread of love between beings.
(Lubich
Fifty years ago, we landed on the moon – an extraordinary and unique event in human history. Since then, the world population has more than doubled. Great masses of people have moved from rural to urban areas; the average lifespan for humans has increased for most nations of our planet. In just a few decades, we have witnessed extraordinary scientific and technological progress that has forever changed our lifestyles, bringing with it enormous and undeniable benefits to humanity.
At the same time, though, for the first time in human history, the stability of nature and that of the planet that hosts us is in peril.
The environmental crisis is undoubtedly one of the most critical and urgent problems of our times. Our relationship with nature challenges our models of development and even our existence. The dramatic COVID-19 pandemic has rekindled the debate on the place of humans in nature and their role and responsibility in shaping the well-being of planet Earth. Are we heading towards another mass extinction with the Anthropocene? We need the earth, but the earth does not need us. The universe is the only self-referent mode of being in the phenomenal world (Berry
In the last few years, many people have raised their voices in support of the protection of the environment. Internationally, a call for a more sustainable global future has been urged by the United Nations (UN) with its Agenda 2030
In this article, the authors explore the specific contribution that Roman Catholicism and Islam could offer in the current debate and how religion can help bring back into the ecological discourse the element of the sacred that abandoned the reflection about nature since the advent of the Enlightenment. Moving from the spiritual dimension of nature in the light of
Human embeddedness in nature both physically and metaphysically is therefore axiomatic. In the realm of living beings, there is an absolute interdependence. The Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt (
The Forum on Religion and Ecology
Although our immediate perception of the ecological crisis is that of a problem of the industrialised and technological societies, this is clearly a
However, more than that: people of faith can play a significant role in addressing environmental issues and all their devastating consequences by shaping a new paradigm. In 2015, Pope Francis launched to the world the encyclical letter
Some contemporary thinkers have accused Christianity of somehow starting the ecological problem because of the anthropocentric interpretation of scripture. Although superfluous, the example of Lynn White (
In Antiquity every tree, every spring, every stream, every hill had its own
It is important to observe how the ‘de-sacralisation’ of nature to which White refers is exactly the opposite argument in current ecotheological circles, which rather see nature as spirited, and to move to the ancient belief of regarding nature as mother and a goddess. An excellent recent example of this is the publication by Buxton, Graham and Habel (eds.
The contemporary philosopher Michel Serres sets against the word ‘religion’ its etymological contrary, ‘negligence’ (
No one else ventures again into the places devastated by whoever occupies them in this way. Thus, the sullied world reveals the mark of humanity, the mark of its dominators, the foul stamp of their hold and their appropriation. (p. 33)
Subsequently, Serres suggests that the only way out of this crisis is to recuperate values such as beauty and peace as part of a ‘natural contract’ between human beings and the world. Can religions that are founded on spiritual values like those suggested by Serres have something significant to say today in the face of such an urgent and important issue like the environment? Christianity and Islam represent two extremely important actors in the current cultural landscape. Berry (
This article will look at the specific perception the two religions have of nature, and of the place that humans occupy in it. Subsequently, the article will try to present some contours that seem to emerge from
In the Orthodox understanding of scripture, we encounter the concept of creation, rather than that of nature. Christian theology in particular is characterised by the radical new idea of a universe that is created freely by a God who is love. God remains present everywhere in creation and yet at the same time God is distinct from nature; therefore creation
In the beginning of the book of Genesis, we find the narrative of the relationship between human beings and the rest of creation. We read first that:
God blessed them and said to them (Gn 1):
Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and
This is followed by that of giving names to the animals. (Gn 2:20–21)
These two initial scenes already tell us something very important about the place of human creatures within the rest of creation. However, the biblical verse of Genesis 1:28 in particular has been often interpreted (with Lynn White as the classic epitome) as though it somehow gives warrant to abuse nature. Although this verse contains words like ‘subdue’ the earth and ‘rule’ over the fish, birds and animals, of which the original Hebrew words
For James Barr, the verb
In Christianity, up until the Middle Ages the relationship between human beings and nature was fundamentally governed by natural laws and characterised by collaboration. Monasticism in the West was so profoundly aware of this that they preserved some of the most beautiful forests in Europe, which in many cases have become United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites. St Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) gives us an extraordinary testimony of such a relationship through his very life. In his Canticle of the Creatures he expresses an absolute, cosmic and all-embracing beauty permeating the whole of creation to the point that he can call celestial bodies like the sun and moon ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ (cf.
With the Enlightenment we shifted to a progressive separation between the realm of sacred (and mythology) on the one hand and that of rational philosophy and the secular world on the other hand. This led in time to the destruction of a ‘vision of the world’ that the human person had been part of up to that point. Human beings began to conceive of themselves primarily as rational individuals detached from the natural world. It is precisely in this separation, in the gradual destruction of that ‘enchantment’, where the first sign of the ecological crisis is vested.
The developments of Charles Darwin’s (1809–1882) publications
A more holistic and sacred vision of the relationship between human beings and nature has also been kept alive in Christian mystical experience even in recent times. Chiara Lubich (1920–2008), founder of the Focolare Movement, for instance, during a period of an enlightened spiritual experience, perceives a strong presence of God’s love, who through his continuous creative action sustains all things (Lubich
What appears to be distinct and separated – a flower, the sky, the sun and the moon, the sea or a puddle – the mystics saw unified by a loving Light governing everything as if all of creation were one song of love; as if the stones and snow, the flowers and stars, were so united in their essence with that Light and with one another that they seemed to have been created as gifts for one another, being one in love with all the others. (pp. 140–141)
The liturgical experience of the Church, especially in the Eastern Orthodox rites, has played an important role in keeping together the human and the natural. Liturgy in fact urges us to continually include a sanctification of matter and time, in which every liturgical element aims at connecting the one in prayer to ‘an event of communion with the other members of the community and with the material context of the liturgy’ (Zizioulas
In this context, during the iconoclastic controversy, St John Damascene (676–749) developed the theological value of the sacred images, helping make them one of the most distinctive aspects of Eastern Christianity to date. He underlined the role of matter for salvation, so authorising the veneration (drawing here a distinction from adoration, which must only be directed to God) of material things, to better enter into relationship with God. He writes in his
I do not worship matter, I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my sake and deigned to inhabit matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. I will not cease from honoring that matter which works for my salvation. I venerate it, though not as God. (n.p.)
The commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to the environment is primarily to be contextualised in the rich patrimony of the Church’s social justice. More explicit reference to ecology and to the harmonisation of human development and care for the environment emerges during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II (
At the ecumenical level, the World Council of Churches (WCC
In 1989 the Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios I of Constantinople
Starting in the late 1960s, a small number of Muslim scholars turned their attention to the ecological crisis and endeavoured to develop a distinctive Islamic ecological theology discerning the relationship between God and the natural word; the scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr argued that Islam was open to Lynn White’s critique and that the religion had lost the metaphysical foundation of its knowledge, while the correct understanding should be the belief that God is both transcendent and immanent at once (Hancock
The Islamic idea of nature is rooted in the Qur’an. It is through the Qur’an that the Muslim faithful perceive their place within the ecosystem. In Islam, God is primarily the God of creation and the religious experience is therefore profoundly marked by a strong relationship between humans and nature. Ramadan, which memorialises the descent of the Holy Qur’an upon the prophet Mohammed, is based on the lunar calendar. We find in the Qur’an more than 750 verses that deal with nature, and 16 of the 114 suras are named after animals or natural phenomena, such as ‘the Cow’ (2), ‘the Cattle’ (6), ‘the Thunder’ (13), ‘the Bee’ (16), ‘the Ant’ (27), ‘the Daybreak’ (89), ‘the Sun’ (91), ‘the Night’ (92), ‘the Fig’ (95), ‘the Elephant’ (105) and so on.
Many natural phenomena and elements are of great importance in Islam. Water, for instance, is held in very high esteem and is cited around 60 times in the Qur’an, often with reference to life. Moreover, water is used for the ritual purification before namaz. Another natural element of great importance in Islam is the earth, symbolising the origin of creation of human beings (the Quran: 20, 55) and as a mother in
In Islam planting trees is particularly praiseworthy, to the point that planting a tree is considered as an act of worship. In a famous Hadith in
In numerous verses, the Qur’an states that all natural phenomena have awareness of God and glorify God:
And We subjected the mountains to exalt [
The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him. And there is not a thing except that it exalts [
We did not create the heavens and earth and that between them in play. We did not create them except in truth, but most of them do not know. (44:38–39)
It is Allah who created the heavens and the earth and sent down rain from the sky and produced thereby some fruits as provision for you and subjected for you the ships to sail through the sea by His command and subjected for you the rivers.
And He subjected for you the sun and the moon, continuous [
And He gave you from all you asked of Him. And if you should count the favor of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, mankind is [
A very characteristic trait of Islamic theology held that the whole of creation, the whole universe, could be considered
Do you not see that to Allah prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth and the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the moving creatures (animals) and many of the people? (22:18)
Do you not see that Allah is exalted by whomever is within the heavens and the earth and [
And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and to Allah is the destination. (24:41–42)
The Qur’an invites the faithful to look at the universe as a ‘sign’ (
We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. (41:53)
And on earth are signs for the convinced. And within yourselves. Do you not see? (51:20–21)
The word
[
In Islam human beings are fundamentally God’s vice-regent on Earth. Nature is entrusted to humans with the specific function of being God’s vicars, putting them above the angels. In the Qur’an, Sura 2, we find a rich portrait of this project:
When your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am placing a viceregent on earth’. They said, ‘Will You place in it someone who will cause corruption in it and shed blood, while we declare Your praises and sanctify You?’ He said, ‘I know what you do not know’. And He taught Adam the names, all of them; then he presented them to the angels, and said, ‘Tell Me the names of these, if you are sincere’. They said, ‘Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. It is you who are the Knowledgeable, the Wise’. He said, ‘O Adam, tell them their names’. And when he told them their names, He said, ‘Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and that I know what you reveal and what you conceal?’ And We said to the angels, ‘Bow down to Adam’. They bowed down, except for Satan. He refused, was arrogant, and was one of the disbelievers. (2:30–34)
In this sura emerges God’s optimism about humans’ capacity to know, protect and administrate his resources. It is also clear that only to humans God teaches the names of all things so as to endow them with the capacity to appreciate nature’s biodiversity and therefore to enter into a profound relationship with it. However, God gives humans a power that is always within the boundaries of a larger power, that is, that of God himself. In Islam, this is expressed with the term
In the mystic Islamic Sufi tradition, we also find various references to nature. The poet and mystic Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273) expresses in many of his poems humans’ relationship with the natural environment. In the following verses, for instance, the reference is always to God as the Giver of life and beauty (Rumi
Is the sweetness of the cane sweeter than the one who made the canefield? Behind the beauty of the moon is the moonmaker. There is intelligence inside the ocean’s intelligence feeding our love like an invisible waterwheel. […] There is a skill to making cooking oil from animal fat. Consider now the knack that makes eyesight from the shining jelly of your eyes. (p. 285)
In this context, it is worth looking at the physically active meditation of the whirling dervishes, originated among Sufis. Through their dance known as
According to a study by the Pew Research Centre, with its 1.6 billion worldwide community, Islam is the fastest-growing religion on our planet. It is foreseen that by 2050 the number of Islamic faithful will overtake that of Christians of various denominations (Pew Research Centre
For the Muslim, mankind’s role on earth is that of a khalifa, vice/regent or trustee of God. We are God’s stewards and agents on Earth. We are not masters of this Earth; it does not belong to us to do what we wish. It belongs to God and He has entrusted us with its safekeeping. Our function as vice-regents, khalifa of God, is only to oversee the trust. The khalifa is answerable for his/her actions, for the way in which he/she uses or abuses the trust of God. (n.p.)
Perhaps the most important ecological event in Islam to date was held in August 2015 in Istanbul, the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium (IICCS).
The Islamic Declaration on Climate Change is articulated in following points:
It begins by identifying the centrality of God with reference to the environmental crisis to then focus on the more concrete ecological challenges.
The declaration then explores the environmental ethics that is rooted in the Qur’an and in the Hadith, acknowledging the fact that humans have so far failed to act appropriately. The document especially highlights the central Islamic concept of
Finally, the declaration addresses different actors that are responsible in front of God and the community. In particular, they call upon:
The Catholic Church has openly praised the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change with a declaration by Cardinal Peter Turkson (
It is with great joy and in a spirit of solidarity that I express to you the promise of the Catholic Church to pray for the success of your initiative and her desire to work with you in the future to care for our common home and thus to glorify the God who created us. (n.p.)
On 24 May 2015 Pope Francis addressed to the Church and to the world the encyclical letter
With this document Pope Francis wished ‘to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home’ (Paragraph 3). Throughout the
[
The encyclical, in line with the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, acknowledges the enormous benefits that science and technology have brought to our society, seeing in them ‘wonderful products of a God-given human creativity’ (Paragraph 102). At the same time, the Pope urgently appeals ‘for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet’, and to open ‘a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all’ (Paragraph 14).
Finally, Pope Francis addresses specifically women and the men of faith as they find a new alliance that preserves the future of our planet, because,
[
In
After the publication of
The
Many Islamic scholars have engaged with the encyclical, giving overall a very positive response. In particular, the authors would like to report some excerpts from the very rich blogpost entitled
[
It is highly significant that the Islamic scholar is referring to the encounter between Saint Francis and Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil, of which the 800th anniversary was just celebrated, as an example of respectful dialogue and that he is linking that explicitly to Pope Francis.
Dr Omar’s position, as he states himself, is in line with that of other eminent Islamic scholars such as Prof. Joseph E.B. Lumbard (Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar) (Lumbard
The
In both religions, nature is seen as a sign of the presence of God and therefore carries a metaphysical significance that points beyond itself. In
Prejudice should not have us criticise those who seek ecstasy in music or poetry. There is a subtle mystery in each of the movements and sounds of this world. The initiate will capture what is being said when the wind blows, the trees sway, water flows, flies buzz, doors creak, birds sing, or in the sound of strings or flutes, the sighs of the sick, the groans of the afflicted. (Paragraph 233)
By citing the Muslim poet, Pope Francis is urging us to discover the mystical significance of nature and therefore the ‘need not to put too much distance between the creatures of the world and the interior experience of God’ (Paragraph 233). It is only in this perspective that human beings can perceive nature as a gift, and therefore nature as something that has to be entered into relation with, beyond mere consumption (cf. Mauss
Both in the Qur’an and in the Bible, it emerges quite clearly that human beings have a special place in the universe. As we have seen already in the sacred texts, it is only to human beings that God entrusts stewardship over the rest of creation. However, their ‘superiority’ is not primarily defined by their rationality but rather by their relational character, that is, by their capacity to enter into communion with the rest of creation.
Today, in matters of the environment, it seems that we have placed our hope on ethics. In his seminal work on this topic, Moltmann (
The religious vision of nature that
The current ecological crisis could therefore be read as a crisis of our own humanity. In this context the
Above all, the encyclical helps us refocus the reference of the cosmos to God and therefore to go beyond the dramatic dichotomy between human beings and nature, and to rather to enter into a triangulated relationship of humans–God–nature. The Noahic covenant is both, on the one hand, God–human being–life–earth and, on the other, God–earth–life–human being (Moltmann
Finally, the
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this research article.
A.P. and J.B. contributed equally to this research article.
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.
‘The integrated approach of UN Environment should facilitate the integration of religions and cultural values to ensure inclusive green and transformative development through adopting value-based lifestyles and behaviours. The integrated approached coupled with cultural and religious values can promote innovative nature-based solutions, respect for traditional knowledge and cultural diversity, exercise environmental stewardship and duty of care’ (UNEP
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Particularly relevant is the role that His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew has played in the context of ecology. For over three decades, he has been on the front lines promoting the protection of creation, and his endeavours have earned him the title the Green Patriarch. Bartholomew, starting from the rich spiritual and theological legacy of the Byzantine church, has particularly contributed to ecological discourse by underlining the profound theological value of nature. The Patriarch of Constantinople has not only promoted ecology through encyclical letters and official statements but also initiated a series of scientific symposia, which included that of Pasmos (1995), the Black Sea (1997), on the Danube (1999), on the Adriatic Sea (2002), on the Baltic Sea (2003), on the Amazon River (2006), at the Arctic (2007), on the Mississippi River (2009) and the most recent symposium of Green Attica in Greece (2018).
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