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The publication of Laudato Si’ in 2015 marked an important moment in the life of the Church. With this encyclical Pope Francis announced that the Catholic Church would – for the first time – intervene in the politics of climate justice. To read Laudato Si’ as a document of do-goodery would be a mistake. It is, in the truest sense, a radical text, exhorting Catholics and people of good will of all nations to change their perception of the world, to embrace a ‘new way of thinking about human beings, life, society and our relationship with nature.’ It is omnivorous in its influences, drawing on the literature of climate science, politics, philosophy and theology. It proposes practical and political solutions to the foremost problems facing our world today and throws down the gauntlet, not only to political leaders, but to each and every one of us. This course offers an opportunity not only to engage with this document but also to discover new ways to embrace the challenge which it presents.
Week 1: Laudato Si’: An Overview
At the outset we shall cover several of the key concepts which are developed in the text of Laudato Si’ including: ‘the technocratic paradigm,’ ‘integral ecology’ and ‘ecological conversion.’
Week 2: Laudato Si’ inhistorical context
Laudato Si’ set a new course for the Catholic Church in its approach to the problem of climate justice. Up to this point, Church leaders had been reticent to discuss environmental issues for fear of inadvertently aligning themselves with more misanthropic elements of theecological movement. However, the text does build on the historical legacy of Catholic Social Teaching. This class will trace the journey towards the publication of Laudato Si’: a timely and novel intervention with nevertheless deep roots in the history of Catholic political thought.
Week 3: The politics of Laudato Si’
Laudato Si’ is a political text and it proposes political solutions. It highlights the fundamental problems with neo-liberalism and capitalism and argues that the meta-narratives of modernity lie at the heart of many of the problems which plague our human family. This class will critically investigate the claims made in the text regardingneo-liberalism and will compare the response of the Church to that of political thinkers from the neo-liberal, Marxist and eco-socialist traditions.
Week 4: The theology of Laudato Si’
Laudato Si’ is an essentially theological text. As the title suggests it is a form of prayer, expressing gratitude for the gift of creation and supplication for our culpability in desecrating this gift. Laudato Si’ references a range of Biblical texts, Thomist literature and twentieth century theology (including Romano Guardini and Teilhard de Chardin). It also owes an unacknowledged debt to Liberation Theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez and Jon Sobrino. This class will unpick the theological underpinning of Laudato Si’, tracing its lineage through twenty centuries of Christian thought.
Week 5: The impact of Laudato Si’
This class will examine the response of figures within and without the Catholic Church to the publication of LaudatoSi’. Laudato Si’ was an unusually controversial text and it provoked an angry response in some quarters just as it was applauded in others. Undoubtedly the publication of this text also inspired movements of Catholics and non-Catholics, who took up the challenge laid down in its pages. This class will assess the impact of the encyclical, and will appraise the success of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
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Aidan is a tutor in Social and Environmental Justice stream. He completed his PhD at the Divinity Faculty of the University of Cambridge in 2018. During his doctoral studies he ran as a Parliamentary candidate for the Green Party. He is the author of two academic books: Jewish Christians in Puritan England (2020) and Israelism in Modern Britain (2021). Between 2020 and 2022 he worked as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at St Mary's University in London.
