Environment as a theological-spiritual problem

  • Martin Hoffmann
Keywords: Environment, Modernity, idolatry, greed, transformation ethics

Abstract

The problem of the Environment implies climate change, deforestation and population growth. What prevents a change in this behavior? The author observes three factors: (1) the paradigm of the modern era as the power that governs thought. It is the basic figure of subjectivity, the division between the Self and the You, which guides a treatment of the Environment as a pure object. (2) Idolatry, which replaces God as a framework of human rationality for economic gain as a new God. (3) The greed of the human being as his original sin that dominates the desires. Faced with these powers and obsessions, salvation is necessary as a transformation of the powers. Salvation in terms of a spiritual transformation and an ethical transformation that implies the conceptions of freedom and justice, sustainability and the development of an economy of common good. All this results in the need for an ethic of transformation. This points to a new culture of life, for which the preservation of human dignity and the right of nature are key elements.

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Published
2020-02-13
How to Cite
Hoffmann, Martin. “Environment As a Theological-Spiritual Problem”. Vida y Pensamiento 39, no. 1 (February 13, 2020): 135-159. Accessed December 22, 2024. https://revistas.ubl.ac.cr/index.php/vyp/article/view/66.