N.B. All quotations within the quotes below are to Laudato Si.
“Often, what was handed on was a Promethean vision of mastery over the world, which gave the impression that the protection of nature was something that only the faint-hearted cared about. Instead, our ‘dominion’ over the universe should be understood more properly in the sense of responsible stewardship.”
We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judaeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts … tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15). “Tilling” refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations.
Clearly “the Bible has no place for a tyrannical anthropocentrism unconcerned for other creatures.”
To the extent that God has given man a special place, it is the place of “cooperator with God in the work of creation.” But that is a responsibility as much as a right, “a splendid universal communion” that entails an obligation of care: “We do not understand our superiority as a reason for personal glory or irresponsible dominion, but rather as a different capacity which, in its turn, entails a serious responsibility stemming from our faith.”
If this encyclical were only intended to reach the faithful, the pope might have ended his discussion there. But his intent to reach further becomes clear in the second part of his argument: that current attitudes and behaviors are not only wrong in a moral sense, they are also wrong in a practical sense. They have not worked. They have given us a world that is broken and unjust: where the wealthy worry about obesity while the extreme poor have next to nothing, and the whole planet (in what is destined to be the most quoted phrase of the letter) “is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.” This is no accident, for when “nature is viewed solely as a source of profit and gain, this has serious consequences for society.”
