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Environmental Justice and Climate Change: Assessing Pope Benedict XVI's Ecological Vision for the Catholic Church in the United States provides the most thorough theological treatment available on Benedict XVI's statements on human responsibility for addressing environmental degradation. Contributors include lay, ordained, and religious Catholic theologians, a philosopher, and bishops highlighting the contributions Pope Emeritus Benedict has made to Catholic teaching while offering fruitful directions for advancing concern about ongoing threats to the integrity of Earth.
List of contents
Preface: Message on the 2010 World Day of Peace: "If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation"
Pope Benedict XVI
Introduction: Celebrating and Advancing Magisterial Discourse on the Ecological Crisis
Jame Schaefer
Part I. Human and Natural Ecology/Human Life and Dignity
Chapter 1: Bonaventure in Benedict: Franciscan Wisdom for Human Ecology
Keith Douglas Warner
Chapter 2: If You Want Responsibility, Build Relationship: A Personalist Approach to Benedict XVI's Environmental Vision
Mary A. Ashley
Chapter 3: Natural Law and the Natural Environment: Pope Benedict XVI's Vision Beyond Utilitarianism and Deontology
Michael Baur
Part II. Solidarity, Justice, Poverty, and the Common Good
Chapter 4: Human, Social, and Natural Ecology: Three Ecologies, One Cosmology, and the Common Good
Scott G. Hefelfinger
Chapter 5: Commodifying Creation? Pope Benedict XVI's Vision of the Goods of Creation Intended for All
Christiana Z. Peppard
Chapter 6: The Grammar of Creation: Agriculture in the Thought of Pope Benedict XVI
Matthew Whelan
Part III. The Sacramentality of Creation
Chapter 7: The Way of Wisdom: "Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life" (Prov 3:14)
Elizabeth Groppe
Chapter 8: The World as God's Icon: Creation, Sacramentality, Liturgy
Kevin W. Irwin
Chapter 9: Pope Benedict XVI's Cosmic Soteriology and the Advancement of Catechesis on the Environment
Jeremiah Vallery
Part IV. Our Catholic Faith in Action
Chapter 10: Discernment of the Church and the Dynamics of the Climate Change Convention
John T. Brinkman
Chapter 11: American Lifestyles and Structures of Sin: The Practical Implications of Pope Benedict XVI's Ecological Vision for the American Church
David Cloutier
Chapter 12: American Nature Writing As a Critically-Appropriated Resource for Catholic Ecological Ethics
Anselma Dolcich-Ashley
Appendix A: Keynote Address at the Catholic Consultation on Environmental Justice and Climate Change
The Most Reverend Bernard Unabali
Appendix B: Homily: Catholic Consultation on Environmental Justice and Climate Change
The Most Reverend Bishop Donald Kettler
About the author
Edited by Jame Schaefer and Tobias Winright - Contributions by Mary Ashley; Michael Baur; John T. Brinkman; David Cloutier; Anselma Dolcich-Ashley; Elizabeth Groppe; Scott G. Hefelfinger; Kevin W. Irwin; Donald Kettler; Christiana Z. Peppard; Jame Schaefe
