As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969, it is obvious that scientific awareness and thinking has radically changed in those five decades. The state of the world is marked by injustices of many forms and the wellbeing of our planet is now facing a significant ecological crisis.
Ilia Delio, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Washington, D.C., and the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University recently wrote that: “Some blame Christianity for the environmental problem, primarily because of its radical anthropocentrism and otherworldly focus”.
This raises the questions that if the problems of the environment are essentially religious then the solution must be religious as well and what would a “religious solution” to the environmental problem actually look like in our church today?
Ilia Delio argues “The hierarchy of theology needs radical revisioning if we are to address the needs of the Earth. An integrative vision of science and theology is not an option but essential in the 21st century”.
Brigidine Sisters recognize an invitation and call to “deepen our understanding of the complexity and inter-relatedness of factors which threaten the life and well-being of our common home.” (Congregational Forum 2016). May we work, learn about and pray for a vision of science and theology that will bring greater hope and life for all living beings and our planet today.
To read her article from the Global Sisters Report in the National Catholic Reporter July 1, 2019,go to:
Ilia Delio –
“Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.” – Pope John Paul II