Stewardship, Integrity of Creation and Climate Justice: Religious Ethics Insights - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 380

25.5 Ethical and Spiritual Values for Earth Stewardship

“Human moral and ethical values,” as requested in the previous paragraph by the
interfaith declaration, express the recognition that the climate and ecological crises
have various components, not only environmental, social, cultural, and political, but
also ethical and spiritual. Faith traditions can play a relevant role in implementing a
global Earth stewardship. As the Ecological Society of America (ESA)'s Earth
Stewardship project recognizes, on one hand earth stewardship is rooted in religious
thought and on the other faith communities are key stakeholders to implement
socio-ecological transformation (Chapin et al. 2011). Indeed, as we tried to show in
the previous sections, the inclusion of the environmental variable in biblical herme-
neutics, theology, and ethics has produced signifi cant changes in religious self-
understanding over the last decades. These changes have infl uenced one of the key
components of religious traditions keen to Earth Stewardship : the establishment of
a common meaning. The latter includes ethical and spiritual values which, through
positive messaging, have shaped cultures and societies and have encouraged com-
munities to act.
This is the second aspect of the contribution faith communities can make to ES:
their engagement in transforming lifestyles in a long-term perspective. While ES
pursues an integration of ecological sciences and environmental ethics (Rozzi et al.
2012 ), it is relevant to state that ethics, for Christianity and for other religions, is
intimately related to spirituality, which can be understood as “that attitude which
puts life at the centre and defends and promotes life against all the mechanisms of
death, desiccation or stagnation. The opposite of spirit, in this sense, is not the body
but death, and everything associated with the system of death”(Boff 1995 ). Larry
Rasmussen refi nes his understanding of the spiritual dimension as “not moral-
spiritual energy in the abstract, or as the worthy and seductive subject of itself, but
as directed to an earth-honouring faith.” This energy calls for a conversion to earth
that is not so much about “environment” or “environmentalism” as it is “the holy
mystery of creation, made for and by all earth's creatures together” (Rasmussen
1996 ). David Hallman proposes the following as spiritual values for earth commu-
nity: gratitude, humility, suffi ciency, justice, love, peace, faith, and hope (Hallman
2012 ). From a Latin American perspective, I would also add: solidarity, resilience,
and joy. These spiritual values can be seen as essentials for Earth stewardship. In the
process of addressing threats to the Earth, communities need to develop countercul-
tural values, opposing mainstream attitudes such as greed, utility, oppression, and
destruction. In this sense, for instance, ecofeminism, which tries to explore the
interconnections between ecology and feminism, between the domination of women
and the domination of nature, has proposed the concept of healing of the Earth as
most needed in today's world (Ruether 1996 ).
Assuming and putting into practice these values and attitudes is not an easy task.
In religious terms it requires a conversion, which implies not only change of life-
styles but also deep transformation of structures and paradigms. Changing our
everyday life as individuals, as families, and as communities, should go hand by