Dorothy Stang: Monkeys Cry and the Poor Die, Earth Stewardship as Liberation Ecology - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 399

27.2 Sequence of Refl ection for Liberation Ecology

This is better understood when the sequence of refl ection is considered. Specifi cally,
where does thinking about stewardship properly begin? It begins with liberative
actions in defense of the environment and social justice. Following the Peruvian
theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez ( 1973 , p. 6), we can say that environmental ethics is
“critical refl ection on praxis:” the defense of the environment and ancestral envi-
ronmental practices. This “reinforces the importance of human action as the point
of departure for all refl ection…geared to the transformation of the world” (Gutiérrez
1973 , p. 9). As such, the “fi rst step” for building a theory of environmental ethics
or even Earth Stewardship, is commitment and struggle. This is Act One.
Environmental ethics as theory “is the second step” as Gutiérrez ( 1973 , p. 11)
argues for theology. It is Act Two. Thinking follows action. Following Gutiérrez
( 1973 , p. 11), the struggle for a just and healthy environment “does not fl ow as a
conclusion from theological [philosophical] premises. Theology [philosophy] does
not produce pastoral [environmental] activity; it refl ects upon it.” Environmental
philosophy or theology does not produce action in defense of the environment; it
refl ects upon the engagement of those involved in the defense of the environment.
We think from experience (Ortega 2011 ). Thus ethical-theological/philosophical
truth will be verifi ed in liberative actions, not by a priori premises or abstract
truths. “Correct knowledge is contingent on right doing. Or rather, the knowledge
is disclosed in the doing,” José Míguez-Bonino ( 1975 , p. 90) reminds us. So, then,
ethics is an “interpretation of a determined liberative praxis” (Costadoat 2005 ,
p. 63), such as that of Dorothy Stang, Andrés Tamayo, Bishop Infanti, or the
Mapuche people.
An interpretation of the liberative praxis of these leaders and the social move-
ments they represent, leads to understanding their active defense of the poor and the
forests as “stewardship:” caring for the environment and struggling for just and
healthy socio-ecological relationships. Although they do not use the term, through
them, we see stewardship as active opposition to neoliberal economic policies that
oppress the poor and destroy nature. As these examples illustrate, such grassroots
struggles have occurred frequently and widely in Latin America during the last sev-
eral decades.
So in this sense, with concrete environmental realities and social struggles as Act
One, liberation ecology and Earth Stewardship are oriented toward the elimination
of all forms of domination, oppression, subordination, and alienation, and as Act
Two, will emerge through critical refl ection at the intersection of: (1) the Earth itself
and the political economy that administers it (mode of production and models of
development); (2) the ancestral ethos of original peoples and biocultural landscapes;
and (3) dialogue with environmental philosophies from other parts of the world
reinterpreted from Latin America in order to mold them according to the different
context. This is the methodology of liberation ecology.