Everything is in a relationship of love with everything else

I have recently coauthored an article with prof Johan Buitendag (Pretoria University in South Africa) on the religious vision of nature in the light of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato Si’. In the manuscript we offer an interreligious reading between Islam and Christianity on the theme of ecology.

The paper entitled ‘The religious vision of nature in the light of Laudato Si’: An interreligious reading between Islam and Christianity’ was published in HTS and is freely available.

In preparing the manuscript I was very much inspired by the Laudato Si’ as I have always been by Chiara Lubich’s vision of Nature:

On earth everything is in a relationship of love with everything else: each thing with each thing. But we need to be Love in order to find the golden thread of love between beings.

Lubich, C., 1997, Scritti spirituali /1, Città Nuova, Rome.

The environmental crises represents one of the most urgent and critical problems of our times. Pope Francis in his encyclical letter Laudato Si’ has emphasized the need ‘to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home’ (Paragraph 3) […] ‘before it is too late’ (Paragraph 193).

I am convinced that people of faith in particular can play a significant role in addressing climate change and all its devastating consequences by leading the change.

Moving from this vision I am now working on a webinar in which together with some very distinguished guests we will explore the specific contribution that religions can play in current environmental crisis

In particular, we will look at how Christianity, Islam and Hinduism can can help bring back into the ecological discourse the element of the sacred.

The webinar will be broadcast live on 23rd October at 6pm (CEST) via the EcoOne YouTube channel in English. Click here for more information.