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Social Justice and Ecological Responsibility: a Moral Case for International Collaborative Action on Environmental Degradation and Climate-Induced Displacement

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Social Justice and Ecological Responsibility: a Moral Case for International Collaborative Action on Environmental Degradation and Climate-Induced Displacement Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2015 Social Justice and Ecological Responsibility: A Moral Case for International Collaborative Action on Environmental Degradation and Climate-Induced Displacement James Stephen Mastaler Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Mastaler, James Stephen, "Social Justice and Ecological Responsibility: A Moral Case for International Collaborative Action on Environmental Degradation and Climate-Induced Displacement" (2015). Dissertations. 1646. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1646 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2015 James Stephen Mastaler LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ECOLOGICAL RESPONSIBILITY: A MORAL CASE FOR INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE ACTION ON ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND CLIMATE-INDUCED DISPLACEMENT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN THEOLOGY BY JAMES STEPHEN MASTALER CHICAGO, IL AUGUST 2015 Copyright by James Stephen Mastaler, 2015 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Certainly, this project would not have been possible without the support and direction of my committee chair, Dr. William French. I am thankful to him for so graciously teaching me how to focus my ideas and arguments and for patiently walking me through several revisions of early drafts. Dr. Michael Schuck and Dr. Robert Ludwig offered careful readings of my chapters and advice that has been invaluable to the final version of the dissertation. I am also thankful to Dr. Christopher Key Chapple, the anonymous reviewers for Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, and the helpful feedback on a case study I published in that journal that was integral to my thesis in this dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Nancy Tuchman for offering me an assistantship with the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy that she founded and directed, and which later grew into Loyola’s Institute of Environmental Sustainability. That position offered me the crucial intellectual space I needed to attend to my graduate coursework in the humanities while also engaging me in the Center’s pursuit of scientific inquiry. It has been a privilege and an honor to be a part of her work at Loyola and to see her grow Loyola’s leading-edge sustainability initiatives. I am thankful also to Fr. Pedro Walpole, SJ for inviting me and sponsoring my attendance at the Conference on Internal Migration and Displacement in the Philippines—I am inspired by the determination and tenacity he demonstrates in his iii work. I am thankful to Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker for encouraging me to find my own voice and to use it. I am grateful for the work that she and Dr. John Grim have done at Harvard and Yale in making Fr. Thomas Berry’s work and vision accessible to the next generation of scholars, and for the work they continue to do to build the academic field of Religion and Ecology. To my friends and fellow colleagues in the program, thank you for being my companions on this journey of intellectual exploration. Thanks especially to Seth J. A. Alexander and Erica Saccucci for the hours spent in solidarity around a cup of tea and to Dr. Jeanine Viau and Dr. Melissa Browning for cheering me on “from the other side.” Sherry and Robert, Carol and Jerry—Thank you. Jason, without your support and encouragement I am not sure I would have made it through my comprehensive exams so that I could start this project. Thank you for believing in me, and for offering me the freedom and privilege to spend so much uninterrupted time focused on my work. Surely any mistakes that remain in it are by my own error or oversight and are not for lack of support from the community that helped make it possible. iv In loving memory of Sr. Mary Elsbernd, OSF, PhD TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES viii ABSTRACT ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN THE MIDST OF AN ECOLOGICAL CRISIS 17 Christian Ethics for the Common Good 19 Social Aspects of Climate Change and their Ethical Significance 21 The Role of Christian Ethicists and Religious Leaders 34 Scientific Literacy and Climate Concern (or Lack Thereof) 36 Narrative, Worldviews, and the Function of Religion 42 Christian Ethics, Responsibility, and the Ecological Crisis 46 Critical Self-Reflection Rooted in Lived Experience 54 A Preferential and Green Option for the Poor and Oppressed 61 Methodology: Structured Ethical Reflection 65 Case Studies and Social Analysis for Breadth and Depth of Understanding 67 Deliberating on the Underlying Issues of a Problem 72 Discerning which Worldviews and Religious Traditions Help or Hinder 75 Moving Forward with Moral Imagination and Creative Action 77 CHAPTER TWO: READING THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES: A CASE STUDY ON CLIMATE VULNERABILITY, POVERTY, AND POPULATION DISPLACEMENT 82 Climate Change Vulnerability, Resiliency, Sensitivity, and Exposure risk 86 A Special Concern for the Poor: Structural Poverty and Climate Change 96 A Special Concern for Women: Gender Disparity and Climate Change 106 A Special Concern for the Earth: Ecological Degradation and Climate Change 115 Climate Culpability: Blame, Innocence, and Basic Fairness 125 Drivers of Poverty and Displacement: Livelihood Loss, Disease Transmission, and Natural Disaster Risks 133 CHAPTER THREE: MODERN CHRISTIANITY’S ANTHROPOCENTRIC BIAS AND HISTORICAL SOURCES FOR CREATION-CENTERED THEOLOGY 146 Uncovering Core Aspects of the Problem 149 Is Christianity the Most Dualistic and Anthropocentric Religion in the World? 159 Creation-Centered Perspectives in Streams of Pre-Modern Christian Accounts of Theological Anthropology and Cosmology 171 Hebrew and Old Testament Scriptures and a Grounded Sense of Humility 172 Saint Augustine and the Inherent Goodness of God’s Creation 178 vi Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Social Nature of the Individual, and the Common Good 185 Factors in the Development of Modern Anthropocentric Theologies and Dualistic Cosmologies 194 Conclusion 201 CHAPTER FOUR: THE CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS AS HELP OR HINDRANCE IN A TIME OF NEED 203 The Need for an Ecologically-Informed Paradigm Shift 208 Examples of Ecologically-Informed Accounts of Christian Theological Anthropology and Cosmology 220 Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology, Body of God, and the Ecological Self 223 Thomas Berry, Ecology, and the Story of Evolution as the New Creation Story 237 How Can Religious Establishments Push Forward an Ecologically-Informed Paradigm Shift? 245 An Addendum: Solidarity with the Earth when Nature is not so Nice 253 CHAPTER FIVE: A THEOLOGY OF MOBILIZATION: INTEGRATING SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS TO SAVE A PLANET IN PERIL 269 A Foundation for Sustainable Development: Lessons Observed First-Hand from Social Science, Eco-Feminism, and Liberation Theology 275 The Moral Status of Other Creatures and the Concept of “Mother Nature” in the Moral Imagination 283 Determining Ecological Value amidst Shifting Paradigms 291 Moving toward a Theology of Mobilization 299 CONCLUSION 317 BIBLIOGRAPHY 321 VITA 361 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Process for Structured Ethical Reflection on Ecological Problems 67 Figure 2. Hermeneutic Circle of Practice and Theory 79 Figure 3. Maplecroft’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2013 88 Figure 4. ND-GAIN Index (Index.Gain.Org) 90 Figure 6. Inflated Countries with People Living on $1/Day or Less 99 Figure 7. Impoverished Countries Expanded According to the U.N.’s HPI-1 103 Figure 8. Countries Expanded According to Undernourished Population 104 Figure 9. Components of the Multidimensional Poverty Index 105 Figure 10. Schematic Framework of Anthropogenic Climate Change Drivers, Impacts, and Responses 117 Figure 11. Mapping the Global Variation in CO2 Emissions 130 Figure 12. The Modern Turn and a Dualistic Metaphysics 157 Figure 13. The Movement of Power through Institutions and Social Structures 249 Figure 14. A Safe and Just Space for Human Flourishing within Planetary Boundaries 312 viii ABSTRACT The contemporary ecological crisis, manifest in human-induced climate change, is a powerful form of structural violence against the poorest communities on the planet. As such, my research resides at the nexus of structural poverty, gender disparity, ecological degradation, and climate-induced displacement. The social justice implications emerging from this nexus require responsible moral deliberation and discernment over the international community’s role in minimizing the human tragedies accompanying forced displacement and migration. While asserting the interconnectedness and dependency of all life upon mutual flourishing, responsible decision-making expands the range of felt moral concern to include ecological flourishing. Social justice is only possible in tandem with climate justice and a concern for the whole person cannot be fully separated from environmental concern. As a response to both concerns, I critically correlate traditionally humanitarian issues within the context of the ecological crisis and I rely on an expanded understanding
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