- Maps the ethical terrain of an imperiled planet
- Convincing shows that eco-justice, economic justice, and racial justice are linked
- Rethinks Christian ethics in light of the ecological and economic crises
The increasingly pressing situation of Planet Earth poses urgent ethical questions. The earth crisis cannot be understood apart from the larger human crisis — economic equity, racial justice, social values, and human purpose are bound up with the planet’s survival. With climate change, humankind hovers on a precipice. A “great work” is before us: To forge ways of living together that allow Earth’s life-systems to flourish and that diminish the soul-shattering gap between those who have too much and those who have too little. For this – the testing point of human history — all forms of human knowledge have a role to play.
The world’s great faith traditions are called to plumb their depths for wisdom to meet this unprecedented moral challenge. The law of compassion or love resounds throughout religious traditions as a basic moral norm of life. What does this norm mean for the world’s high-consuming societies in the early 21st century, especially since we stand most culpable for climate change and least vulnerable to its devastating impacts? From the lens of Christian ethics, Moe-Lobeda probes this and the world of questions flowing from it.
Reorienting Christian ethics from its usual anthropocentrism to an ecocentrism entails a new framework that Moe-Lobeda lays out in her first chapters, culminating in a creative rethinking of how it is that we understand morally. With this “moral epistemology” in place, she unfolds a “moral vision” and applies it to the present situation in a full-fledged earth-honoring, justice-seeking Christian ethical stance.
Review from Tikkun Magazine:
Doing Justice in an Unjust World
Consider the following paradox: many of the everyday tools of engaged citizens and progressive activists—especially our various electronic gadgets—contribute directly to the suffering of other unseen human beings in ways that we scarcely realize.
Discarded electronic devices often become hazardous waste exports to developing countries, where they are dismantled by low-wage workers who risk their own health and that of their children to salvage materials for reuse in industrial processes. Likewise, the standard lifestyle of active participants in affluent societies typically involves consumption of energy and fossil fuel resources at a level that is simply unsustainable and will trigger rapid global warming, barring a massive reversal of that course. However, the harshest impacts of climate change will be felt first not by those with the largest carbon footprints but by residents in the developing world living in proximity to oceans and nearer to the equator.
Nonetheless, to be an effective change agent in the United States and other “advanced” nations more or less requires use of these tools and participation in this lifestyle. Yes, individuals can become far more conscientious about their consumption, where their stuff comes from, and how it’s made, and they can use their consumer power to promote an alternative, more social economy. Yet, at the end of the day, even the most conscientious of us will still be using far more resources than most others on the planet, in ways that cannot be morally justified.
This is the kind of moral quandary that Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda’s magisterial volume Resisting Structural Evil places before readers. The claim at the heart of Moe-Lobeda’s book is that the everyday workings of global capitalism are endangering the survival of the planet and perpetrating structural economic violence on many people in the developing world. This in itself is a challenging claim, but it’s only the starting point for an extended ethical reflection that tries to answer honestly this question: how can flawed people like ourselves who are hopelessly entangled in practices and institutions that perpetuate injustice and violence against the earth (and ultimately our own children and grandchildren) possibly live an ethically responsible, justice-promoting life?
Tags: Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation
