by Stratford Caldecott

The Radiance of Being: Dimensions of Cosmic Christianity (Angelico Press, 2013)

Probably the majority in the environmental movement do not see the relevance of mysticism, or personal virtue and morality, to the great issues of our day. To them it is merely a technological or political challenge. They will try to get their hands on the levers of power, and will be increasingly and everlastingly frustrated to discover that all their attempts come to nothing, or make things worse. I do not mean to say that there is no point in political action, but rather that the assumption that these problems are primarily political is a mistake. We need a new kind of politics, a new kind of technology, to solve these problems, namely a politics and a technology that have not been elevated to the level of what the Pope calls “ideological power” (Caritas in Veritate, n. 70). We need the kind of “appropriate technology” that has been developed for use in the poorer regions of the world, and we need a more local politics, in accordance with the Catholic principle of subsidiarity. This would place the emphasis back on the human person and our individual efforts. The belief that we can solve the world’s problems by throwing power and money at them does not take account of human nature. It leads to the creation of vast commercial and political empires that inevitably become corrupt. [Read more...]