The Pope’s #Encyclical is MORE important than the Bible right now. ( the Bible as typically interpreted, that is). But even rightly interpreted, given our present crisis, we don’t have time to retrain and re-teach an ecological Biblical narrative. That would take some years of doing, since it would have to UNDO centuries of an age-old heresy of humanity considering themselves as the central force of the universe and the earth. The “Biblical manipulations” that take place as cultures shape our attitudes in ways alien to the intent of the Biblical writers, have created the mindset that reads back into the interpretations we apply to the Biblical narrative. And so the needed “Reformation” process of Biblical interpretation seems to be less important as we put our energies to the task of the threat that would overwhelm us all too soon for that to reach our assumptions about the Bible.

So, it’s more important to be theologically DIRECT, which the #Encyclical does very well, and does so in a profoundly theological way. Because I know and trust the deep Biblical underpinnings of the Pope (particularly THIS Pope, who is clearly conscious of the Scriptures call to liberation and the proclamation of Good News that points to liberation, has brought to bear not only the considerable theological resources of the church, but also has an entire team of scientific scholars tasked with reporting the findings of worldwide scientific community regarding Climate Change, I see this Encyclical as an important source of concentrated theological vision appropriate for the crisis we face.

Related to this post, I have some comments about Naomi Klein’s work on this, mainly through her book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate. This will be going up soon. (Hint: In many ways, she is prophetic and inspired).