Sheldon Greaves

On Thursday, 18 June Pope Francis I will release the encyclical Laudato Si (“Praised be”), the much-anticipated statement on climate change, and the role of humans with respect to the earth. This is as much a scientific and political statement as it is a theological one, made more significant by the persona of the Pope and his role as the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics. Consider that of all the major world religions, Catholicism is the only one that actually has a single leader or ruling body. Islam has been without a Caliphate since around 1920 (ISIS doesn’t count). Nor is there any kind of chief Rabbinate for Judaism that can speak to or for the world’s Jews. Hinduism, Buddhism, and the other major traditions do not have a leader recognized by all. Taken in this light, Pope Francis I enjoys remarkable power, even if not everyone in his flock agrees with him or listens to him. The ability to declare the challenge of climate change not merely important, but has the force of divine providence behind it for over one billion people is a level of influence even the most James Bondian billionaire power-broker can barely imagine. This is the stuff of revolution. An oft-quoted piece on marketwatch.com (Owned by none other than Rupert Murdoch) by Paul Ferrell states:

Translated bluntly, stripped of all the euphemisms and his charm, that will be the loud-and-clear message of Pope Francis’ historic encyclical coming on June 18. Pope Francis has a grand mission here on Earth, and he gives no quarter, hammering home a very simple message with no wiggle room for compromise of his principles: ‘If we destroy God’s Creation, it will destroy us,” our human civilization here on Planet Earth.

Yes, he’s blunt, tough, he is a revolutionary. And on June 18 Pope Francis’s call-to-arms will be broadcast loud, clear and worldwide. Not just to 1.2 billion Catholics, but heard by seven billion humans all across the planet. And, yes, many will oppose him, be enraged to hear the message, because it is a call-to-arms, like Paul Revere’s ride, inspiring billions to join a people’s revolution.

What is not so clear to the average reader is that this position by Pope Francis is not particularly radical in Catholic doctrine or tradition. The Pope’s namesake, Francis of Assisi was about as “green” a saint as you could get, and his reverence for the earth and its creatures was met with approval down through the centuries. But the idea of respect for the earth as God’s creation goes back much further, back to the book of Genesis itself.

As the opening section of the Jewish Torah or book of Law, it seems odd to us today that a law book would begin with an account of how the world came to be. But it is a mistake to read Genesis that way. Reading Genesis as a scientific account of creation is like reading Hamlet as a comprehensive history of medieval Denmark. Creation stories in the ancient Near East were common frameworks for articulating the core values of a people. So the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish praised the dominance of Marduk and the institution of Kingship in ancient Mesopotamia. Another Mesopotamian epic, Atrahasis, affirms that humans are basically creatures who job it is to do the dirty work that the gods didn’t want to do, and that they are pretty much the scut workers of the universe. The universe belongs to the gods, and humanity should never forget it.

Genesis (which received its final form during the Babylonian Exile) contests these notions, but goes further. In chapter 1, God creates the major aspects of the universe by separating one piece from another–light from darkness, earth from sky, land from sea, etc.–and naming each component. At the end, sees that “it was good.” But shortly thereafter, God does something quite extraordinary. He creates humans, and then the animals, and brings them to Adam, who gives them names. This may not seem like much to us, but in ancient Near Eastern cultures, naming something was a very big deal. To name something was to gain power over it, and assume responsibility for it. It was also recognized as a creative act. Just as God creates the universe by naming and fiat, by having Adam name the animals he is literally making humans co-creators of the cosmos. This is huge. I have found nothing even remotely like this in any other cosmogony from the Near East.

This is not an isolated thing. At first, God forbids Adam and Eve from using animals for any purpose. They may not kill them for any reason. Later, after the Flood, God revises the terms. Humans may use animals, but with certain restrictions, with severe consequences for violating those rules. But getting back to Genesis, the meaning of the original Hebrew text is clear. Humanity is responsible for taking care of the earth. The phrase to “subdue the earth and master it” means that humans were to continue the work God started in the creation, which was to make the earth fertile and full of life. Humanity was to master the earth the way an artist masters a medium or a musician a musical instrument.

Incidentally, “subdue and master” was never taken as a license to pillage the natural world until the industrial revolution.

Another wrinkle not generally known is that His Holiness has access to some extremely capable advisers on scientific matters. Francis is the first Jesuit Pope, one of the intellectual elite of Catholicism, who are not known for indulging in wooly thinking or sloppy scholarship. While it is not always apparent, the Holy See has learned a thing or two since that whole unfortunate affair with Galileo and a few other intellectual troublemakers since then. In past decades Popes have come out in support of evolution, science generally, and even the “faith destroying” work of modern biblical scholarship.

Laudato Si is the stuff of revolution, but it is also radical in the most basic sense: “radical” comes from the Latin word “radix” which means root. A radical is someone who returns to root ideas and values. In this case, it is utterly correct to call this encyclical radical. It could not have come from a more morally credible leader or at a more desperate time for humanity.

And so it is that I  savor the pungent irony of the Catholic Church being right on a matter of science when the GOP remains mired in myth. Given that whole Galileo thing, one might consider this an act of repentance.