Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor (Ecology & Justice) by Leonardo Boff

Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor (Ecology & Justice) by Leonardo Boff

Author:Leonardo Boff [Boff, Leonardo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Theology, Philosophy, Religion
ISBN: 9781570751363
Amazon: 1570751366
Goodreads: 876705
Publisher: Orbis Books
Published: 2012-07-15T06:00:00+00:00


A PEDAGOGY FOR GLOBALIZATION

Having a new cosmology is not enough. How are we to spread it and bring people to internalize it so as to inspire new behaviors, nourish new dreams, and bolster a new kindness toward the Earth? That is certainly a pedagogical challenge.

As the old paradigm that atomized human beings, isolated them, and set them against the universe and the community of living beings permeated through all our pores in our lives and created a collective subjectivity suited to its intuitions, so now the new paradigm must form new kinds of subjectivity and enter into all realms of life, society, the family, the media, and educational institutions in order to shape a new planetary man and woman, in cosmic solidarity and in tune with the overall direction of the evolutionary process.

First of all, we must bring about the great revolution in perspective that grounds the new cosmology; we cannot understand ourselves as separate from the Earth nor can we continue with the classic vision that regards the Earth as a lifeless planet, a clump of soil and water full of the hundred elements of which all beings are composed. We are much more than that. We are sons and daughters of Earth, we are the Earth itself become self-aware, the Earth journeying, as the great Argentine mestizo poet Atahualpa Yupanqui said, the thinking Earth, the loving Earth, and the Earth celebrating the mystery of the universe.

Hence, the Earth is not a planet on which life exists. As we noted in chapter 1, the mixture of elements, temperature, and chemical composition in the atmosphere and sea on Earth is such that only a living organism can do what it does. The Earth does not contain life. It is life, a living superorganism, Gaia.

The human species represents Gaia's ability to have a reflex awareness, a synthesizing mind, and a loving subjectivity. We humans, men and women, make it possible for Earth to appreciate its own lush beauty, contemplate its intricate complexity, and spiritually discover the Mystery that permeates it.

What human beings are in relation to the Earth, the Earth itself is in relation to the cosmos that we know. The cosmos is not an object in which we discover life; it is a living subject in a process of becoming. It has journeyed for fifteen billion years. It has doubled back upon itself and matured in such a way that in one of its corners, in the Milky Way, in the solar system, on planet Earth, there has emerged self-awareness, awareness of where it came from, where it is going, and whose symbol and image it is. When an ecological agronomist studies soil composition, the cosmos is studying itself. When an astronomer points a telescope toward the stars, the universe is gazing at itself.4

The change that such a comprehension should produce in people's minds and in institutions can only be compared to the change that took place in the sixteenth century when the Earth was proven to be round and to revolve around the sun.



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