Spiritual Leadership
But will the faithful follow?
You would think a major spiritual leader like the Pope or the Patriarch of Constantinople or the Dalai Lama would be able to rally the followers of their respective religious faiths to environmental action. Certainly three current leaders of world Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism wield enormous spiritual authority.
Here are some representative samples of their teaching.
Pope Francis
Pope Francis published Laudato Si in 2015, the same year as the Paris Agreement at COP21. Eight years later, he has recently come out with Laudate Deum in anticipation of COP28.
“Laudato Si’” was a lengthy, prophetic encyclical, published in 2015. It was the first papal teaching dedicated exclusively to the nexus of the environmental and social crises. As a teaching document, it synthesized Christian tradition with contemporary environmental sciences and social analysis. It proposed that all people on the planet engage in dialogue and become educated on ecological matters, which they incorporate into their spirituality.
“Laudate Deum,” published on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi this year, is a precisely focussed call to action, urging all people of good will to make greater efforts in relation to the climate crisis. Specifically, it anticipates the upcoming Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and urges the participants to make effective, obligatory and easily monitored commitments to transition away from fossil fuels to greener sources of energy.
The exhortation also appeals for increased involvement from civil society to partner with multilateral organizations in holding politicians and businesses accountable to their publicly stated commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
More specifically the Pope sees the necessity of a groundswell of change coming “from below,” from people, families, and local communities to overcome the gap between knowledge and behavior.
Never before have people had so much information about the harmful effects of our activity. Yet our destruction of the natural systems that support us is worsening by the year. What can explain this gap between our knowledge and our behavior?
In “Laudate Deum,” Pope Francis notes the lack of connection between personal, family and community efforts to reduce consumption, wastage and pollution and what is happening (or rather not happening) with the political sector and “the powerful” (No. 71). He believes that relevant cultural changes are taking place from below, and that these will bring about larger processes of transformation.
(Source: ibid.)
Patriarch Bartholomew
Patriarch Bartholomew is spiritual head of Eastern Orthodox Christians. He is known as the “Green Patriarch” and has spoken, taught, published, and convened ecumenical and theological-scientific gatherings for decades.
The Green Patriarch - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew - YouTube
“Environmental abuse, to commit a crime against the natural world, is a sin. To destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation, to degrade the integrity of earth’s climate, to strip the earth of its forests, to destroy wetlands — all of these are sins.”
But the Patriarch’s message is not only negative. Out of the long spiritual tradition of the eastern Christian Church comes the deepest respect for creation.
The very life of the Church is an applied ecology. The sacraments of the Church, its entire life of worship, its asceticism and communal life, the daily life of its faithful, express and generate the deepest respect for creation. The ecological sensitivity of Orthodoxy was not created by but emerged from the contemporary environmental crisis. The struggle for the protection of creation is a central dimension of our faith. Respect for the environment is an act of doxology of God’s name, while the destruction of creation is an offense against the Creator, entirely irreconcilable with the basic tenets of Christian theology.
(Source: Patriarchal Encyclical for the Ecclesial New Year, Sept 1, 2020)
The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama, meanwhile, has been an environmentalist for 70 years.
He has been calling for wildlife conservation and environmental protection ever since he took political responsibility of Tibet in 1950.
From ordering measures for forest protection, banning hunting during the period of independent Tibet, ending poultry farming, supporting vegetarianism in the exiled Tibetan community in India, calling for tree plantation and wildlife protection in Tibet, highlighting ecological importance of the Tibetan Plateau, and urging for global cooperation on climate change — the Dalai Lama has consistently worked for environmental conservation for the last seven decades.
(Source: Dalai Lama an Environmentalist: A Commitment of 70 Years | thequint.com)
Respect for life emanates from the core of Buddhist faith and extends from humans to animals to peace between the nations of the earth.
The Tibetan people's inherent respect for all forms of life is enhanced by the Buddhist faith, which prohibits the harming of all sentient beings, whether human or animal. The proposal to transform Tibet as a Zone of Peace stems from [the Dalai Lama’s] strong desire for a peaceful co-existence among different nations.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and was the first Laureate to be recognized for his environmental concern as well.
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his decades’ long commitment to a peaceful struggle, even in the face of extreme aggression for the restoration of freedom in Tibet. He also became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognised for his motivation and concern towards global environmental.
The Nobel Committee wrote:
“The Dalai Lama has developed his philosophy of peace from a great reverence for all things living and upon the concept of universal responsibility embracing all mankind as well as nature. In the opinion of the Committee, the Dalai Lama has come forward with constructive and forward-looking proposals for the solution of international conflicts, human rights issues, and global environmental problems.”
(Source: ibid.)
Contemporary humans seeking to live better lives in the Anthropocene can surely draw upon the spiritual resources of such great religious traditions as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and Tibetan Buddhism to inform and deepen their insight, motivation, and concern.
The Pope openly acknowledges the struggle to move from knowledge to a change in behavior. From within my own tradition of Orthodoxy, I know that it can be difficult for parishes to respond to the Patriarch’s call because spiritual admonitions become confused with political alignments. The economic rise of Asia significantly challenges an underlying Buddhist faith for a significant proportion of people in the region. And of course all over the world, economic development seems to go hand in hand with diminished religious faith and commitment, either through outright secularization or the privatization of spiritual life out of the public sphere.