CHAPTER 3: COCIN’S THEOLOGY ON ECOLOGY
3.9 Sallie McFague’s Planetary Theology: An Introduction
3.9.3 The Ecological Worldview
Ecology is the study of relationships that work well in community (McFague 2001;
Bauckham 2010). Therefore, ecological economics supports the allocation of scarce resources to enable the community to work together in harmonious relationship. The focus of the ecological worldview is not entirely on humankind, but human beings can also benefit from the whole system. The benefit is not through acquiring wealth for ourselves by the exchange of value but through sharing in the basics of a good life which is the use of value (McFague 2001: 99). McFague adds that this economics is called “economics for community”. This is how the household is managed to increase the use value to all members of the household over long periods of time. The main concern of ecological economics is community, justice and sustainability (McFague
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2001: 99). Ecological economics suggests that people cannot survive and flourish unless they accept their complete dependence on one another on the planet. In addition, this worldview stresses that human need is more basic than human greed because humans are relational beings. What is critical to the interpretation of ‘who we are’ and ‘where we fit in the world’ from both the economic and ecological worldviews is the allocation of resources, distributive justice, and sustainability (McFague 2001: 100).
The ecological worldview is also ethically inclined. It has a vision of how humankind ought to live on earth in relation to the perceived reality of where and how humankind lives (McFague 2001: 100). Although resources may be owned by an individual, however: “The individual exists only within the community and the community is composed entirely of these individuals” (McFague 2001: 104). This means that there is no conflict between the individual and the community, they depend on one another. The earth is not just simply seen as an environment where human activities take place;
instead, “it is what has made us who we are and what sustains our every second of existence” (McFague 2001: 101). McFague further claims that if humankind refuses to acknowledge who we are, where and how we live, then it means that we are destroying the very foundation of our existence. Therefore, the goal of the ecological worldview is to balance individual freedom with the integrity of the community. The idea is that community must be able to survive and thrive first (sustainability), and this will be possible only if all members have access to its resources (distributive justice). The ecological worldview begins with sustainability and then distributive justice and not with the allocation of resources among competing persons. When sustainability and the sense of community are taken into consideration, then the allocation of resources among people in the community can take place fairness and equity (McFague 2001:
102).
Sustainability means to nurture, save and support whatever people depend on as a source of livelihood. Sustainability is the foundation of the good life for all and this includes not only a basic living standard but opportunities for cultural, technological, educational, social, and spiritual development (McFague 2001: 105). Eluu (2015: 128)
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claims that there has been a rise in religious activities and many people have become influenced by religious ideologies. Therefore, if religious leaders advocate for environmental care, it will instil values in their adherents to take responsibility for ecological issues because they relate to their faith. Ngome attributes the inability of humankind to sustain non-human creatures to the corrupt tendencies of human nature (Ngome 2015: 13–14). To deal with such a situation, it is important for humans to know that “God is calling us not to violate the earth” (Uka 2014: 257). Ogboru and Anga (2015: 12) are of the view that in Nigeria there exists an unsustainable use of forest resources and recommended that government should introduce charges and taxes on the extraction of natural resources to discourage people from plundering them.
For the planet earth and its life-forms to remain in a healthy state, individuals must have access to the earth’s resources upon which survival and flourishing depend. McFague points out that both poverty and excessive wealth cause harm to nature; for instance, the poor people use the environment especially for firewood as a source of energy for cooking while the rich pollute the air with greenhouse gases in the course of production (McFague 2001:109). Distributive justice does not mean that all people must have the same or equal income. However, sustainability is not possible if humankind destroys nature either through excessive wealth or excessive poverty (McFague 2001: 109–110).
The implication of this for sustainability according to McFague is, “Our joy and sorrow, our gain and loss, our ‘for better or worse’, are tied to our need and responsibility for one another” (2001: 111). It is argued that God created humankind and gave the mandate of sustaining other creatures under their care including plants, animals, fish of the sea, and birds of the air (TOW 2014).
McFague explains further that in an ecological society “the good life is defined not by the individual accumulation of money, but by the use of money to help people to have decent, fulfilling lives. The good life is not having ‘more and more’, but ‘enough’”
(McFague 2001: 111). Here money is being redefined in terms of its use value and not acquisition. Money is not the end here but a means to an end. The aim is for us to have the healthy development of humankind on a sustainable earth. This is contrary to the
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economic worldview which assumes that happiness is derived from the accumulation of material wealth. From the ecological worldview, happiness is not derived from the possession of things far more than for the basic needs of life, “but from community, nurture, friendship, love, and dedication to higher purposes” (McFague 2001: 115). In the light of the above, the concept of frugality is adopted as a lifestyle that will foster the good life in a community. Frugality here means using food or money only as much as is necessary, and it also means the efficient usage of any given resources in moderation.
McFague states that frugality is having a “sense of enough and the willingness to live within material limitations so that others may also have enough” (2001: 116).