Ecology, Justice and Revolution in Pope Francis’s ‘Laudato Si’”

A Study Group Convened by Steve Knight
3 more Tuesdays, July 19 thru August 2, 2016, 7:00 to 9:00 PM
Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home has become a rallying cry for environmental and social justice activists since its publication in June 2015. Francis calls upon all segments of civil society to join in creating a healing “integral ecology” that hears both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. In the process, he constructs a scathing critique of neoliberal capitalism that challenges dominant paradigms of technology, bioethics, preservation of the commons, and many other issues. We will undertake a close reading of Laudato Si supplemented by selected readings in liberation theology, the movement from the Global South combining Christian principles and Marxist praxis that is a major influence on Laudato Si.

Steve Knight is a former college English instructor who has been both a co-convenor and student in Marxist Education Project study groups on ecosocialism and Hegel. He has also been active in faith-centered eco-justice advocacy as a GreenFaith Fellow, and as a member of The Beloved Earth Community at Manhattan’s Riverside Church.