{"id":1386,"date":"2016-10-09T06:23:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T10:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcmetheology.wpengine.com\/?p=1386"},"modified":"2016-10-09T06:23:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T10:23:43","slug":"technocratic-model-vs-an-integral-and-integrated-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/technocratic-model-vs-an-integral-and-integrated-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Technocratic Model vs. An Integral and Integrated Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter Three of Laudato S\u00ed <\/em>is entitled \u201cThe Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis;\u201d it could well be called \u201cOriginal Sin, Reprise.\u201d Once again, humans have participated with God in creating things with enormous potential for good, in this case all that falls under the term \u201cmodern technology,\u201d then proceeded to spend an inordinate amount of time distorting that potential goodness.\u00a0 We have done it now to the point that we worship (there is hardly another word for it) \u201can undifferentiated and one-dimensional technocratic paradigm<\/em>\u201d [italics his], increasing the tendency of the scientific method as \u201ca technique of possession, mastery and transformation\u201d (L.S. 107) to the point that this paradigm devastatingly dominates the world economy. \u201cThe economy accepts every advance in technology with a view to profit, without concern for its potentially negative impact on human beings\u201d (L.S. 109).<\/p>\n

As if that critique were not disturbing enough, the Holy Father goes on to strike at the very root of the distortion, \u201can inadequate presentation of Christian anthropology\u201d that has resulted in an \u201canthropocentrism\u201d of mastery over rather than stewardship of the rest of Creation (L.S. 115-6).\u00a0 (Notice how deeply ingrained the distortion is: we tend to say \u201ccreation\u201d when we mean \u201ceverything except us.\u201d The paradigm of dominance is woven into our everyday language.) Pope Francis wisely highlights the interconnectedness of the reality, and hence of the distortion: we cannot heal our relationship with the rest of creation in isolation, nor heal our human relationships without addressing the former: healing, like violence, is of a package (L.S. 119).<\/p>\n

The counterpart of the technocratic model in which we are living according to Pope Francis in Chapter 3 is the need for a humanism with an integral and integrated vision, as Pope Francis explains,<\/p>\n

We urgently need a humanism capable of bringing together the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the service of a more integral and integrating vision.<\/em> (LS, 141)<\/p>\n

This integral and integrated vision of reality is urgently need right now because modernity \"img_0856\"<\/a>based its great progress in the separation of the subject form the object. For Roberto Goizueta, theology professor at Boston College, modernity gave birth to \u201cthe autonomous agent of his or her own life\u201d who does not just live in history but makes history. In this way \u201chistory is a product of the human activity or praxis.\u201d The consequences of this view are reflected in our own language: \u201cThe modern subject \u2018makes\u2019 a living, \u2018makes\u2019 love, and strives to \u2018make something\u2019 of himself or herself.\u201d This \u201cmaking\u201d of everything creates a separation of the subject from the object that Goizueta sees as a \u201cprecondition for the subject to control the object in order to manipulate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The separation of the subject from the object implicit in the understanding of human activity as praxis has lead us to great advances in modernity. However, what caught Goizueta\u2019s attention is the fact that \u201chuman beings can control and transform their natural and social environments, as well as their own lives,\u201d which also carries with it the ideology of progress characteristic of modernity.<\/p>\n

Thus, for Goizueta, modernity gave birth to the human subject as \u201cmaker\u201d of history, as alienated from the object and able to \u201ccontrol\u201d and \u201cwork on\u201d his or her environment.<\/p>\n

Human action–praxis, grounded in the separation of the subject from the object as modernity understood in Goizueta\u2019s view has also \u201claid the foundation for the devastation of the environment\u201d<\/p>\n

This devastation of the environment which foundation was laid on by the separation of the object from the subject and that brought great progress, today is in need of an integral and\u00a0 integrated\u00a0 vison or what Pope Francis calls integral ecology, an approach to ecology that insist that environmental and social problems are interconnected, as Pope Francis explains,<\/p>\n

We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature. <\/em>(LS, 139)<\/p>\n

This integral and integrated approach to ecology described by Pope Francis implies an \u201ceconomic ecology\u201d which considers that\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cthe protection of the environment is in fact \u2018an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it.\u2019\u201d (L.S. 141). A \u201csocial ecology\u201d that understand that\u201d the health of a society\u2019s institutions has consequences for the environment and the quality of human life.\u201d Because as Pope Benedict XVI in Caritas Veritate<\/em> says, \u201cEvery violation of solidarity and civic friendship harms the environment.\u201d (51) Finally, this integral and integrated vision of ecology requires a \u201ccultural ecology\u201d that lead to accept that \u201cCulture is more than what we have inherited from the past; it is also, and above all, a living, dynamic and participatory present reality, which cannot be excluded as we rethink the relationship between human beings and the environment\u201d (L.S. 143).<\/p>\n

Nelson Araque<\/strong> teaches History of Latino Catholics<\/em> in the Ministry to Latino Catholics Certificate Program<\/a>\u00a0and Pamela Hedrick<\/strong> teaches Sacred Scripture and spirituality forSaint Joseph\u2019s College Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter Three of Laudato S\u00ed is entitled \u201cThe Human Roots of the Ecological Crisis;\u201d it could well be called \u201cOriginal Sin, Reprise.\u201d Once again, humans have participated with God in creating things with enormous potential for good, in this case … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14,22,24,1],"tags":[146,160,221],"class_list":["post-1386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-new-evangelization","category-social-justice","category-the-pope","category-uncategorized","tag-integral-ecology","tag-laudato-si","tag-pope-francis"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}