Can You Connect Today's Environmental Exploitation With A 15th-Century Roman Catholic Doctrine?
Season 1, Episode 24, May 23, 2019, 09:27 AM
The Doctrine of Discovery (1493) was a papal bull authorizing Christian conquest of non-Christian lands. Could this 15th-century Roman Catholic document be influencing how we in the industrial and post-industrial West are treating the world and nature’s goods?
A recent report from the United Nations working group IPBES on biodiversity is the occasion for these theological reflections.
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Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:37 Shayna summarizes the IPBES report.
03:22 Shayna invites us into theological reflection on the environment that goes beyond Scripture (usually we begin with Genesis and note how in that story God gives Creation to humanity to have dominion over and to be good stewards of). Instead, what if we reflect on the history of the Church, and look especially at what our theological inheritance is, from the time of the “Age of Discovery” (late 15th-17th centuries). Specifically, what is the Doctrine of Discovery, and what kind of theology does it promote?
06:23 Can the mindset of exploitation be traced to this document? Chris probes this question with Shayna.
12:17 Is our exploitation of the environment today connected to the exploitation of indigenous peoples throughout the history of European settlement of North America?
14:39 The United Nations report seems to be calling for a radical new beginning. Can we begin to imagine what such a new beginning could look like, and how it might come?
17:01 Shayna makes a “Game of Thrones” reference.
17:55 If the Doctrine of Discovery is bad theology, what is its opposite good theology? Shayna and Chris each offer a response.