Environmental Spirituality: Grounding our response to climate change

Climate change calls us to examine our understanding of our place within, and relationship to, the natural world. At heart this is a spiritual search, which has deep resonance with our being. A spiritual search stresses developing: 1. awareness of self, 2. consideration of the impact on others; 3. feeling of universal connectedness. These three characteristics of lived spirituality are used to explore environmental spirituality. A distinction is made between 'environmentally motivated spirituality' and 'spiritually motivated environmentalism'. Discussion on environmentally motivated spirituality leads to an exploration of Deep Ecology and consideration of principles of equity. Here we argue for a transactional view of the relationship between self and nature. We also develop a principle of ecological integrity, which posits a hierarchical interdependency between economy, society and nature. Developing an environmentally motivated spirituality has normative consequences and thus is part of the development of an environmental ethics. An environmentally motivated spirituality is both a prerequisite to and grounds our spiritually motivated environmentalism. Ontology comes before Ethics. Promoting sustainable development requires the utilisation of the energy of creation and the enhancement of our synergy with God as creator. This fundamental Christian belief could constitute our spiritual approach to the task. We conclude by briefly exploring spiritually motivated environmentalism as it relates to the construction of environmentally sustainable approaches to climate change.