Ekoreligia

Abstract

Traditional systems connected with people’s outlook on life (and they were mainly religious ones) began long ago and were not confronted by ecological problems. Yet, all world religions in their genuine forms are pro-ecological for at least three reasons: 1. They restrict man’s conviction of possessing power over nature and other people by submitting it to his responsibility to God, however differently understood; 2. They are anti-consumerist; they teach voluntary rejection or at least restraint in craving for these riches of “this world” which are not indispensable; 3. They urge social solidarity, condemn profound differences between the rich and the poor. Modern ecology turns for support to the religious systems which teach solicitude, delicacy in dealing with life and nature. Reflections on a presently promulgated idea of “lasting development” stress the necessity for establishing it on religious ideals. Preserving the order of nature will be possible only when man’s inner life is in order and this is what faith gives him. Christianity, and other religions as well, perceive religion in moral categories. Life is of primary value; it is a gift which was given to man by God. Ecology may become an important field of ecumenical interreligious dialogue. It is also an essential field for debates with the postmodernist image of the world, originating from the disappointment over science and technical civilisation against which an accusation was made that having been used by totalitarian systems it led to atrocities and exterminations never before encountered in the history of mankind.