Panel: RELIGION, MOBILITY, AND INEQUALITY: RETHINKING SOCIAL BOUNDARIES IN A CHANGING WORLD



131.8 - Eco-spirituality as an ethical and spiritual response to the global ecological crisis

AUTHORS:
Baghino A. (University of Chile Alberto Hurtado ~ Santiago de Chile ~ Chile)
Text:
Today, one of the most urgent challenges is the accelerated deterioration of ecosystems (Benanti 2019), visible in global warming, environmental pollution, and the loss of biodiversity (Mafla, González, and Torres-Muñoz 2024). Faced with this crisis, technical, technological, economic, and legislative responses are necessary, but they remain insufficient if they are not accompanied by a profound transformation of human consciousness. In contrast to this approach, integral ecology (Francis 2015) and eco-spirituality (Egger 2012; Sponsel 2012) propose understanding the ecological crisis also as an ethical, cultural, and spiritual crisis. This work seeks to show that eco-spirituality offers key insights for rethinking the relationship between the human being, the Earth, and the sacred (Honneth 1997; Jonas 1994). Likewise, the limits of a purely eco-authoritarian response will be analyzed, showing that environmental legislation needs to be supported by a change in consciousness. In this sense, religions can play a relevant role by promoting duties of care, respect for creation, and responsibility toward future generations.