A Study on Thought and Practice of Catholic Eco-spirituality

• Main Authors: TSAI, YOU-JUN, 蔡尤君
• Other Authors: John B. Chuang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55379456716682721301

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 宗教學系碩士在職專班 === 103 === Since ancient times, Eastern and Western cultural thoughts and most religions advocated nature. They regard nature as the gift for human beings, granted by the Creator or by Heaven. Returning to the nature of Ecological Spirituality is not a new way of spirituality created today. For example, in the middle Ages, there were many thinkers proclaiming a similar spirituality in the Catholic religion. Facing a deteriorating global ecological environment, many ecologists think that religion could contribute to the peace of the world and the ecological system of the world. Thus, the writer focused on the Catholic religion as the research subject, and applied literature analysis and historical research to investigate the thoughts and practice of a Catholic Ecological Spirituality. The investigation targets of this thesis: first, does the Catholic Church, which regards spirituality highly, also highly advocate ecological spirituality? Secondly, what is the origin of eco-spirituality and how does it develop in the Catholic Church? Thirdly, what is the solution nowadays when facing the difficulty of the practice of eco-spirituality in the Catholic Church? Finally, does Catholic ecological spirituality inspire today’s Taiwanese Catholic Church and society? The writer hopes to provide some useful reference for the Catholic Church and other religious spiritual groups by doing this research. Through the research, the writer found that Catholic ecological spirituality contains three dimensions and four aspects. Heaven, Earth and the Human being are the three dimensions. And the four aspects are to reconcile with Heaven, nature, others and oneself. First of all, the writer investigated the Bible and the Catholic social teachings and found the ecological morality presented that there were ecological spiritual thoughts in the traditional Catholic Church. Secondly, in the spiritual history of the Catholic Church, there were many religionists living in reclusion in the desert and the forest with a simple ecological spiritual life, in communion with Heaven and Earth. Thirdly, using Taiwanese Catholic Church as an example, the writer investigated present practice of ecological spiritual thoughts and realized the practice was integrated with the environmental protection works, and finally with social concerns. However, the present practice has its difficulty. The writer hopes to find solutions in the future, in order to apply Catholic unique ecological thoughts concretely, to benefit this island and to further contribute to the world.