CE 3080: EARTH ETHICS AS JUSTICE ETHICS

Spring Thursday 9:40-12:30

Location: Chapel Classroom

Prof. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda Office Phone: 206 384-8760

Office: PLTS, Gisey Hall B2

Human beings are a part of the whole we call the Universe, a small region in time and space. They regard themselves, their ideas, and their feelings as separate and apart from all the rest. It is something like an optical illusion in their consciousness. This illusion is a sort of prison; it restricts us to our personal aspirations and limits our affective life to a few people very close to us. Our task should be to free ourselves from this prison, opening up our circle of compassion in order to embrace all living creatures and all of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein

Injustice, embedded to the point of invisibility in social structures and assumptions, is the basic problem of society….The basic problem is the reification of such injustice into sacred canopies (or master narratives) so that they seem impervious to, even outside of , human control.

Gloria Albrecht

We will have to repent…not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If we do not change direction, we will end up where we are heading.”

Ancient Chinese Proverb

Until we see what is possible, what is appears necessary.

Jean Piaget

And this is the meaning of ethics: to express the ways in which love embodies itself and life is maintained and saved..

Paul Tillich

COURSE DESCRIPTION FROM COURSE CATALOGUE

This course addresses an unprecedented moral challenge facing humankind in the current context of ways of living that threaten Earth’s life-generating capacities. The challenge is to forge regenerative Earth-human relations while also building social justice between and among societies. The course engages that challenge through the lens of Christian ethics. The complex intertwining of climate change with social injustice – in particular racism and economic injustice – on local and global scales will be a central focus. Methodological resources include liberation ethics, Earth ethics, eco-feminist perspectives, and eco-hermeneutics. The informing undercurrent of the course is the quest for hope and moral-spiritual agency in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

FULLER COURSE DESCRIPTION

The last third of the twentieth century witnessed an unprecedented shift in earth-human relations. Through climate change and associated dynamics, the human species now threatens Earth’s capacity to sustain life as we know it. Climate change is linked with various forms of social injustice based on race/ethnicity, class, gender, nationality, caste, and situation in Global North/Global South. Efforts to mitigate climate change may either exacerbate or reduce existing injustice. Yet, in the United States, much of the burgeoning movement to mitigate climate change has tended to ignore its social justice implications. In this context, something new is asked of humankind — to forge a sustainable relationship with our planetary home, and to do so in ways that build equity within and between societies. The nexus of social justice with ecological sustainability is known, in some discourses, as eco-justice.

Paths toward eco-justice are many. They involve both resistance to destructive and unjust policies and practices, and rebuilding more just alternatives. Students in this course will explore varied paths of resistance and rebuilding including advocacy, community-organizing, campaigns, education and consciousness-raising, infrastructure change, lifestyle changes, civil disobedience and other forms of public witness, and more.

Where something new is asked of humankind, something new is asked of religion. Secular voices, including networks of renowned scientists, have called for religious wisdom to enter the quest for ecological sustainability. Increasingly the Earth crisis is seen as a matter not only requiring political will and techno-fixes but also spirituality and morality. Science has shown that human behavior is threatening Earth’s regenerative capacities. Yet, this knowledge does not appear to be producing the change that it demands. Many societies of the Global North, although they possess the wealth and technology to make the requisite radical changes (for instance, in carbon emissions) are failing to do so. Religion may offer the moral and spiritual power for the fundamental re-orientation of life that is required if humans are to live sustainably within Earth’s ecological systems. At the same time, eco-theology, exercising the crucial self-critical task of theology, is unearthing many ways in which religion – and Christianity in particular – has contributed to the mindsets and life practices that undergird climate change.

This course will explore these two basic movements of eco-theology. One is to uncover and name religious traditions’ contributions to ecological degradation in order to end those contributions and open the door to re-shaping religious traditions such that they serve the wellbeing of Earth and its life systems. The second movement is that very re-formation. It entails retrieving Earth-affirming aspects of the traditions that may have been obscured or suppressed over the centuries, and imaginatively reinterpreting or reconstructing religious beliefs, symbols, and practices.

Both movements require acknowledging the profound but often unrecognized role of religion in shaping how human beings relate to the material world around them. Religion raises the fundamental cosmological and moral questions of human life. According to a given religious tradition, how did the material world come into being and why does it exist? What is its destiny? Where does matter end and spirit begin? How do humans fit in to the story of the earth? What is our destiny and purpose? What ways of being and acting are good, right, and true? Who and what is to be valued, who and what eschewed? Who has the power to establish these norms and values? What social arrangements are to be valued and sought? How are relations of power and privilege to be ordered? Such questions are as ancient as the religious traditions themselves. The given answers – conscious or not—powerfully shape how human individuals and societies understand the nature of the world around them, why it has value or does not, and how humans are to live in relationship to the rest of the natural world.

The methodological and disciplinary lens for this seminar course is the interdisciplinary field of Christian ethics, as influenced by liberationist and eco-feminist theological and social theoretical perspectives. The approach to religion will be one of critique, retrieval, and reconstruction. The informing undercurrent of the course is the quest for hope and moral-spiritual agency in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students who participate fully in all aspects of this course will be able to do the following with some proficiency, and will have set the stage for further developing that proficiency. (Tools for measuring each outcome are noted immediately following it.)

discuss ways in which Christianity has contributed to the climate crisis and ways in which this knowledge could contribute to moral agency.
discuss ways in which resources in Christian traditions can help make the radical transition to sustainable Earth-human relations marked by social justice.
analyze links between climate change on the one hand and economic and racial injustice on the other.
construct an ethical framework for seeking sustainable Earth-human relations marked by justice.
articulate an understanding of neighbor-love as a theological norm for the political-economic-ecological dimensions of life, and construct some behavioral implications and some political implications of this norm.
identify, explain, and illustrate at least four complexities in exploring the call to love as a theological norm.
theorize various constructions of the relationship of love as a theological norm to justice.
apply the theological norm of justice-seeking neighbor love to climate change and its social justice implications
identify barriers to hope and moral agency in the face of climate change and its social and ecological consequences.
identify sources and ingredients of hope and moral agency in the face of climate change and its social and ecological consequences.
experience a sense of moral agency and hope for addressing the crisis of climate change and its social and ecological consequences.
engage in discernment regarding your vocation in relationship to the course materials.
employ various modes of thinking (systematic and creative, analytical and synthetic, sympathetic and critical), and experience the value of so doing;
exercise the intellectual virtues of curiosity, concentration, mutually supportive collaboration, and tenacity in the face of intellectual roadblocks (don’t give up things are difficult).

Students will be asked to consider these learning outcomes and revise them to fit their intellectual interests and needs for growth. I will consult with students to ensure that their suggested revisions are possible within the parameters of the course.

RELATIONSHIP TO THE M.DIV. CURRICULUM

The Master of Divinity is a professional degree designed to develop biblical, theological, historical, practical and contextual competencies, and to integrate these competencies in the practice of ordained leadership in congregations and related ministry settings. In particular, this course addresses the following Degree Outcomes (Degree Purposes) for PLTS students.

Demonstrate capacity to develop healthy relationships with colleagues, congregants, community members, and those in authority.
Provide leadership in response to issues of need and justice in the community

TEACHING/LEARNING METHODS

Multiple teaching/learning methods are used in this seminar to respect the varying learning preferences of students. Those teaching and learning methods include:

Active, thorough, and critical reading of texts.

Discussion of readings, some of which will be student-led.

Brief Interactive lectures.

Film

A group project

A final paper (medium length)

Brief community engagement and analysis of it

Contemplative practice / Earth Encounter Journal

Carbon Footprint exercise

The course points us toward fields of knowledge that are vast and beyond the capacity of an individual to cover in one term. Therefore we will depend heavily on collaborative learning and investigation. The group project as well as some of the small assignments noted below aim at enabling that collaborative inquiry. They are NOT designed as busywork; they are designed to enable us to know more than we can know through individual efforts alone.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

ATTENDANCE: Attend all class sessions, being ready to begin by 9:40. This seminar includes crucial material that is not in the texts, but is covered in class! Therefore, you cannot expect to do well in this class if you miss class sessions. Unexcused absence will lower your participation grade, as will excused absence if the written assignment affiliated with excused absence is not completed. (See Attendance Policy below.)
PREPARATION:

Come to class having read all readings in their entirely before the designated class session. Be prepared to question and discuss them in class.
Attune yourself to the direct and indirect interface between materials of this course and materials of your other courses past and present. Bring to class your observations regarding those connections.
Come to class having completed and printed any assignments due on that day.
If possible, shortly before class, review the readings and your notes from them.
Bring to class for discussion purposes your “Critical Reading Notes” (CRNs). They are brief written notes reflecting your engagement with the readings for the week, their relationship to the coursework of the previous weeks, and their relationship to your life experience. (“Experience” in this case may include your other classes.) The notes are not meant to be formal and will not be evaluated for quality of writing. The CRNs will be turned in on Week 14 and will not be graded with a letter grade. They will be assessed for the depth of engagement with the texts that they indicate (using just a check, check+, check-). The CRNs should respond to study guide questions if they are assigned. If no study questions are assigned, please respond to the first two questions below, and to 1 of the 4 other questions below. Do the CRN questions for each chapter or article assigned unless the syllabus indicates “NoCRNs.” Label your responses by identifying the chapter or article, and each question # to which you are responding. Do not repeat the question itself; that just wastes time. Do not do the CRN’s for websites that you are asked to peruse. Do do them for the IPCC website readings in Weeks 2 and 3.

What is the primary question to which this reading responds or what is the primary thesis argued?

What main points are made in the pursuit of that question or arguing of that thesis?
How do these readings intersect with previous readings from this course?
How do these readings intersect with my experience (historical or current) or the life of a community of which I am a part? (The readings might intersect with another class, home life, church life, national or international affairs, ministry, community life, workplace, or elsewhere.)
What have I learned from discussing or testing out a concept, theory, or claim developed in these readings?
What are one or two key questions for class discussion that I formulate from reading these texts as a self-conscious Christian ethicist?
PARTICIPATION: Lectures in this course will be minimal. During class sessions we will work together to think critically about the material already read in preparation for the session, and to build on it. Excellence in participation is characterized as follows:

Prepares class discussion of one chapter and leads that discussion. You will select your chapter in consultation with me.
Regularly and fully engages in class discussion.
Comments indicate careful reading and questioning of the text and putting it in dialogue with other materials from the course, other courses, and your experience.
Connects one’s own comments to the comments made by other students in class.

Is always on time.
Participates fully and respectfully in small group discussions.
Contributes constructively in peer consultation and review.
Listens attentively and actively (rather than passively) to peers and professor.
Is never disruptive or rude, does not dominate the conversation.
IN SUM: Be totally present, and contribute to the development of a trusting, exciting learning community!

ASSIGNMENTS: Complete all graded and ungraded assignments. See below.

ASSIGNMENTS (Detailed instructions will be handed out)

Three graded assignments

Group Project: From Injustice to Justice: Earth Ethics as Justice Ethics in Action You have three options:

OPTION ONE: Eco-Justice trail of a product or activity used by or done by your institution or by a significant number of people in your institution
OPTION TWO: Carbon audit of PLTS, analysis of the justice implications, and constructive proposal.
OPTION THREE: Carbon audit of another GTU school, analysis of the justice implications, and constructive proposal.

We will have four groups, two groups will do Option One or two will do Option Three.

Groups doing Option Two or Three will receive on-line workshop on doing a carbon audit provided by GreenFaith.

Medium-Length Paper: 8-10 double spaced pages. Due final class. You have four options:

Pose and pursue a question raised by the course materials. It must be developed in consultation with peers and approved by me.
Analyze pros and cons of divestment/reinvestment in fossil fuels as a strategy for faith communities to address climate injustice and to contribute to regenerative Earth-human relations marked by social justice.
Design an Earth justice guidebook for congregations. Requirements will be provided.
Write a theo-ethical response to the COP 21 agreement to offer to your ecclesial communion. Include: 1) analysis of it implications for justice based on race, class, gender, or position in global north, 2) recommendations for action by the ecclesial communion, 3) theological grounds for the recommendations and analysis.

Due: Last day of class at beginning of class period.

Short Paper & Briefing on Activist Event: 2-2.5 dble-spced pages. 12-15 minute in-class briefing.

You will attend one activist event sponsored by a climate justice organization/network, other environmental justice organization/network, or another organization sponsoring an event related to climate justice or some other aspect of environmental justice. Using a “circle of praxis reflection methodology,” write a 2-2.5 page paper: 1) identifying and describing the event in no more than one paragraph, 2) identifying what you learn about links tween social justice and ecological well-being including the role of white privilege class privilege, or other power dynamics; 3) noting how some aspect of theology or faith practice sheds light on this event, enables action related to it, or relates to it in some other way, 4) identifying examples of change on two levels illustrated by this event.

The briefing may be done individually or in a group if a group attends the event. Papers will be done individually. Grade is for the paper.

Paper due week 8. Briefing due on the date for which you sign up for it.

Small assignments that are ungraded but included in participation and preparation grade

Carbon Footprint: Taken at beginning of term and toward end of term; 1 or more lifestyle changes to lower it.

Due: Week 12.

Contemplative Practice: Earth Encounter Journal. Two options will be provided.

Due: Week 13.

Leading the class in a 2-5 minute opening prayer, meditation, liturgy, ritual, or other means of centering and gathering spiritually and ritually. It will be related to course material OR express in non-academic discourse a concept studied in the class. For either option you could use music, art, poetry, a voice of the Earth, etc. for the week or course material from previous weeks.
Collaborative film exploratory. You will sign up for giving a film briefing and will post on your film briefing by Week 5. Instructions will be handed out.
Critical Reading Notes (CRNs) (described above under “Course Requirements”)

Due: Week 14

COMMUNICATION WITH ME

Please check your GTU email account daily for any messages from me regarding the course.

Email is a better means of reaching me that telephone. I will respond to your emails as quickly as possible during week days. On week-ends, I will respond, but not necessarily as promptly.
I will not respond to questions about assignments after noon the day before they are due. Questions should be posed long before that time.
All emails to me from students should be marked with the “high importance” marker.
I will accept assignments only as hardcopies unless otherwise stated by me.

CRITERIA AND METHODS OF EVALUATION

The course grade will consist of:

– Preparation and participation (including “small assignments”) (35%)

– Final Paper (25%)

– Group project (25%)

– Short paper and briefing (15%)

The paper will be assessed for the following:

Following assigned guidelines
Content: Depth of understanding and thought; extent of drawing upon relevant reading, lectures, and discussions from the course; coherence and clarity of thought; skill in descriptive, critical, and constructive thinking.
Quality of writing: Voice, word choice, sentence and paragraph structure, organization and clarity, writing conventions (grammar, punctuation, spelling, correct endnotes or footnotes, etc.).

Late assignments will be reduced in grade.

TEXTS (REQUIRED)

Larry Rasmussen, Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. Oxford University Press, 2013. (462 pages)
Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation. Fortress Press, 2013. (309 pages)
Additional articles, chapters, and websites as assigned.

READING AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

Readings and assignments may be revised in response to the needs of this class. I will announce any changes ahead of time. You are responsible for being aware of the changes. Should you of necessity be absent from a class, you will take responsibility for knowing what announcements, changes, and handouts you missed.

PART ONE: Introduction: Christian Ethics at the Nexus of Ecology and Social Justice

Week 1:

Who Are We and Where Are We….in this Class and in the Cosmos?

PART TWO: The Earth Crisis

PART TWO: Seeing What Is (The descriptive task of ethcs)

Week 2

Crisis and Context

Read:

Rasmussen: Chap. 2
Website of the International Panel on Climate Change (sections to be assigned)
Moe-Lobeda: Foreword and Opening Words (NoCRNs)
Two brief articles on line:
- https://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4a5096.html
- https://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/refugees/nextsteps.html

Websites to Peruse:

Begin sleuthing for environmental justice and climate justice organizations and networks in the Bay Area

Week 3

The Social – Ecological Link: Where Justice and Sustainability Meet

Read:

Moe-Lobeda: chap. 2
IPCC Report (sections to be assigned)
Julian Agyeman article (posted on Moodle)
Principles of Environmental Justice (https://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html) (NoCRNs)

Websites to peruse and with which to become familiar as resources for insight into env justice and climate justice as a part of it:

Week 4

Moral Crisis and Structural Violence: A Christian Ethical Perspective

Film in class in prep for next week’s reading: “No Reason” at: https://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2009/world/video-no-reason

Read:

Moe-Lobeda: Chaps 1 and 3

Websites to peruse:

Earth Ministry
California Interfiath Power and Light

Week 5

Moral Oblivion

Read:

Moe-Lobeda: chaps. 4 and 5.

Websites to peruse:

Begin sleuthing for environmental justice and climate justice organizations and networks in a geographic area that you consider home or otherwise important to you.

Due: Film briefing posted.

PART THREE: Paths toward Ecological and Social Justice

PART THREE: Seeing “What Should and Could Be” (the normative task of ethics)

Week 6

Justice-seeking, Earth-honoring Neighbor-love as Moral Norm (Day 1)

Read:

Moe-Lobeda: Chap 7 and Chap 8 through first two principles (top of p 214)
Chap 14 from a book on climate change and global poverty

Week 7

Justice-seeking, Earth-honoring Neighbor-love as Moral Norm (Day 2)

Read:

Moe-Lobeda: The rest of Chap 8, and all of Chap. 9

Spring Recess

Week 8

Theological Seeds of Hope and Moral Agency

Read:

Moe-Lobeda: Chap. 6 and closing
Kerber Article (posted on Moodle)

Due: Short Paper

Week 9

Hope and Moral Agency Embodied

Read:

Kearns Article (posted on Moodle)
Transition Town links (to be provided)
Moe-Lobeda: Chap 10
Earth’s Climate Embraces Us All (Posted on Moodle) (NoCRNs)
Philopott Chap 20 (I have not yet decided whether to assign this text. TBD)

PART FOUR: Earth-Honoring Justice-Seeking Faith, Earth-Honoring Justice-Seeking Religious Ethics

Group Projects will be presented in Weeks 10, 12, and 13 with one day having two presentations

Week 10

Who are We? AND

Earth-Honoring Faith & Earth Honoring Ethics (Day 1)

Read:

Rasmussen: Prelude, Chaps 1, 3, and 4 (NoCRNs for Prelude)

Week 11

Earth-Honoring Ethics (Day 2)

Read:

Rasmussen: Chaps 5 and 6

Week 12

Earth-Honoring Ethics (Day 3) AND

Ancient Religious Traditions Speaking to Earth-Destructive Forces (Day 1)

Read:

Rasmussen: Chap 7, Interlude, Chap 8

Due: Carbon Footprint exercise.

Week 13

Ancient Religious Traditions Speaking to Earth-Destructive Forces (Day 2)

Read:

Rasmussen: Chaps 9 and 10

Due: Contemplative Practice / Earth Encounter Journal

Week 14

Ancient Religious Traditions Speaking to Earth-Destructive Forces (Day 3)

Read:

Rasmussen: chaps. 11 and 12

Due:

Critical Reading Notes
Substantive notes or rough draft of paper for use in peer consultation (not to turn in)

Week 15

Ancient Religious Traditions Speaking to Earth-Destructive Forces (Day 4) AND

Pulling it All Together

Read:

Rasmussen: Chap. 13 and Postlude
Moe-Lobeda: Opening Words and Closing Words (NoCRNs)
Additional wrap-up readings TBA

Due:

Medium Length Paper

POLICIES

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Discussion of readings and related experience is the centerpiece of this seminar. Much of the course learning will come from engaging in that discussion, and much knowledge will be generated by students in the classroom that is not available in your readings. In papers and other assignments you will be accountable for the content of classroom discussions and lectures. Therefore attendance at all class sessions is required, as is timeliness. One unexcused absence will lower your participation grade. Timeliness means being ready to begin by 9:40. Lateness of 30 minutes or more will be counted as an absence.

Should you have an excused absence, following is the best plan I can devise to help you garner some of what you missed in the missed class. Your responsibilities are to: 1) ahead of time ask two or three colleagues in the class to take notes for you; 2) read these notes and all of the readings; 3) after completing the readings, spend about three hours – the amount of time lost in class — writing a brief paper on how these readings interact with previous materials of the course (about 1½ double-spaced pages). In addition, please ask a colleague in the class to collect handouts for you and to note any changes in the syllabus that are announced.

Inclusive Language Policy

In keeping with the PLTS and GTU inclusive language policies, you are required to use inclusive language for human beings in all of your coursework.

Accommodations Policy

Students whose first language is other than English and who need accommodations with regard to completing class assignments should communicate their needs to the instructor. Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary of California Lutheran University is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in compliance with ADA of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to students with documented disabilities. If you are a student requesting accommodations for this course, please register with Christopher Evans in the Office of the Dean (cevans@plts.edu). As part of registration, you will be provided with a Letter of Accommodation that outlines your requested accommodations for your instructor.

Sexual Misconduct Policy

California Lutheran University does not tolerate any degree of sexual misconduct on or off-campus. We encourage you to report if you know of, or have been the victim of, sexual harassment, misconduct, and/or assault. If you report this to a faculty member, she or he must notify Cal Lutheran’s Title IX Coordinator about the basic facts of the incident. More information about your options for reporting can be found at https://www.callutheran.edu/title-ix/

Academic Honesty Policy

The educational programs of California Lutheran University are designed and dedicated to achieve academic excellence, honesty and integrity at every level of student life. Part of CLU’s dedication to academic excellence is our commitment to academic honesty. Students, faculty, staff and administration share the responsibility for maintaining high levels of scholarship on campus. Any behavior or act which might be defined as “deceitful” or “dishonest” will meet with appropriate disciplinary sanctions, including dismissal from the University, suspension, grade F in a course or various forms of academic probation. Policies and procedures regarding academic honesty are contained in the faculty and student handbooks.

Plagiarism, cheating, unethical computer use and facilitation of academic dishonest are examples of behavior which will result in disciplinary sanctions. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

Word for word copying without using quotation marks or presenting the work as yours
Using the ideas or work of others without acknowledgement
Not citing quoted material. Students must cite sources for any information that is not either the result of original research or common knowledge.