Education, Grace, and the Climate Crisis: An Augustinian View
This post at our Faith in a Changing Climate site explores two different approaches to the Age of Limits crises that we face. The approach that we have used so far is based on education and information. It has been a near-total failure.
In his book Confessions, Augustine describes an alternative approach based on individual transformation and grace. The post starts as follows.
Broadly speaking, there are two strategies for building a stable and just world.
The first is the education-and-virtue strategy: a belief that if people understand the truth, are properly taught, and if civic institutions promote virtue, then society will flourish. Knowledge, reason, and education will generate peace, prosperity, and justice. This approach was a feature of the Roman Empire, and, many centuries later, the European Enlightenment.
The second strategy considers the realities of human nature. According to this way of thinking, people do not consistently act on what they know. They are conflicted, short-sighted, and easily distracted. Hence, if society is to improve, moral and spiritual transformation at the individual level is the starting point.
