Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor by Latin American liberation theologian Leonardo Boff extends some of his thinking previously expressed in Ecology and Liberation: A New Paradigm. He believes that the utilitarian and anthropocentric ethic of the dominant society must be replaced by a new covenant with nature, one of integration and harmony. According to Boff, we are called to be guardian angels of the earth and "sons and daughters of the rainbow." The challenge is to see ourselves "as alongside things, as members of a larger planetary and cosmic community."
For Boff, the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor emanate from the threatened Amazon in his native Brazil. Here megaprojects fueled by technological progress have resulted in a war on trees and the creation of rural slums. Boff reverences the work of the late Chico Mendes, a genuine representative of the forest people who cherished the human connectedness with the good earth.
The spiritual revolution needed to launch a new paradigm of connectedness will be built upon an ethics of unlimited compassion and shared responsibility. In the closing chapter of this substantive volume, Boff outlines the role of God in the cosmic dance of creation, the weaving of the story of the universe with the story of Christ, and the active role of Spirit in the unfurling of an ecologically sustainable spirituality. This book is part of the Orbis "Ecology and Justice Series."
