Biography
Tim Middleton is a Junior Research Fellow in Religion and the Frontier Challenges at Pembroke College Oxford, and a Research Affiliate at the Laudato Si' Research Institute. Tim's work concerns religious attitudes to the contemporary ecological crisis, with a specific focus on Christian ecotheology. He also maintains an interest in wider conversations in science and religion and the environmental humanities.
Paper Abstract
In the context of climate breakdown and mass extinction, recent work in Christian trauma theology seems eminently applicable to suffering that occurs in the ecological realm. But can the Earth itself be said to be the subject of traumatic experience? How is this possible given that most thinkers in Western cultures—both scientific and theological—do not tend to believe that the Earth is conscious? This paper seeks to construct a way of understanding the Earth as traumatised, beginning with Pope Francis's anthropomorphic language in Laudato Si'. Francis writes of 'brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth', and echoes Leonardo Boff in drawing attention to the 'cry of the earth'. Bruno Latour interprets Francis to be saying that the Earth has a literal capacity to suffer, to hurt, and to groan; indeed, Latour understands the whole of Francis's encyclical to be channelling this 'immense cry'. Yet, definitive ontological statements about the attributes and abilities of the Earth are ultimately less important to this mode of thinking than the way in which a certain use of language affects how humanity relates to the Earth. Belief is secondary to relationship. In other words, to speak about 'the cry of the earth' is to provide the basis for a consciously anthropomorphic form of relationality. The semantic innovation entailed is not metaphorical fancy, but rather has a real effect on how human beings interact with the rest of the natural world. Hence, it is not necessary to pass judgment on the planet's state of consciousness to be able to relate to the Earth as traumatised. Francis's use of language, coupled with a robust understanding of anthropomorphism, paves the way for an appreciation of Earth's trauma.