Cosmology: A Catholic perspective on how humans are enjoined to live within the integrity of creation

If curriculum in a Catholic School intends to assist students to realise their potential and make a positive difference to the well-being of society and the earth community, then students need to appreciate their special role as stewards in the dynamics of creation.

Humans are sacramental people who experience God’s presence in their everyday world. In a faith vision of life, women and men encounter God in communities, in the Church and its sacramental life, through nature, human activity and the world at large. Such an encounter is infused with a sense of awe, mystery, beauty and wonder at God’s loving being gracing every feature of creation.

People can no longer support an anthropocentrism whereby humans assumed that they are masters of creation and could do what they like with the earth. A conversion from ‘nature-for-us’ attitude to a biocentric perspective on ‘nature-for-it-own-sake’ is critical for the future of planetary health. Humans are co-creators with God and as stewards, they are charged with cultivating and caring for God’s garden of creation. Earth care ethics insist that humans have a moral obligation to share in the unfolding evolution of God’s plan for creation through sustainable development.