Social justice and the natural environment in the study program of the World Council of Churches, 1966-199

This dissertation analyzes ideational frameworks utilized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) for relating environmental concerns to social justice. The WCC's reasoning, as exhibited in documents of study conferences and other forums held from 1966 to 1990, is analyzed with regard to three categories of thought: perceptions of empirical reality; theological affirmations; and moral reasoning.;The first, perceptions of empirical reality, is found to be dominant in influencing the other two. Moral reasoning is seen to shift in response to changing perceptions of empirical reality. While theological emphases also respond to changing perceptions of empirical reality, theology is found to exhibit a degree of independence and a conservative tendency in making this response.;A persistent theological question in the ecumenical conversation is the teleological question of creation's purpose; various teleological perspectives are posited. Moral reasoning in response to perceptions of ecological reality, however, is seen to develop rather independently of this line of theological questioning.;A synthesis of thought developed in the 1960's provides a baseline for this study. This earlier synthesis of thought is characterized by: an emphasis on social science for describing empirical reality; theological affirmation of the desacralization of nature; and moral reasoning centered around the goal of humanization. Each of these three aspects of ecumenical social thought is challenged in the 1970's by ecological thinking about limits to economic growth.;Of primary importance with regard to perceptions of empirical reality is a tension between, on the one hand, an economic analysis informed by ecological categories and, on the other, an economic analysis informed by sociological, particularly Marxist, categories. Competition between these two economic perspectives persists from the mid-1970's through 1990.;Two possibilities are suggested for further ecumenical reflection about the natural environment. First, a perspective of ecological realism is found to be most characteristic of the WCC's thought about ecological sustainability. This perspective is predicated on ecological description of empirical reality but not on particular teleological assertions about creation's purpose or intrinsic value. Second, a teleological perspective is suggested which would construct a tentative natural law based on an ecological interpretation of the world as organism.