Most media discussion of the Catholic Church's Amazon Synod focused on a proposal to allow married deacons to become priests.

What hasn't been discussed enough is the Church's new ecological theology. Here, I explain what's going on. https://twitter.com/monkeycageblog/status/1194586700711972866

Over the past four years, the Church is gradually developing new theological concepts, like "integral ecology," "ecological conversion," and "ecological sin."

What's driving it? Part of it's a Pope Francis effect.

But my research shows there's more to it.

In my interviews in Brazil's Northeast region, I found that both lay Catholic leaders and parish priests were developing creative ideas and language to try to explain the urgency of environmental devastation in religious terms.

One lay leader was teaching her catchechism class that there's an Eleventh Commandment to love and protect the Earth. A priest was calling dogs and trees "brothers" and "sisters."

I suggest that the Church's development of an ecological theology has some parallels to the era of liberation theology, in that the hierarchy and the grassroots appear to be interacting in complex ways to develop the new theology.

This has parallels to work by people such as @DrKWilkinson and @ecothought in the US.

And here's a fantastic podcast on the evangelical "Creation Care" movement in the US, from @radiogrego. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/18/743118522/what-would-jesus-drive

And, check out this fantastic new book by @RobinGVeldman.

https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Climate-Skepticism-Evangelical-Christians/dp/0520303660