Connecting the Sacredness of Creation with Liberal Arts and Social Justice

Carlow University where I teach identifies five cores values that underlie all that we do: mercy, service, hospitality, discovery, and sacredness of creation. This academic year the value of sacredness of creation is being called out for special attention. Since I’ve been thinking about this value and its implications for what we do in the College of Learning and Innovation, I wanted to capture some of these ideas in a short post.

In Carlow’s values statement the value of sacredness of creation is described in this way:

This value leads us to a respect for each person and for all of creation. In gratitude for the beauty and variety of our world and its inhabitants, we commit to a culture of sustainability and to the preservation of a world where all are reverenced and all may thrive.

Since Carlow is a Catholic, Mercy institution, this value can be seen as a clear theme drawn from the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and underlying Catholic Social Teaching. As such, it is really an outgrowth of the biblical understanding that this world is God’s world. Psalm 24 begins with this declaration: “The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.” Careful reflection on this annunciation alone would allow us to make a strong claim for the value of all that is in this world, and of all who live in it. Rooted in the Hebrew Bible and affirmed in the New Testament, the sacredness of all creation is arguably a central affirmation of both Jewish and Christian faith traditions.

As a starting point, this value is a clear call to living thoughtfully upon the earth in ways that respect and preserve the beautiful world that we live in. As important as that is, especially today, it also seems to me the sacredness of creations has implications far beyond environmental responsibility.

I see this value making a claim upon our work in the College of Learning and Innovation in two important ways. First, on the largest possible scale, because everything that exists does so by God’s creative will, everything in this world is inherently valuable. This orientation to seeing the world as sacred undergirds the importance of a liberal arts education. Every field of academic study has value for its own sake, if we embrace the value of the sacredness of creation. Fr. Michael Himes of Boston College uses a wonderful expression to speak about what he calls the sacramental principle. He says, “To see things as they are is to see them ‘engraced.’ Everything that is, exists by being held in love by ‘engracement.’” If the earth is the Lord’s, then everything is “engraced”—what is needed is for us to be able to perceive this. This leads to a second implication.

Second, on a more personal scale, the sacredness of creation reflects back on the value, worth, and dignity of every person. This value certainly necessitates that we treat all people with the dignity they deserve. But this value places an additional claim on us: if we hold this value then we are called to respond to situations in which the dignity of humans is violated. Valuing the sacredness of creation thus places an obligation upon us to address social injustices. Catherine McAuley, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, spent many years of her life living with a Quaker family where she came to embrace the Quaker teaching that “there is that of God in every person.” That belief motivated her life of service and continues to animate the Sisters of Mercy to this day. And thus, this value of the sacredness of creation is deeply rooted in our university’s history.

In short, in this one value is inscribed not only the importance of living with an eye toward the preservation of our environment, but a theological foundation for the study of the liberal arts and for working for the well-being of all people.