Religion and the Anthropocene

    Reading a papal Encyclical is a trying experience, even if the Pope in question is Francis and the news has just broken that Francis supports the legal recognition of civil unions for gay people. In his concern for the environment, refugees and immigrants, and justice between the global north and south, Pope Francis is more progressive than any of us would ever expect a Pontiff to be, and the encyclical Laudato Si´: On Care for Our Common Home resonates with these urgent concerns. But if Francis and his church can come this far, why not further? We read a critique of Laudato Si´ by Beatrice Marovich which argued that, despite its successes, it remains a patriarchal text, committed to an unnatural heteronormativity and unable to acknowledge the "religious biodiversity" it uncovers. Still, the linkage of the "cry of the poor" and the "cry of the earth" in Laudato Si´ of broke important ground in international discourse around the climate crisis, open