Ecological Liberation Theology: Faith-Based Approaches to Poverty and Climate Change in the Philippines

Abstract

This book focuses on issues of climate change related efforts to rebuild communi- ties of resilience in areas affected by human induced disasters and natural hazards, and increasing vulnerabilities, resulting from mal-governance and unsustainable development in the Philippines. It considers some of the responses of some of the front-line church-based social action networks and organizations working in the face of climate change and some of its disastrous impacts on the Philippines, from the perspective of ecological liberation theology. Ecological liberation theology considers the relationship between poverty, ecological devastation, and oppression as an interrelated structural problem. By taking a bottom-up approach to redressing structural quandaries, church workers involved in this movement organize faith- based communities to transform local political, social, and ecological relationships by empowering the poor. The argument is that when the affected community trusts the community facilitator, who actively works with them to devise solutions and reach their goals, from the beginning to the completion of the project, they work more effectively together as a collaborative community for their collective interests. This type of development model is different from that of the acquisitive develop- ment and globalization model that is the dominant approach of many local and international aid organizations today.