In the 2011 document Healing a Broken World, Father General Adolfo Nicolas encouraged Jesuits and collaborators to redouble their efforts to encourage environmental stewardship and promote “transformative education” specifically through “curricula that address sustainability issues and imparts a certain level of environmental literacy.”[1]
In response to this challenge, the International Jesuit Ecology Project (IJEP) was launched, a collaborative project between Loyola University Chicago faculty and scholars from Jesuit institutions around the world to create a free online Living Textbook that addresses select environmental science challenges from an integrated scientific, moral, and spiritual perspective.
An important contribution for the entire global Ignatian family, Healing Earth, which was officially launched at the end of January 2016, includes the contributions of over 90 scholars from all over the world. Healing Earth seeks to address the most pressing environmental concerns of our time, issues that are threatening our common home and that disproportionately affect those who are marginalized.
Healing Earth seeks to raise awareness about the ethical implications of ignoring or overlooking the current environmental crisis and climate change and challenges students to reflect on the presence of nature in our lives. Finally, it is a resource that calls all of us to take action to do what is in our power to heal the Earth.
Whether you are a teacher, student or simply interested in learning more, we encourage you to take a look at this important collaborative resource, a powerful example of the potential that the worldwide Ignatian family has to impact change by working together to share knowledge and resources for good.
[1] Loyola University of Chicago. International Jesuit Ecology Project. http://www.luc.edu/ijep/aboutijep/