Conference paper
SIN AND WASTE. ENVIRONMENTAL BALANCE AND SOCIAL BALANCE
Philipp Schmitz SJ
; Faculty of Philosophy and Theology, St. Georgen, Frankfurt
Abstract
Waste manifests as a scandal, disintegrating factor of human and world community. After human activities there is more and more of waste. Waste symbolizes something indecent for a man, so a man wants to remove it from his horizon. The solution of waste represents a strained problem for every new epoch and generation. The goal has to be the avoidance of old and new waste, although it is a bit of utopia, because a man is an imperfect being.
Waste is a kind of a sin, because technical activity leaves a trace of disharmony between a man and nature, and is a proof of a sin in the process of creation. Keeping aloof from the sin is expressed also as social aloofness toward social groups that are engaged in its solving. These are mainly newly arrived migrants and lower social groups.
Forced or voluntary waste concerning liberates us from personal guilt. Its comprehension leads to solidarity with "bearers of old waste", and the common work encompasses elements of conciliation and basic social peace.
Keywords
Christians; garbage; sin; social peace; waste
Hrčak ID:
141460
URI
Publication date:
15.7.1996.
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