Date of Award

5-2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2018.

Degree Name

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL)

Director

Paul A. Janowiak, SJ

Abstract

There is a heightened global consciousness now more than ever before on the protection of the environment. Of late is the encyclical letter Laudato si of Pope Francis on care for our common home. The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is the context of my research. This region is endowed with massive oil deposits, which have been extracted for decades by the government of Nigeria and by multinational oil companies, at the expense of the people of the region whose environment suffer degradation and their means of livelihood destroyed. This study juxtaposes Eucharist as fruit of the earth and the environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It argues that the meal character of Christian Eucharist, with its focus on the “fruit of the earth,” implies an environmental response of healing the Earth and addressing the injustice being done to the people of the Niger Delta. In order to accomplish this, the thesis employs Louis Marie Chauvet’s tripartite model of gift, reception and return gift in tandem with the “see-judge-act” practice of Catholic Social Teaching, both of which underscores the ethical implications of Christian Eucharist.

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