The Encyclical Letter Laudato si’ of the Holy Father Francis on Care for our Common Home is not just addressed to the Catholic Church and its members, but to all people, and especially to all the structures of society in the 21st century that are involved in actual questions about the protection of the environment, energy efficiency, and harmless production technology. It promotes guidelines on integral ecology which, alongside theological and philosophical comprehension, includes an understanding of other humanistic and natural sciences. It means that the Encyclical Letter presupposes interdisciplinarity. This course explores the basic principles of integral ecology suggested by Laudato si’: mutual connections of ecology, economy and poverty and understanding of human development. Integral ecology is based upon the Christian knowledge of man and God. That means that integral ecology is founded on the principles of Christian anthropology.

Integral ecology focuses on ecological economics, social ecology, cultural ecology, and the ecology of everyday life. So, to have a critical approach to global climate and environmental crisis, elementary knowledge of the environment, ecology, economy, sociology, and theology is required. All scientific methods will be explored inside the concept of integral ecology.

Encyclical letter Laudato of the Holy Father Francis on Care for Our Common Home, Rome, 2015.; Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.

Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI to the Bishops Priests and Deacons Men and Women Religious the Lay Faithful and all People of Good Will on Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth, Rome, 2009.

Margaret Barker, The earth is the Lord’s: the biblical view of the environment, in International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 8 (2008.) 3, 192–202. 

Zoran Turza – Andreja Sršen – Sebastian Kießig – Marija Sertić – Đurica Pardon (eds.), Laudato si’. Prema klimatskoj i društvenoj pravdi/Laudato Si’. Towards Climate and Social Justice, Zagreb, 2023.

Zoran Turza – Miriam Mary Brgles (eds.), Five Years After Laudato Si’. Where Are We Now? Conference Proceedings, 2023.

Gaudium et spes Promulgated by His Holiness, Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965.;

2015. BURNS – B.S. CANIGLIA, Environmental Sociology: The Ecology of Late Modernity, Norman, 2015.

PHILIP A. CUNNINGHAM, A Catholic Theology of the Land: The State of the Question, in: Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations, 8 (2013.) 1., 1-15. (DOI: 10.6017/scjr.v8i1.5182) SEUNGJUNG CHOI, The Biblical Understanding of Laudato Si’, in Catholic Theology and Thought, 78 (2017.) 1, 10-46. (DOI: 10.21731/ctat.2017.78.10) BRENDAN BYRNE, A Pauline Complement to Laudato Si’, in Theological Studies, 77 (2016.) 2, 308–327. (DOI: 10.1177/0040563916635117)

1. Regular attendance– a minimum of 70% class attendance.
2. Completed five homework – timely delivery of five tasks that consisted of writing five questions related to reading articles.
3. Completed five oralpresentations of the selected article
4. Two mid-term exams (written).
5. Acquiring at least 35% in-class activities– on a cumulative basis.
6. Acquisition of a minimum success of 35% during classes within the given teaching activities – cumulatively achieved at the presentations, midterm exams, and oral presentations.

Final exam (oral)

Numerical gradation:
Fail (1) – 0 up to 49,9 %
Pass (2) – 50 up to 64,9 %
Lower second (3) – 65 up to 79,9 %
Upper second (4) – 80 up to 89,9 %
First (5) – 90 up to 100 %

Evaluation:
a) Class activities – 70 % of the grade
• oral presentations – 15 %
• mid-term exam 1– 20 %

• mid-term exam 2 – 20 %
  • ten homework – 15

b) Final exam – 30 %
• final oral exam – 30 %