Encyclical Laudato si': Crisis of Western Individualism in the Context of Political Anthropology and Openness of the Catholic Social Teaching

Simon Malmenvall

Encyclical Laudato si': Crisis of Western Individualism in the Context of Political Anthropology and Openness of the Catholic Social Teaching

Key words: encyclical Laudato si', anthropology, crisis, Eric Voegelin, Charles Curran

Abstract
The author of this article argues that the encyclical Laudato si' of pope Francis – by both its structure and content – surpasses the merely historically contingent intervention of the Catholic social teaching which may contribute to solving the ecological question standing out at the beginning of the 21st century, enabling the encyclical to encourage a wider reflexion about ideational currents and societal life. This type of reflexion can be placed in a twofold context: in the context of classical European political anthropology studied and proposed by the philosopher Eric Voegelin and in the context of the openness of the Catholic social teaching discussed by the philosopher and theologian Charles Curran. In this regard, the ecological question is perceived by Franics as a crisis of contemporary Western individualism marked by its unwillingness to accept principles which would aim at obtaining an absolute social validity as well as by being reserved towards the presence of God in public discourse.

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