The Greening of Religion in Laudato si’: From the Critique of Anthropocentrism to Integral Ecology

The global socio-ecological crisis has renewed interest in the role of religion in shaping environmental attitudes. The greening of religion framework examines how religious traditions rediscover, reinterpret, and revitalise their sacred texts, rituals, ethical teachings, and communal practices in response to contemporary environmental challenges. This article examines Laudato si’ (LS) through three strategies of the greening of religion: retrieval, critique, and transformation. Retrieval was the most prominent category (39.0%), followed by critique (30.9%) and transformation (26.4%). The findings suggest that LS reflects a selective process of greening of religion: it develops a strong theological framework and critiques the technocratic paradigm, while offering a more restrained engagement with the historical role of Catholic doctrine and tradition in shaping anthropocentric perspectives. Integral ecology emerges as an ambitious interpretative and normative framework, although its conceptual boundaries and mechanisms of practical implementation remain insufficiently defined. The greening of religion in LS thus proves to be a complex reinterpretation of religious tradition whose depth and potential for conflict are underestimated, so that the process of critical reflection and practical implementation remains stalled halfway. Further research should examine the conceptual and practical dimensions of integral ecology and compare processes of religious greening across different traditions.