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<p>This article proposes a reading of the concept of interconnectedness in Pope Francis’s encyclical <i>Laudato Si’</i> through three relational categories: dependence, care, and communion. Through philosophical and theological analysis of two foundational narratives—the Genesis account and the Roman myth of Cura—the study argues that these three dimensions form a progressive and integrated structure for understanding human responsibility within the created order. The investigation contends that dependence constitutes the ontological foundation of our material existence as creatures; care expresses the human response to this shared vulnerability through attentive stewardship that complements work; and communion names the ultimate relationship with God that fulfills our relational nature. Each dimension presupposes the previous one: we care because we depend; we commune because we have learned to care. In critical dialogue with thinkers such as Heidegger, Arendt, and MacIntyre, the article recovers the dignity of the body and rejects the separation between work and care characteristic of the technocratic paradigm. The reading of Genesis 2:15 (<i>abad</i> and <i>shamar</i>) reveals that the original human vocation integrates cultivation and stewardship, work and care, challenging interpretations that view labor as post-Fall punishment. The work concludes that the Incarnation validates bodily materiality and makes full communion with God possible through matter itself. Facing the contemporary environmental crisis, caused by an instrumental rationality that reduces everything to means-ends relationships, the article proposes sapiential education—especially through the humanities in non-profit universities—as a privileged space for forming persons capable of recognizing the interconnectedness of all things and responding with the care our common home requires.</p>

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Dependence, Care, and Communion: Reading Interconnectedness in Laudato Si’

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月15日

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  • Maria Pia Chirinos

摘要

This article proposes a reading of the concept of interconnectedness in Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ through three relational categories: dependence, care, and communion. Through philosophical and theological analysis of two foundational narratives—the Genesis account and the Roman myth of Cura—the study argues that these three dimensions form a progressive and integrated structure for understanding human responsibility within the created order. The investigation contends that dependence constitutes the ontological foundation of our material existence as creatures; care expresses the human response to this shared vulnerability through attentive stewardship that complements work; and communion names the ultimate relationship with God that fulfills our relational nature. Each dimension presupposes the previous one: we care because we depend; we commune because we have learned to care. In critical dialogue with thinkers such as Heidegger, Arendt, and MacIntyre, the article recovers the dignity of the body and rejects the separation between work and care characteristic of the technocratic paradigm. The reading of Genesis 2:15 (abad and shamar) reveals that the original human vocation integrates cultivation and stewardship, work and care, challenging interpretations that view labor as post-Fall punishment. The work concludes that the Incarnation validates bodily materiality and makes full communion with God possible through matter itself. Facing the contemporary environmental crisis, caused by an instrumental rationality that reduces everything to means-ends relationships, the article proposes sapiential education—especially through the humanities in non-profit universities—as a privileged space for forming persons capable of recognizing the interconnectedness of all things and responding with the care our common home requires.