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♦ The Earthly Condition. Living the Earth in common
By Sophie Gosselin and David Gé Bartoli,
Threshold, coll. “Anthropocene”, 432 p., €22.50
How can we rethink our relationship to the world after having learned, for centuries, to exploit the Earth rather than to inhabit it? From the banks of the Elwha River (United States) to the Zapatista resistance in Mexican Chiapas, the two philosophers introduce us to new political spaces, extended to all of those – human and non-human – who share the same “earth condition”. It is, in reading them, in the recognition of this common belonging that the possibility of habitable worlds will be reborn.
♦ Composing a world in common. A Political Theology of the Anthropocene
By Gael Giraud,
Threshold, 816 p., €27
If the God of Jesus Christ “gives itself to each as common”, what implications can we draw from this for building a common world as the privatization of life and culture gains ground? This is the question that the Jesuit Gaël Giraud seeks to answer in this abundant and sometimes jargon-filled book. If the reader can get lost there, he will also find enlightening pages or stimulating intuitions to face the ecological crisis.
♦ For digital technology at the service of the common good
By Bernard Jarry-Lacombe, Jean-Marie Bergère, François Euvé and Hubert Tardieu,
Odile Jacob, 240 p., 22,90 €
Does digital technology contribute to the common good? Is it part of our commons? It is these questions in particular that this collective book seeks to answer, resulting from the “Digital and Society” working group, created on the initiative of the National Family and Society Service of the Conference of Bishops of France. A necessarily ambivalent response that requires further discernment by examining the anthropological, societal and ethical repercussions raised by the development of digital technology.
♦ Trees to defend!
Patrick Scheider,
The Apple Tree, 216 p., €20
Twice in the 19the century, the forest of Fontainebleau was threatened with being razed. It will be saved thanks to the mobilization of young people and artists, like the painter Théodore Rousseau, who sought “to make the trees speak” in her paintings, or later George Sand, author of the “first ecological forum in France”. A little-known story that plunges us into the century of romanticism.
♦ Commit to climate justice. Protestant contributions
Under the direction of Jean-Philippe Barde and Martin Kopp,
Ed. Scriptura, 160 p., 16 €
Christian circles know little about the notion of climate justice. This book by the Ecology and Climate Justice Commission of the Protestant Federation of France therefore fills a gap. Starting from a scientific inventory, it offers biblical and theological benchmarks to lead to a critical presentation of Christian action in favor of the climate – a good that is common to us –, at the collective, political and personal levels.
♦ Small handbook of the rights of nature
By Marine Calmet,
Wild Legal, 62 p., 15 €
The author, Marine Calmet, lawyer and co-founder of the Wild Legal association, does not speak of “common goods” but of “commons”. And for good reason. His little book, a direct heir to the thinking of Christopher Stone, defends a reversal of Western law which “considers Nature through a utilitarian prism”.
Marine Calmet details how to recognize a legal personality to rivers, mountains, forests to better protect them. Militant but well supported, the short opus is based on many foreign examples.
♦ 2030 Glorious. Living utopias
By Julien Vidal,
Actes Sud, 272 p., €21
How to create a society that is more respectful of all living things? By imagining the future, not in an abstract way, but starting from“living utopias”that is to say experiments “concrete, tangible and replicable” which are still waiting to change scale, answers Julien Vidal. A book that plunges us into a world in turmoil and shows that we are not without resources to take charge of our common destiny.
Also available as a podcast on: 2030glorieuses.lepodcast.fr and platforms
♦ Commit to the common good
By Philippe Royer, with Arnaud Bevilacqua,
Ed. Emmanuel, 230 pages, €19
Rarely, it is a business leader – former president of Christian Entrepreneurs and Leaders (EDC) – who works here on the notion of common good. Returning back to back the American model, symbolized by the Gafam, and the Chinese, controlling everything, Philippe Royer proposes a third way: the economy of the common good. Clearly, an economy that cares for everyone – when the general interest does not prevent exclusion. “The course is the ‘good of all’, he summarizes. It is about defending a vision where each person must find their place and be respected in their dignity. »
♦ Should trees be able to plead?
De Christopher Stone,
Ed. Clandestine passenger, 192 p., €15 (Reissue of Should Trees Have Standing?)
This is a new edition that is worth seeing, as its author is now seen as a visionary. In the early 1970s, the American law professor Christopher Stone had defended the idea of giving legal personality to natural entities, following the Disney/Sierra Club affair, which had seen an association oppose the construction of a winter sports resort in the heart of a national park in California. The beginning of a major reflection on the rights of ecosystems.
Review
The common good, a spiritual fight
Christus, n° 274, avril 2022, 14 €
“Make a place for everyone”, “collective play”… These expressions would imply that the quest for the good is capable of creating agreement between consciences. But things get complicated when it comes to implementation. Then begins the real “adventure of the common good” which is about spiritual warfare to learn how to work with each other, for each other. A struggle that this issue of the Jesuit Spirituality Review examines Christus.
A podcast
“In search of the common good”
The program “Do you hear the eco? (France Culture) offers a series entitled “In search of the common good ». Journalist Tiphaine de Rocquigny goes in search of this notion, posing four issues: The commons against private property? Nature, a singular common? Digital, eldorado of the commons? Joint work. With, for each episode of about fifty minutes, two specialized guests on the subject.
On radiofrance.fr and on the platforms
A fundraiser
Night of the common good
With more than 8 million euros in donations raised and 193 projects supported to date, the Night of Common Good, including The cross is a partner, returns for a 6e edition at L’Olympia, December 7 at 7 p.m. Hosted by Cécile de Ménibus and the master auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac, the evening welcomes twelve associations, selected from more than 100 applications, and gives them three minutes to convince donors. Ecology, solidarity, social struggles: the common good is at the forefront.