St. Francis’ Love of
Nature
The
Secret which Cannot be Understood by
Modern Atheistic Ecoists
Modern Atheistic Ecoists
Dr. Immanuel Chih-Ming Ke
柯志明
St. Francis of Assisi
(1182-1226) was a man of mystery. He was a fanatical follower of Jesus Christ, so
he couldn’t be easily understood by modern ecoists. Perhaps, modern people can
slightly conjecture what the spiritual intentions of St. Francis might have
been only by humming the song, “The prayer of St. Francis”[1]. It was
written by later generations, but this is quite insufficient to achieve an understanding
of Francis’ fanatical enthusiasm, which is beyond our simple understanding, of
his will to follow Jesus Christ. Many modern ecoists choose to like him and then
to praise him highly. They also choose to separate him from the Christian faith
(or orthodox Christian faith); on the one hand, he is exalted to be the patron
saint of the environment and of animals, and on the other hand, through him,
Christian faith may be criticized because it turns out to be an extremely anthropocentric
religion that tramples on nature. However, and unfortunately, Francis would inversely
criticize these modern ecoists for their misunderstanding of him, and for their
whole misunderstanding of the tenets of Christian faith; most likely, he would
declare that they are actually extreme anthropocentricists on their own account
and that the root of ecological crisis is hidden in these atheistic modernists’
way of thought and deed.
[1] See William Ng ofm’s (伍維烈) “The
Peace Prayer which is not Attributed to ‘Francis’” 〈不是「方濟各的」和平禱詞〉See: http://www.ofm.org.hk/200-Sprituality/ 222- Articles/
2221Franciscan _Spirituality/wn-peaceprayer.htm
