Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor

by Leonardo Boff

Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor represents Leonardo Boff's most systematic effort to date to link the spirit of liberation theology with the urgent challenge of ecology. Focusing on the threatened Amazon of his native Brazil, Boff traces the ties that bind the fate of the rain forests with the fate of the Indians and the poor of the land. In this book, readers will find the keys to a new, liberating faith.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Ecology, Spirituality, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Environment

242 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 1997

About the author

Leonardo Boff, born as Genézio Darci Boff, in Concórdia, Santa Catarina, Brazil, on the December 14, 1938. He is the grandson of Italian immigrants from the region of Veneto who came to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in the final part of the nineteenth century. He received his primary and secondary education in Concórdia - Santa Catarina, Rio Negro - Paraná, and Agudos - São Paulo. He studied Philosophy in Curitiba - Paraná and Theology in Petrópolis - Rio de Janeiro. He joined the Order of the Franciscan Friars Minor in 1959 and received his doctorate in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Munich - Germany, in 1970.
For 22 years he was the professor of Systematic and Ecumenical Theology at the Franciscan Theological Institute in Petrópolis. He has served as a professor of Theology and Spirituality in various centers of higher learning and universities in Brazil and the rest of the world, in addition to being a visiting professor at the universities of Lisbon (Portugal), Salamanca (Spain), Harvard (United States), Basel (Switzerland), and Heidelberg (Germany).
He was present in the first reflections that sought to articulate indignance toward misery and marginalization with discourse, which later generated the Christian faith known as Liberation Theology. He has always been an ardent of the Human Rights cause, helping to formulate a new, Latin American perspective on Human Rights with, “Rights to Life and the ways to maintain them with dignity.”
He has received honorary doctorates, in Politics from the University of Turin (Italy) and in Theology for the University of Lund (Sweden). He has also been honored with various awards, within Brazil and the rest of the world, for his struggles on behalf of the weak, the oppressed and marginalized, and Human Rights.
From 1970 until 1985 he participated in the editorial council of Editora Vozes. During this time he participated in the coordination and publication of the collection, “Theology and Liberation” and the entire edition of the works of C. G. Jung. He was Editor-in-chief of “Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira” from 1970 to 1984, of “Revista de Cultura Vozes” from 1984 to 1992, and of “Revista Internacional Concilium” from 1970 to 1995.
In 1984, he was submitted to a process by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, former Holy Office, in the Vatican. This was due to his theses linked to liberation theology exposed in his book "Church: Charism and Power. In 1985 he was condemned to “obsequious silence” and was removed from his editorial functions and suspended from religious duties. Due to international pressure on the Vatican, the decision was repealed in 1986, allowing him to return to some of his previous activities.
In 1992, under renewed threats of a second punitive action by authorities in Rome, he renounced his activities as a priest and ‘promoted himself the state of laity.’ “I changed trenches to continue the same fight.” He continues as a liberation theologian, writer, professor, widely hear conference speaker in Brazil among other countries, also as an adviser of social movements of liberating popular matrix, as the Landless Movement and the Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs), between others.
In 1993 he was selected as professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and Ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
On December 8, 2001 he was honored with the alternative Nobel prize, “Right Livelihood Award” in Stockholm, Sweden.
He presently lives in Jardim Araras, an ecological wilderness area on the municipality of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. He shares his life and dreams with the defender/educator of Human Rights from a new ecological paradigm, Marcia Maria Monteiro de Miranda. He has also become the “father by affinity” of a daughter and five sons, sharing the joys and sorrows of responsible parenthood. He lives, accompanies and recreates the unfolding of life in the “grandkids” Marina, Eduardo and Maira.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cry of the Earth Cry of the Poor is so similar in theme and style to Boff's earlier work, Ecology Liberation, that I'm mostly going to link to my review for that one. Although the two books share many of their strengths and weaknesses, Cry of the Earth is clearly the more polished and mature work. If you're going to read one book by Boff, I expect this is the one.

With one exception. In this book, Boff gives himself more space than before to talk about cosmology and quantum mechanics, with disastrous results. For example:

"The fermions within us are our individual and bodily dimension, while bosons are our relationships and spiritual dimension." (p.54)

Gaaaah! Just. No.

And here it's not just a few paragraphs here and there. Basically all of Chapter 2 is devoted to mixing up a big salad of cosmology, quantum mechanics, ecology, biology with a dash of New Age seasoning. Boff's heart is in the right place--he's enthusiastically pro-science, whatever it is--but it's clear that he's read too many popular science books without speaking a word to an actual working scientist. His understanding of the science is superficial when not factually incorrect. This is a big flaw in an otherwise interesting book, and almost a disqualifying one.

The book recovers a bit after Chapter 2, especially in two of the more grounded chapters--one on the destruction of the Amazon, and another on St. Francis of Assisi (the patron saint of ecologists and, one assumes, hippies). The book remains interesting and even moving in places, but too often you have to dig through a lot of guff to find those pearls of wisdom.

[Aaron White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very intriguing book by the Brazilian liberation theologian. It encompasses some pretty detailed science, incorporating the big bang, the development of the universe and solar system, and the evolution of life on earth and the intricacies of quantum physics as part of the revelation of God. But also it is part of the new spirituality we must develop, Boff argues, as our current Western understanding of subduing or dominating nature – based upon a notion that we are on the earth, and not of the earth, and somehow above the earth and the rest of creation – is leading to ecological disaster and injustice for the poor. Boff ends his argument with an extended history of St Francis and his unique way of treating everything in creation as brother or sister. It is a compelling vision.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

an incredible book. it breaks my heart and inspires me.

[Yaotl Altan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Habla de la depredación humana en el planeta por nuestra falta de sensibilidad y apego a la tierra. El amor con el que Leonardo Boff escribe le da un toque único al libro, porque vierte su cristianismo en cada relato.

[xenia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really like evolution, quantum physics and systems theory, but Boff is merely appropriating concepts from the aforementioned fields and conflating them with intelligent design without providing any arguments. The book's written as if this should all come across as commonsensical to the reader, but I'm pretty sure none of the previously mentioned theories were generated for that purpose. There's so much promise in this book, an attempt to connect ecology, complexity theory, decolonisation and Christianity, but it's a mess of new age truisms and shallow scholarship.

You'd be better off reading Bookchin, Wallerstein, Che and Taoism.