THE ECONOMY & Nature's Intrinsic Order

ENVIRONMENT is the economically balanced ecology of inter-dependent web-life; ECOLOGY is symbiotic web-life, organically sustained; ECONOMY is the sustainable means/ end of balance in life's symbiotic exchange. It is by way of "religious" consciousness (spirituality, intentional consciousness) that the cultural disconnect from economic sense and ecological necessity might be healed.

The "science" of religion reads on Einstein's theory of Special Relativity, E=mc²; E is cosmic, energetic consciousness; mc² is matter, the evolved and evolving substance of energy (materiality, secularity), The Economy of Nature's Intrinsic Order.

"Religious" relativity is "eucharistic" consciousness, the "theology" of sacred remembrance (Sacrament) and the economic science of energy/ matter relationships. From the conscious reality of essential relationships we might derive an equation, the "eucharistic, economic equation of oneness"; Eucharist (E) is substance self-donation, self-transformation in nature's organic economy:

E = e(3) [e(1) x e(2)];
e(1) is environment;
e(2) is ecology; and
e(3) is economy;

I invite any and all mathematical minds to improve on the calculus proposed here.

No economy is workable and sustainable except it accounts for the "coefficient of intentional conservancy", and except the "coefficient of conscious conservancy" is in place in human reckoning and interaction with web-life. The absence of this coefficient destines ecologies and humankind to dead ends; the absence of this coefficient is evident in the present wasting of life, of environment and ecology, and the fraudulent economics of corporate consumerism by which modern cultures operate, that is, in essential ignorance of the essential coefficient of sustainability.

In religious terms, Vatican II supports the economic rationality proposed here:

"(14)... body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily composition he gathers to himself the elements of the material world... man is not allowed to despise his bodily life... the very dignity of man postulates that man glorify God in his body... man...is more than a speck of nature... by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole sum of mere things...when man recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul

"(15) Man judges rightly that by his intellect...he shares in the light of the divine mind... his intelligence is not confined to observable data alone. It can with genuine certitude attain to reality itself as knowable... The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and needs to be. For wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and love for what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom, man passes through visible realities to those which are unseen... [f]or the future of the world stands in peril unless wiser men are forthcoming. It should also be pointed out that many nations, poorer in economic goods, are quite rich in wisdom and can offer noteworthy advantages to others.

"(16)...the voice of conscience can when necessary speak to his heart more specifically, do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God. To obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged... In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in search for truth... the more that a correct conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by objective norms of morality.

"(17) Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness... authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image in man. For, God has willed that man be left 'in the hand of his own counsel' so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously and come freely to [and] blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice... Man achieves such dignity when...he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself, through effective and skillful action, apt means to that end."

THE ECONOMY & Nature's Intrinsic Order

Join the Conversation