The acclaimed Latin American theologian here extends the intuitions of liberation theology showing how they contribute to answering the urgent questions of poverty and ecological degradation. Leonardo Boff argues that if Christian faith fails to appreciate the ecological paradigm, the link between human life and all of creation, then it only adds to the crisis--and begs for reform.

Focusing on the threated Amazon of his native Brazil, Boff traces the economic and metaphysical ties that bind the fate of the rain forests with the fate of the indigenous peoples and the poor of the land. He shows how liberation theology must join with ecology in reclaiming the dignity of the earth and our sense of a common community, part of God's creation. To illustrate the possibilities, Boff turns to resources in Christian spirituality both ancient and modern, from the vision of St. Francis of Assisi to cosmic christology.