Hydrology, Theology, and Laudato Si

The encyclical Laudato Si’ is a sustained theological and ethical reflection on ecology. Within Laudato Si’ the topic of fresh water is useful to consider as a contemporary issue foregrounded in the first chapter of the encyclical and as a representative topic for how the natural and social sciences are integrated into the pope’s modes of ethical analysis. A consideration of fresh water as a socio-natural substance in a pluralistic age suggests important directions for social ethics and moral theology in an era characterized by planetary degradation, social exclusions, and embodied burdens.