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Introduction

Leonardo Boff
Affiliation:
University of Rio de Janiero
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Summary

The process of globalization that occurs through the economy, politics, militarism, techno-science, communication and spirituality is increasingly consolidating itself. With this fact emerges a new kind of consciousness of global proportions, a new kind of reasoning that embraces the complexities of reality and a new cosmology. This new cosmology brings with it the insight that the Earth is part of the cosmos, which is still evolving. The Earth when seen from the perspective of astronauts emerges as a blue and white planet; it does not appear as an inert ship, but as an enormous living organism. This is Gaia, a unique and diverse reality that is contradictory and complementary, and which is our common fatherland (father) and motherland (mother). Human beings, thus, understand themselves as sons and daughters of the Earth and the result of ancient forces and energies that have been acting in the universe for billions of years.

This unification requires a central nervous system. The means of communication, the inter-dependence of all, with all, everywhere and at every moment, the number of human beings that are conscious of the inter-retro-relations between everything, all these function as if they were neurons of the planet Earth. Are we moving towards the rise of a new collective consciousness, a noosphere, just as in the past the litho-sphere, the atmosphere, the biosphere and anthroposphere arose? Are we about to experience a new phenomenon in the cosmological process?

Type
Chapter
Information
Global Civilization
Challenges to Society and to Christianity
, pp. 1 - 2
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2005

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