About the Climate Center

The last third of the twentieth century witnessed a shift in Earth-human relations. The human species now threatens Earth’s capacity to sustain life as we know it. At this pivotal moment in history all fields of human inquiry are called upon to collaborate in what the eminent cultural historian Father Thomas Berry of Fordham University called the Great Work of our era: to transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period of sustainable Earth-human relations. The Jesuit commitment to justice adds the insistence that such ecological sustainability be marked by environmental justice for the poor and the vulnerable and care for creation. As Pope Francis reminds us in Laudato Si’, “A great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.”

 

Founded in 2021, the Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment provides resources and opportunities to students, faculty, community members, and leaders in the inland northwest to meet the unprecedented challenges facing humanity and the wider natural environment in the 21st century. Such a vision is central to our identity as a Jesuit institution of higher learning. As Pope Francis writes, “All Christian communities have an important role to play in ecological education.”

About the Director

He has delivered more than 150 talks to general and academic audiences in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Professor Henning can be reached at henning@gonzaga.edu. For more on his work, visit https://connect.gonzaga.edu/henning.