Private property, the environment and Christianity

Abstract

This article argues that private property is a main cause of the current ecological crisis. The article offers a means of re-conceiving the ‘orthodox’ view of private property so that it is seen to embrace a moral element as part of its normative content. David Lametti, a Canadian property theorist, calls this moral element the deon-telos of private property. This article suggests that the content of the deon-telos ought to include a Christian ecological theology and morality. It draws upon the collection of essays found in Elizabeth Breuilly and Martin Palmer’s Christianity and Ecology in order to identify the main elements of Christian ecological theology and morality necessary to fill the content of the deon-telos. By re-conceiving private property as embracing the deon-telos with Christian ecological theology and morality as a part of its content, private property may offer but one solution to the ecological crisis.