A compelling re-evaluation of the human condition, Carmody Grey's inaugural lecture as Professor of Integral Ecology is a reckoning with the fragmented modern world. The concept of 'the environment' expresses an engrained habit of compartmentalisation, a habit which underpins our corrosive paradigm of technocratic utility. Grey proposes instead that we think through the crises of our moment in terms of our most fundamental task: the task of being human on this earth. What we long for is not 'connection', but communion: with others, with our living world, with God. To cultivate 'practices of communion' is the courageous alternative in a world dominated by practices of alienation and exclusion. The 'episteme of the mother', Grey argues, generates the profound moral insight we need in our moment. It shows the way to a radical 'revolution of tenderness'.

Dr Carmody Grey is Professor of Integral Ecology at Radboud University. She was formerly Assistant Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Durham. She holds a Visiting Professorship at the London School of Economics, an Adjunct Professorship at the University of Bern, and an Honorary Fellowship at the University of Durham. She lives in London with her husband and son.