The word ecology stems from the Greek “oikos”, meaning “house” or “home”; while ecology as a scientific discipline studies the relationship between living organisms and the environment in which they exist, ecology also has a more expansive meaning that has deep roots in the Catholic tradition. In Catholic theology, ecology has always been connected to study of and care for our common home—that is, creation. Since one of the central tenets of Catholic theology is the doctrine of creation—that the triune God creates the world out of nothing—this course explores both what the doctrine of creation is and means for the Catholic intellectual tradition, and whether approaching the study of the world—scientific or otherwise—is or should be affected by our understanding of the origin of our world. In short: does it matter that the world is created? The course will approach this topic through the lens of ecology, which does not exclude the study of the environment and the organisms therein, but asks its interlocutors to deal with the question of the natural world through a holistic worldview.