ECOFEMINISM AND ECOFEMINIST THEOLOGY

With the awareness of the many threats to the ecological health of Earth, some feminists have broadened their concern beyond the social, economic and political status of women to a fundamental re-envisioning of the whole of reality, including the human relationship to non-human nature. The term for this total re-envisioning is "ecofeminism," first coined by Françoise d'Eaubonne in 1974. Ecofeminism draws attention to the connection between the domination of women and the exploitation of nonhuman nature in patriarchal societies. In ecofeminism feminist consciousness is extended beyond specific societal wrongs that diminish women to the recognition that there is no liberation for women and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamental model of relationships is one of domination. Ecofeminists, therefore, engage in a twofold advocacy on behalf of (1) the well-being of women and other persons diminished by patriarchy (due to racism, ethnic prejudice, classism and colonialism) and (2) the health of the planet exploited by persons in power for their own economic advantage.

Related to environmentalist movements, the "eco" prefix in ecofeminsm reflects a commitment to ecology as an all-encompassing organic and social reality. Although "environment" and "ecology" sometimes are used interchangeably, ecofeminists argue that they are not synonymous. The term "environment" refers to nature set apart from human beings—an object "out there" for us to study, control or restore through science and technology. The term "ecology" conveys a meaning that is more holistic: the study of and commitment to the earthly home that humans along with other living beings, matter, energy and all life forces share. Ecofeminism stresses that humans have a natural biological connectedness with all of Earth's life forms.

Concern with language and the ideology and behaviors it supports is an important characteristic of ecofeminism. Ecofeminists point out that depicting "nature" as external to humans is of one piece with the use of gender metaphors in Western constructions of nature and culture. Ecofeminists identify the nature versus culture dualism as the root of the diminishment of the dignity of women and the destruction of the Earth. The linguistic connection of nature with female subordination and culture with male domination is seen as a manifestation of patriarchy closely associated with Enlightenment thinking and values. Ecofeminists reject the association of women with nature as a faulty cultural construct. They see it as objectifying and commodifying women and non-human nature for the advantage of men, especially the men who occupy the top levels of the social and economic hierarchies.

Critique of language patterns by ecofeminists extends beyond those explicitly gender-related to patriarchal perspectives that are both hierarchical and dualistic. Hierarchical analysis, for example, is common in biology and can be benign. Biologists classify species according to a hierarchy of complexity, not necessarily positing that the more complex species have more importance or value than the others. However, in the pervasive mind-set of patriarchy, hierarchies of complexity have been often weighted in favor of the one species designated as the most complex, and therefore the highest of the life forms, homo sapiens. Historically, the elevation of homo sapiens has been at the expense of other species and Earth's limited resources. Ecofeminists maintain that this form of hierarchical dualism promotes an excessive anthropocentricism. Patriarchal anthropocentricism underlies human attempts to dominate nonhuman nature for the sake of "progress" as it is defined by the political and economic leaders of the First World, the countries that have the highest levels of economic wealth. Ecofeminists contend that until anthropocentricism is replaced by a human kinship solidarity with earth's life forms, the ecological crisis will continue.

Ecofeminist Theology. From its inception ecofeminism intersected with religion and theology. In the First World west the ecofeminist criticism of an objectified "nature" prompted the recognition that the Earth, once envisioned as sacred, is no longer viewed as such. The loss of the sacrality of the Earth has contributed to the ecological crisis. To provide a corrective, during the 1970s some ecofeminists began developing earth-centered religious practices. Among these women are those who believed that the gender attributed to the divine is important for the well-being of women and the health of the planet. Some argued that there is nothing redeemable about the transcendent male, sovereign-God of Judaism and Christianity. These ecofeminists looked to Goddess-centered religious practices, reviving past traditions of honoring the sacredness of Earth and of celebrating the immanence of the Goddess in Earth's processes. Some of these ecofeminist expressions of religion combine neo-pagan spirituality with witchcraft. Others draw on archeological discoveries to construct visions of prehistoric Old European religion in which Goddess worship supports human harmony with nature. From these diverse resources ecofeminists have articulated Goddess "thealogies."

Among ecofeminists are Christians who are critical of the syncretistic Goddess religions, arguing that the "thealogians" of these religions have a limited understanding of how God is depicted in the Bible and in extra-biblical Christian sources. Drawing attention to female imagery in the Bible, they believe that Christianity can be a resource for liberating women and nonhuman nature from the effects of patriarchy. Christian ecofeminists acknowledge that the Bible has been used to legitimate human domination of other creatures. The directive that humans exercise "dominion … over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Gn 1.28) has been interpreted in patriarchal ways that both ignore the historical situation of the Jewish people exiled and enslaved in Babylon during the 500s B.C. and confuse dominion in that ancient social setting with the domination of which humans are capable in the modern age. The biblical account of the "Days of Creation" affirms the deep kinship of humans with all of earth's creatures.

To the important concern about the sacrality of nature, Christian ecofemists theologians provided a variety of responses. Rosemary Radford Ruether, a Catholic theologian, proposes an ecofeminist retrieval of the sacramentality of creation (Gaia and God ). Her proposal for an ecofeminist sacramentality affirms the intrinsic worth of every facet of creation, apart from the value that a particular group of persons, including those in power, attaches to it. Earth is sacramental because all creatures have their origins in God, are "holy things" revelatory of the divine presence, and cannot exist apart from a God who transcends specific male names and images. The sacrality of nature is affirmed also by Sallie McFague, a Protestant theologian, in her reflections on the metaphorical statement: "the world is God's body" (The Body of God ). In speaking of the world as the body of God, McFague does not propose to equate God with the material "stuff" of the cosmos. God "bodies forth the world" and exceeds the sum of the world's parts. God both transcends the world and is immanent in it. Nothing exists without God nurturing and sustaining it with the divine gift of life, an agency more readily associated with female reality than with male. In their distinctive, yet related, ecofeminist theologies Ruether and McFague find bases for ethical responses to the ecological crisis. For Ruether it is an ethics of "compassionate solidarity" and for McFague a "community care." For both, it is a love commitment to an eco-justice of right relations with all creatures.

For non-Western ecofeminists, especially those in the Third World countries, awareness of the sacredness of nature is less of an issue. Traditional spiritualities of pre-colonial indigenous cultures affirmed that creation is a sacred manifestation of the divine. Among traditional beliefs commonly held was that land was given to the people as a group or tribe for their use by divine favor. Therefore, individual ownership of land was unheard of. Land and all that inhabited it was a treasured gift from God for the good of the whole community. Therefore, the people routinely performed rituals signifying that their use of the land was a privilege. When they harvested their crops, they offered prayers of thanksgiving to God. However, the Christianity presented to indigenous peoples was given an imperialistic cast by Western colonizers who presumed that land privately owned by men was the universal norm. Women were often presumed by the colonizers to have no land rights (and by extension no rights in any sphere of societal life). Through means that were often violent, the colonizers appropriated great tracts of the most valuable land from indigenous peoples to extract minerals and grow cash crops. Land acquisition and exploitation resulted in the destruction of delicate ecosystems, the denigration of women and the reduction of land to a resource to be exploited by a few rather than a gift to be shared by all.

In post-colonial Third World countries a revisionist interpretation of the inculturation of Christianity has awakened prophetic voices among women who challenge First World notions of private land ownership, industrial development, economic progress and the desacralization of the land. Some Third World ecofeminist theologians affirm core beliefs of Christianity, such as belief in God as creator and giver of life, while also affirming traditional beliefs, including earth-centered spiritualities that celebrate the sacredness of the land. Although significant differences can be discerned in these spiritualities, Third World ecofeminists share common ethical emphases: (1) a critique of First World models of development and progress that contribute to their own poverty; (2) commitment to the sustainability of nature that is basic to survival, very important to women because gender roles in these countries often give them the strenuous work of collecting water, food and fuel for their families; (3) emphasis on practical remedies to wasteful consumption of limited resources; (4) resolve to live a lifestyle that embodies a holistic vision of creation and a response of gratitude to the Creator.

Advocates of Christian ecofeminist theology present it as a prophetic call: (1) to attend to and to correct the destructive effects of patriarchy, not only on women but also in all creatures because such domination is not of God; (2) to reverence creatures, female and male, human and nonhuman in all their diversity because they together form a delicate organic web of life that is of God and in God; (3) to commit oneself to eco-justice both locally and globally.

See Also: ecology; feminism.

Bibliography: c. j. adams, ed. Ecofeminism and the Sacred (New York 1993). c. p. christ, Rebirth of the Goddess: Lending Meaning in Feminist Spirituality (Reading, Mass. 1997). a. m. clifford, "When Being Human Becomes Truly Earthly, an Ecofeminist Proposal for Solidarity," 173–189, in In the Embrace of God: Feminist Approaches to Christian Anthropology, ed. a. o'hara graff (Maryknoll, N.Y. 1995). f. d'eaubonne, Le féminisme ou la mort (1974), e.t. "Ecofeminism or Death," 64–67, in New French Feminisms: An Anthology, ed. e. marks and i. de courtivron (Amherst, 1980). m. gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (Berkley 1982). s. mcfague, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (Minneapolis 1993); Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature (Minneapolis 1997). r. radford ruether, Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing (San Francisco 1992); Women Healing Earth: Third World Women on Ecology, Feminism, and Religion (Maryknoll, N.Y.1996).

[a. clifford]