Title: Unearthed: Ecowomanism and Economies of Disposability
Abstract: This paper draws its framework from Natasha Trethewey’s rending poem, “Miracle of the Black Leg.” It questions religiously sanctioned violence against supposedly disposable bodies in the face of climate disruption. “Unearthed” calls for ecowomanist analyses that engage Kathryn Yusoff’s understanding of the color line of the Anthropocene as a silencing of multiple human extinction level events caused by settler colonialism and chattel slavery. The economic impacts and realities of so-called disposable communities, those sacrificed as false cure as well as those silenced as (im)material witnesses to environmental devastation, require reconsideration of the questions raised at the intersections of religion, economics, and ecology. Truly practical approaches to planetary flourishing must engage the legacies and lived realities of the ecological other.
Abstract: This paper draws its framework from Natasha Trethewey’s rending poem, “Miracle of the Black Leg.” It questions religiously sanctioned violence against supposedly disposable bodies in the face of climate disruption. “Unearthed” calls for ecowomanist analyses that engage Kathryn Yusoff’s understanding of the color line of the Anthropocene as a silencing of multiple human extinction level events caused by settler colonialism and chattel slavery. The economic impacts and realities of so-called disposable communities, those sacrificed as false cure as well as those silenced as (im)material witnesses to environmental devastation, require reconsideration of the questions raised at the intersections of religion, economics, and ecology. Truly practical approaches to planetary flourishing must engage the legacies and lived realities of the ecological other.
Title: Tri-Animist Economics: The Intimate Re-Enchantment of Creation for a Regenerative Eco-Socialism
Abstract: The crucifixion of people and planet intrinsic to extractivist capitalism is based in the theo-logics of a hierarchically-ordered universe, which undergird and justify the commodification, exploitation, and disposal of human and more-than-human persons for the financial benefit of an elect few. At a time when more and more are recognizing the urgent need to transition beyond capitalism to a more egalitarian, just, and life-sustaining political economy, theology’s contribution must include provoking a cosmological revolution that embraces the flourishing of all human beings within the broader flourishing web of all our relations, beginning with those most threatened by the present order. This paper will argue for the particular significance of emerging Christian Animist perspectives in fostering the perspectival and affective changes needed to support the regenerative eco-socialist projects that are needed today.
Abstract: The crucifixion of people and planet intrinsic to extractivist capitalism is based in the theo-logics of a hierarchically-ordered universe, which undergird and justify the commodification, exploitation, and disposal of human and more-than-human persons for the financial benefit of an elect few. At a time when more and more are recognizing the urgent need to transition beyond capitalism to a more egalitarian, just, and life-sustaining political economy, theology’s contribution must include provoking a cosmological revolution that embraces the flourishing of all human beings within the broader flourishing web of all our relations, beginning with those most threatened by the present order. This paper will argue for the particular significance of emerging Christian Animist perspectives in fostering the perspectival and affective changes needed to support the regenerative eco-socialist projects that are needed today.
Title: Engaging the Gandhian Tradition in Confronting the Climate Crisis
Abstract: The Gandhian tradition is explored as a medium to confront the climate crisis. A fourfold framework is put forward: a) pragmatic politics and organizing; b) satyagraha and strategic nonviolence; c) constructive work and community economic development; and d) simple living and intentional community. Particular social challenges of the climate crisis are then examined. Limitations and possible weaknesses of this tradition are considered; particularly in relation to distributive justice. Religious aspects and relations to the sacred are reflected upon; with the example of the author’s Methodist tradition being delved into in greater depth.
Abstract: The Gandhian tradition is explored as a medium to confront the climate crisis. A fourfold framework is put forward: a) pragmatic politics and organizing; b) satyagraha and strategic nonviolence; c) constructive work and community economic development; and d) simple living and intentional community. Particular social challenges of the climate crisis are then examined. Limitations and possible weaknesses of this tradition are considered; particularly in relation to distributive justice. Religious aspects and relations to the sacred are reflected upon; with the example of the author’s Methodist tradition being delved into in greater depth.
Title: TBA
Title: Theological Education and Food Justice: Actions Toward Transnational Solidarity
Abstract: How can those in North America build authentic and tangible transnational solidarity in response to the day-to-day effects of climate change in the Global South? The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (2007) shows that rural women in developing countries are among the most vulnerable groups to the consequences of climate change. Vandana Shiva (2015) has drawn attention to the negative effects of climate change, particularly for agrarian Indian women whose livelihoods and survival are threatened when food economies are globalized and common lands are enclosed. This paper discusses the key role that theological educators and schools can play in resisting dominant industrial agriculture through involvement with sustainable agriculture and food justice movements. Using recent ethnographic research with women working in sustainable agriculture in Columbus, OH and surrounding areas, I demonstrate how women participating in the food justice movement are finding spiritual fulfillment and ways to act morally. I argue that their work offers examples of tangible actions for those in North America who wish to live in solidarity with those struggling with food injustice in developed and developing countries.
Abstract: How can those in North America build authentic and tangible transnational solidarity in response to the day-to-day effects of climate change in the Global South? The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (2007) shows that rural women in developing countries are among the most vulnerable groups to the consequences of climate change. Vandana Shiva (2015) has drawn attention to the negative effects of climate change, particularly for agrarian Indian women whose livelihoods and survival are threatened when food economies are globalized and common lands are enclosed. This paper discusses the key role that theological educators and schools can play in resisting dominant industrial agriculture through involvement with sustainable agriculture and food justice movements. Using recent ethnographic research with women working in sustainable agriculture in Columbus, OH and surrounding areas, I demonstrate how women participating in the food justice movement are finding spiritual fulfillment and ways to act morally. I argue that their work offers examples of tangible actions for those in North America who wish to live in solidarity with those struggling with food injustice in developed and developing countries.
Title: Queer Reproductive Justice as Framework for Christian Anti-Capitalism
Abstract: This chapter proposes that queer reproductive justice offers a conceptual foundation for constructing a Christian response to capitalism. Reproductive justice is a normative framework first formulated a quarter-century ago by twelve Black women as a more comprehensive agenda for securing self-determination of all persons in matters of biological reproduction and family formation. Queer reproductive justice is the author’s recent expanded formulation of reproductive justice so that it secures equity across the entire sphere of social reproduction (not only biological reproduction) and between the species Homo sapiens and the rest of the ecosphere. After summarizing the core principles of queer reproductive justice, this chapter uses it as a lens for interpreting three central components of the Christian witness: Creation, the Christ-event, and the communio that constitutes the Body of Christ’s continuing earthly life. When these are understood through the lens of queer reproductive justice, it becomes evident how capitalism is intrinsically incompatible with the Christian proclamation, and hence that Christians are obligated to take up the long task of eradicating capitalism, not merely ameliorating it.
Abstract: This chapter proposes that queer reproductive justice offers a conceptual foundation for constructing a Christian response to capitalism. Reproductive justice is a normative framework first formulated a quarter-century ago by twelve Black women as a more comprehensive agenda for securing self-determination of all persons in matters of biological reproduction and family formation. Queer reproductive justice is the author’s recent expanded formulation of reproductive justice so that it secures equity across the entire sphere of social reproduction (not only biological reproduction) and between the species Homo sapiens and the rest of the ecosphere. After summarizing the core principles of queer reproductive justice, this chapter uses it as a lens for interpreting three central components of the Christian witness: Creation, the Christ-event, and the communio that constitutes the Body of Christ’s continuing earthly life. When these are understood through the lens of queer reproductive justice, it becomes evident how capitalism is intrinsically incompatible with the Christian proclamation, and hence that Christians are obligated to take up the long task of eradicating capitalism, not merely ameliorating it.
Title: The Peculiar Agency of People and the Planet: On the Need to Rethink Everything, Including Religion
Abstract: Climate change entails the diagnosis of a life-threatening condition. What is threatened, to be sure, is not the future of life on planet Earth but the future of human life as we know it, along with the life of many other species. Earth, myriads of bacteria, cockroaches, and perhaps even some humans who have the means for survival will likely be fine for the time being; the majority of humanity, hummingbirds, and koalas probably will not. Inequalities along the lines of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, nationality, and class further exacerbate this scenario. Not all is lost just yet, however. As we take a deeper look at the causes of our current condition, a better grasp of possible solutions emerges as well. Social movements and the agency emerging from the majority of humanity—those not benefiting from prevailing development—have changed the world in the past and may well change it again. Neither should the agency of nature itself be dismissed out of hand. How would another look at problems and solutions impact the work of theologians, economists, and social and natural scientists?
Abstract: Climate change entails the diagnosis of a life-threatening condition. What is threatened, to be sure, is not the future of life on planet Earth but the future of human life as we know it, along with the life of many other species. Earth, myriads of bacteria, cockroaches, and perhaps even some humans who have the means for survival will likely be fine for the time being; the majority of humanity, hummingbirds, and koalas probably will not. Inequalities along the lines of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, nationality, and class further exacerbate this scenario. Not all is lost just yet, however. As we take a deeper look at the causes of our current condition, a better grasp of possible solutions emerges as well. Social movements and the agency emerging from the majority of humanity—those not benefiting from prevailing development—have changed the world in the past and may well change it again. Neither should the agency of nature itself be dismissed out of hand. How would another look at problems and solutions impact the work of theologians, economists, and social and natural scientists?
Title: ‘Energizing Human Development’: Humanity, Divinity, and the Climate Crisis
Abstract: In the West, from Aristotle to the 19th century “discovery” of oil in America, theologians and philosophers have consistently aligned high heat/energy production and consumption with divinity, the full development of humanity in the form of a rational male, and the height and aims of civilization. Consequently, the more deeply rooted and pressing problem today is the decoupling of high energy from divinity and the highest values and aims of human fulfillment/development. In her work, Julia K. Steinberger (among others: Pasternak, 2000; Smil, 2003; Martinez and Ebenhak, 2008) challenges this consistent Western logic that high energy production and consumption invariably leads to high human development. Steinberger also identifies places in the world where low or moderate energy consumption habits are also high markers for human development and well-being. Given these findings, I argue that an unexplored, but urgent area of constructive theological exploration is in drawing on the rich religious resources of ritual, contemplation, certain modes of asceticism, and communal organizing that can foster the kinds of shifts in human values, aims, and habits that might decouple high energy civilization from human flourishing.
Abstract: In the West, from Aristotle to the 19th century “discovery” of oil in America, theologians and philosophers have consistently aligned high heat/energy production and consumption with divinity, the full development of humanity in the form of a rational male, and the height and aims of civilization. Consequently, the more deeply rooted and pressing problem today is the decoupling of high energy from divinity and the highest values and aims of human fulfillment/development. In her work, Julia K. Steinberger (among others: Pasternak, 2000; Smil, 2003; Martinez and Ebenhak, 2008) challenges this consistent Western logic that high energy production and consumption invariably leads to high human development. Steinberger also identifies places in the world where low or moderate energy consumption habits are also high markers for human development and well-being. Given these findings, I argue that an unexplored, but urgent area of constructive theological exploration is in drawing on the rich religious resources of ritual, contemplation, certain modes of asceticism, and communal organizing that can foster the kinds of shifts in human values, aims, and habits that might decouple high energy civilization from human flourishing.
Title: A Dirtification of Economy from a Pacific Eco-Relational Perspective
Abstract: With the Pacific as the first to feel the impact of the climate crisis, the most overexploited region under the economic maneuvering of the rich corporations, the pressure of the renewed colonial ‘Pacific rush’ narrative that accompanies the recent geopolitical interests on the region of the rich powerful nations, and the new bush for sustainable development wrapped within the obscured promises of the ‘blue growth’ development paradigm, the region is overwhelmed by multiple layers of a destructive development narrative. The impact of all of these is first felt by the Pacific dirt communities daily. In the dirt communities, dirt is not negative as profiled by conventional colonial thinking. Dirt is wholly part of Pacific identity and everyday economic life. Hence any economy that is not ‘down to dirt’ and ignores the economic ways and interests of the dirt communities is considered a digestive and a cleansing system of power. Alongside the many efforts outside the church to challenge the dominant colonial development narrative, the recent shift led by the Pacific churches through the work of the Pacific Theological College and the Pacific Conference of Churches attempts to create a new story for development that is Pacific, ground-up, and informed by life-affirming worldviews and faith and indigenous spiritualities of the Pacific dirt communities. Eco-relationality reframes economy and development from the perspective of the multiple eco-relationships that are deeply connected to the dirt identity of the communities and are often ignored by the mainstream one-dimensional neoliberal economy. This paper uses the Pacific eco-relational lens fundamental to Pacific dirt identity to propose a much needed ‘dirtification of economy’ if we are to liberate and address the injustices imposed by the dominant economic systems on the grassroots communities. It brings in the question of the place of God and humanity in the eco-relational story of the Pacific dirt communities.
Abstract: With the Pacific as the first to feel the impact of the climate crisis, the most overexploited region under the economic maneuvering of the rich corporations, the pressure of the renewed colonial ‘Pacific rush’ narrative that accompanies the recent geopolitical interests on the region of the rich powerful nations, and the new bush for sustainable development wrapped within the obscured promises of the ‘blue growth’ development paradigm, the region is overwhelmed by multiple layers of a destructive development narrative. The impact of all of these is first felt by the Pacific dirt communities daily. In the dirt communities, dirt is not negative as profiled by conventional colonial thinking. Dirt is wholly part of Pacific identity and everyday economic life. Hence any economy that is not ‘down to dirt’ and ignores the economic ways and interests of the dirt communities is considered a digestive and a cleansing system of power. Alongside the many efforts outside the church to challenge the dominant colonial development narrative, the recent shift led by the Pacific churches through the work of the Pacific Theological College and the Pacific Conference of Churches attempts to create a new story for development that is Pacific, ground-up, and informed by life-affirming worldviews and faith and indigenous spiritualities of the Pacific dirt communities. Eco-relationality reframes economy and development from the perspective of the multiple eco-relationships that are deeply connected to the dirt identity of the communities and are often ignored by the mainstream one-dimensional neoliberal economy. This paper uses the Pacific eco-relational lens fundamental to Pacific dirt identity to propose a much needed ‘dirtification of economy’ if we are to liberate and address the injustices imposed by the dominant economic systems on the grassroots communities. It brings in the question of the place of God and humanity in the eco-relational story of the Pacific dirt communities.
Title: Distorted Imagination: Land, Food, and Economies
Abstract: Each day, people participate in small decisions carrying long term global impact. Contemporary moral statements about the right way to eat or ethics of plant-based diets are promoted as ways to make moral judgements that can ‘save the world.’ However, many of these decisions place a moral and economic burden on others while ceding food production and distribution to industrial systems. There might be better, less heroic, ways to join in solidarity for food security and sovereignty through cooperative models.
Title: Moana Eco-theology: Towards an Eco-theology of Commoning
Abstract: Colonization of the commons is the colonization of the planet and the people, and commoning is the praxis that liberates the commons and the commoners. Religion has played a major role in the colonization of the commons. But religion has also the potential to be a catalyst in the praxis of commoning. The environmental history of Oceania in general and Aotearoa New Zealand in particular is the history of the colonization of the commons perpetuated by settler colonialism, neo-liberal capitalism and institutional racism. Moana Eco-theology, the creative eco-theological reflections from Oceania, problematizes mainstream eco-theologies and proposes alternative methodological standpoints to envision and initiate the liberation of the planet and the people. This presentation is an attempt to reflect upon Moana Eco-theology from the commons perspective drawing from the ongoing struggles of the tangata whenua (people of the land) to liberate their moana and whenua.
Abstract: Colonization of the commons is the colonization of the planet and the people, and commoning is the praxis that liberates the commons and the commoners. Religion has played a major role in the colonization of the commons. But religion has also the potential to be a catalyst in the praxis of commoning. The environmental history of Oceania in general and Aotearoa New Zealand in particular is the history of the colonization of the commons perpetuated by settler colonialism, neo-liberal capitalism and institutional racism. Moana Eco-theology, the creative eco-theological reflections from Oceania, problematizes mainstream eco-theologies and proposes alternative methodological standpoints to envision and initiate the liberation of the planet and the people. This presentation is an attempt to reflect upon Moana Eco-theology from the commons perspective drawing from the ongoing struggles of the tangata whenua (people of the land) to liberate their moana and whenua.