Ecofeminism/Ecojustice

The topic of "feminism" together with the term, "feminist" has been cropping up since the last newsletter came out. It came up in connection with our Conversations Project, formerly known as Common Ground. It has come up again in connection with the theme of our annual conference, Sacred Bodies, Sacred Earth: Eco-Feminism and the Gospel in the 21st Century.

Veronica Dunn contributed her thoughtful reflection on the term, "feminist" on Onelist as follows:

"It is important for me to claim that term,["feminist"] as it connotes a "political" as well as a personal stance for me. Furthermore, I believe that there's also a world of difference between being "feminine" (which I have come to understand as a social construct - constructed by a "ruling male system" that has a vested interest in keeping women and other "lesser folks" in our place! and being feminist. (which I understand as a world-view committed to systemic transformation and a more just distribution of power and wealth). I was also thinking of how black U.S. women have objected to the term "feminist" because of the ways white women are universalizing their experience and perspectives as being true of all women, and black women say that just isn't so - that they have a whole other experience. So, following Alice Walker, many black women choose the term "womanist" as a descriptor that fits for them. Similarly, Hispanic U.S. women began identifying themselves as neither feminist nor womanist, but "mujerista". My point is that any of us has a right to choose a term that fits. I think it's important to do it consciously, to do it in a way that keeps dialogue alive, and to do it in a way that transformative goals are kept central, whatever word we may use for ourselves."

Rita Gross, In Feminism and Religion identifies feminism quite simply as "the conviction that women really do inhabit the human realm and are not 'other,' not a separate species." Eco-feminism extends the concept. Eco-feminism brings feminist inquiry with its respect for diversity, its acknowledgement of its own bias and its suspicion of democratic win/lose relationships together with a deeper than biological understanding of ecology. Feminist ecology explores the destructive relationships among human beings as well as their deleterious interactions with global living systems. It finds "dominating and destructive relations to the earth…interrelated with gender, class and racial domination." (Rosemary Radford Reuther, Gaia and God) Healing these relationships is not a question of biological or technological "fixes." According to Reuther, healing requires a "social reordering" toward eco-justice and the establishment of altruistically caring relationships between women and men, races and nations, as well as social classes. Christian eco-feminist inquiry plumbs the riches of Christian tradition reclaiming relationships that have been suppressed or ignored in contemporary mainstream religious scholarship and writing. It has come as no surprise to Christians that modern science reveals connections among all living creatures, including humans, but eco-feminist inquiry brings new perspectives and new insights to these connections.

In the spring issue of CNWE NEWS, we brought to light what has been hidden or distorted in Catholic traditions relating to Mary of Magdala. The sacred body of Mary of Magdala has been profaned, as have the bodies of women throughout the ages. Women, whose sacred bodies are in the divine image, are integral to the whole of creation. The sacred body of Mary, the mother of Jesus, foreshadows the New Creation. We included former priest, John Wiejngard's examination of the tradition of her priestly role in "Mary as Priest." We upheld the Beijing Platform for women's well-being, despite patriarchal Christianity's reservations. We acknowledged the Pope's apology to God for sins against women. We appreciate his admission that men and women are equal. But we felt that, after 2000 years of men interpreting for us what equality means, we need to work out for ourselves what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God. Ecofeminist theology can offer nourishment for our journey of spiritual discovery of the sacredness of our selves, our bodies and our sacred earth. Finally, we provided a glimpse of the Gospel Feminim described as a specifically Christian ideology by Dr. Sandra Schneiders in her Madeleva . If, as she defines it, feminism is "an intellectual, spiritual and practical commitment to full personhood of every human being and right relationships among all creatures, it must be espoused by Christians as a Gospel imperative." ( With Oil In Their Lamps: Faith, Feminism and the Future by Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M.)

by Joan Lenardon and Jo Young