Abstract

This project is an investigation of ecofeminism. Three feminist scholars who write on issues of nature and the environment, Sallie McFague, Donna Haraway, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, are discussed in detail. Selections and themes emerging from their work are divided into corresponding categories of Christian ecotheology, postmodern feminism, and ecofeminism and are interpreted as resources for the development of a critical ecofeminism. ;The thematic and methodological offerings of these scholars are explored according to specific themes of nature, technoscience, and women's experience. These scholars exhibit an insightful range of theological and ethical imagination, attention to social and ecological suffering and devastation, and the relationship between theory and practice. Their contributions comprise a critical ecofeminism because they do not rely upon the "naturalness" of their positions, but persuade persons, especially the privileged of the First World, to create and sustain networks of solidarity based not in identity or sentimentality, but on commitments to eco-justice. ;Before analyzing the selected themes of each scholar, theologieal, theoretical, and historical studies related to a critical ecofeminism are surveyed. The broader context of contemporary Christian ecotheology, postmodern and critical theory, and feminism will be evaluated by discussing the relationship between these areas on the topics of gender, race, subjectivity, identity, and experience. ;This project is a contribution to ecofeminism and Christian ecotheology and argues for the inter-relationship of theory and practice, imagination and praxis, the natural, and the historical. Though it will include 'non-religious' as well as religious readings, the theological task is to explore the theme of God's relation to the world. Neither Christian theology nor secular feminism has fully taken into account the resources found in the work of these scholars for a critical ecofeminism. Ecofeminism is not limited to the ideas and scholars presented here, but each upholds ecofeminist commitments to embodiment, structural analysis of oppressive conditions, critical self-reflection upon social location, and concerns with vocational and daily practices