Erica Lea offers a thoughtful reflection in Christian Feminism Today: “Gaia, Sallie McFague, and You Walk into a Bar…Christian Ecofeminist Theology Today”.
Lea begins:
Gender equality and environmental stewardship come from a shared root that affirms the dignity of all creation.
A basic tenet of feminism is that women are equal with men. This concept is applied in a number of spheres— politics, law, psychology, religion. A basic tenet of Christian feminism is that God creates all people, including gender identity, to have equality in the Kingdom of God through God’s love as expressed in Jesus Christ’s redemptive work. Christian ecofeminist theology narrows even more specifically by focusing on a relationship between gender and ecology with a particularly Christian lens.
It is not enough to talk about creation care and preservation—or even enough to make meaningful changes, big and small, for positive creation stewardship. Margaret Thatcher famously said, “Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits.” How we conceptualize creation and how we speak of creation impacts our actions and habits.
She then explores gender and conceptualizing God and Creation (primarily using Sallie McFague’s work), along with identifying possible next steps.