Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Divining Prophetic Voices
- Part I The Crucible of Experience and the Life of Dialogue
- Part II Legacies of Colonialism and Resistance
- Part III Angles on Ecofeminism
- 11 To Make the World “Home:” Rosemary Radford Ruether and Ecofeminist Theology
- 12 Common Ground in Sacred Nature: Unearthing Ecological Solidarity between Nasr and Ruether
- 13 Divine Reciprocity: Alice Walker, Ecowomanist
- 14 Thinking Past the Identity Trilemma: Gender, Religion, and Nature in the Work of Rosemary Radford Ruether
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index
12 - Common Ground in Sacred Nature: Unearthing Ecological Solidarity between Nasr and Ruether
from Part III - Angles on Ecofeminism
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Divining Prophetic Voices
- Part I The Crucible of Experience and the Life of Dialogue
- Part II Legacies of Colonialism and Resistance
- Part III Angles on Ecofeminism
- 11 To Make the World “Home:” Rosemary Radford Ruether and Ecofeminist Theology
- 12 Common Ground in Sacred Nature: Unearthing Ecological Solidarity between Nasr and Ruether
- 13 Divine Reciprocity: Alice Walker, Ecowomanist
- 14 Thinking Past the Identity Trilemma: Gender, Religion, and Nature in the Work of Rosemary Radford Ruether
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
This essay unearths intertwined roots and shoots, background and content, in common ground between the Christian ecofeminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether and a scholar of Islam concerned with the environmental crisis, Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Despite their location in distinct fields of study, religious notions and intellectual priorities, these scholars share a commitment to generating wider recognition of nature's sacredness, as well as offering strong critiques of reductionist, colonizing forces that erode this perspective. For example, according to Nasr, the harmony of the natural world directs attention toward an awe-inspiring Divine Artisan; for Ruether, living nature is infused with and inseparable from divine presence.
Ruether and Nasr have been and continue to be critical, defining voices in the eco-conversation in their respective religious and academic circles. In Islamic studies, Nasr has been an environmental and philosophical voice from the 1960s to the present. Ruether's works are foundational to ecofeminism and feminist theology in and beyond Christianity. Nasr and Ruether navigate between scientific and religious discourse, inherited and renewed religious thought, and the potential for interreligious dialogue. Both critique science when it reduces living beings to their component parts and utilitarian value, and oppose certain oppressive conditions found in scientific modernism. Further, both Nasr and Ruether highlight historical and contemporary perspectives on the sacred dimension of nature and humanity, articulating distinct yet comparable visions of resacralization.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Voices of Feminist Liberation , pp. 185 - 198Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2012