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ABSTRACT
The primary concern of ecofeminism is cultural schismatic dichotomies that position nature and women as subordinate, to the advantage and entrenchment of dominant powers. This article draws on the work of Pentecostal theologian Frank Macchia to propose the underlying issue is improper relations between created and divine, manifested as improper relations within creation. The Spirit of Christ – the overflowing love of God – brings creation into right relation with God and so with each other and non-human creation. Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, is the inauguration of these right relations, dissolving the core dichotomy of creation and Creator. Christ poured out His Spirit, for all of creation to participate in this relation through the self-giving vocation of humanity. Pentecostal churches – communities of graced relations – can expand their missional imagination and be primary witnesses to this vocation through the Spirit-empowered communal practices of contrition and repentance, the Lord's Supper, and prayer.
KEYWORDS:
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The term originated with the French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne in Le Féminisme ou la Mort (1974).
2 Ruether, Gaia & God.
3 Ruether also applies this perspective not just in regard to the Christian tradition but also to the Bible. Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk, 22–23.
4 Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, 122–26.
5 McFague, The Body of God, viii–xii; McFague, Life Abundant, 141; McFague, A New Climate for Christology, 164.
6 McFague, Life Abundant, 140–41, 147.
7 Ibid., 20.
8 Ibid., 13.
9 Ibid.; McFague, A New Climate for Christology, 4.
10 McFague, A New Climate for Christology.
11 McFague, Life Abundant, 128.
12 Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit, 26; Macchia, Justified in the Spirit; Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer: Christology in the Light of Pentecost (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018); Frank D. Macchia, The Spirit-Baptized Church: A Dogmatic Inquiry, T&T Clark Systematic Pentecostal and Charismatic Theology (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2020).
13 The relationality of Macchia's thinking is explored in I. Leon Harris, The Holy Spirit as Communion: Colin Gunton's Pneumatology of Communion and Frank Macchia's Pneumatology of Koinonia, Kindle Electronic Edition (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2017).
14 Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit; Macchia, Justified in the Spirit; Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer; Macchia, The Spirit-Baptized Church; Macchia, Tongues of Fire.
15 Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 36–39.
16 Macchia, Justified in the Spirit, 215.
17 Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 131.
18 Ibid., 25.
19 Ibid., 178.
20 Coakley cited in Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 179.
21 Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 154.
22 Ibid.
23 Rogers cited in Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 87.
24 Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit, 259.
25 Ibid., 258.
26 Macchia, Introduction to Theology, 120.
27 Macchia, “The Spirit of Life,” 113–30.
28 Macchia, “The Spirit of Life,” 130.
29 Majid, “Quantum Spacetime and Physical Reality,”, 90.
30 Rogers cited in Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 87.
31 Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 87.
32 Macchia, Introduction to Theology, 120.
33 Welker comes to a similar conclusion from the perspective of addressing the apparent tension between the Priestly creation account of Gen 1:26-29a that mandates dominion of creation by humans yet emphasizes the created equality of male and female; and the so-called Yahwistic creation account in Genesis 2 that tasks humanity with cultivating the garden of Eden yet speaks of a ‘patriarchal subordination of the woman to the man.’ He concludes that the mandate of dominion is limited to that of caretaking, which does not exclude the use of force. ‘Humankind, created in God's image, must cultivate this community and preserve it in a specific form, namely, one that bears responsibility for those who are weaker. … .the use of force is shaped and limited not only by the community of solidarity itself and by its requirements for preservation but also by the mandate to represent God's image.’ ‘In all the recognizing and privileging of the interests of human beings, the central issue is the preservation of creation in its complex structures of interdependence.’ ‘God judges human beings worthy of this preservation of creation. They are to exercise dominion over creatures by protecting them. Human beings acquire their power and their worth precisely in the process of caretaking.’ Welker, Creation and Reality, 60–73.
34 Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 54.
35 Ibid.
36 Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 51.
37 Macchia, Justified in the Spirit, 6; Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 52.
38 Macchia, Justified in the Spirit, 166–67.
39 Macchia, “The Spirit of Life,” 129.
40 Macchia, The Spirit-Baptized Church, 4.
41 Macchia, Introduction to Theology, 60.
42 Keller and Lovelace, “Foreword,” 9.
43 Macchia, Jesus the Spirit Baptizer, 63.
44 Macchia, The Spirit-Baptized Church, 105–8.
45 Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit, 242.
46 Macchia, Tongues of Fire, 351.
47 Macchia, The Spirit-Baptized Church, 55.
48 Ibid.
49 Macchia, Baptized in the Spirit, 242.
50 Macchia, Tongues of Fire, 9.
51 Ware, “Through Creation to the Creator,” 99.
52 Zizioulas, The Eucharistic Communion, 139.
53 Ware, The Orthodox Church, 267, 276.
54 Macchia, Tongues of Fire, 213.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid, 363.
58 Macchia, The Spirit-Baptized Church, 198–99.
59 Macchia, Justified in the Spirit, 273–75.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Anita Davis
Anita Davis is a Ph.D. candidate. Her thesis is developing a Pentecostal eco-theology grounded in the mediation of Christ and the Spirit of all creation.