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Truth is Divisive

Archdiocese Hosts Eco-Feminist Rosemary Radford Ruether

BY CHARLES A. COULOMBE

On Saturday, April 23, I attended another symposium put on by the Hindu-Catholic Dialogue of the archdiocese of Los Angeles's office of ecumenical and interreligious affairs, the Forum on Religion and Economy, Loyola Marymount University's department of theological studies and its Center for Religion and Spirituality, and the Vedanta Society.

Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles hosted the affair, as it had last year's Hindu-Catholic symposium, where the topic was "Sacred Celibacy." But the participation of the Vedanta Society this year lent the talks a more authentic Hindu element than had been the case the last time.

The theme of this year's symposium was "Ecological Spirituality." Loyola Marymount's Christopher Key Chapple, associate academic vice president and professor of theological studies opened the proceedings. Then, the archdiocese's ecumenical committee chairman, Father Alexei Smith, pastor of St. Andrew's Russian Catholic Church in El Segundo, welcomed us on behalf of the archdiocese. He asked us to be prayerful and quoted from the June 10, 2002 joint declaration on the environment of Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Speaking of God's creation, the uniqueness of man in his free will, the "first sin" and its resulting "destruction of the original harmony of creation," of man's continuing betrayal of God's mandate to us to be "stewards called to collaborate with God in watching over creation in holiness and wisdom," this reading set a powerful tone for the proceedings.

The ex-Jain monk, Satish Kumar of Schumacher College in Dartington, Devonshire, England, spoke next. Author of No Destination and You Are, Therefore I Am, Dr. Kumar's topic was "Personal and Planetary Responsibility." A jolly, balding gentleman in a tweed jacket, Kumar began by explaining that "it is easy to renounce your material possessions but not easy to renounce your truth. In the Jain tradition we say there is no truth, there are truths." He went on to add that the Jains also say, "truth is secondary — non-violence is primary. Truth is divisive."

Dr. Kumar further told us that "in reality, all is whole — Gaia, 'the living earth.' It is a living organism, interconnected, self-organizing. We are no more superior to other species. We have gotten rid of other '-isms — racism, sexism — but not speciesism. We are no better or worse than bees, deer, trees, rivers, or flowers. We all have our place in the scheme of life. We all have a responsibility to nature. We must not learn about nature, but from nature."

This in turn, Kumar opined, requires certain actions out of us. "The human project of dominance and control must come to an end. Unless we come to know our place, we will lose the place we have. We must think of ourselves as Gaians first, and only then in terms of nation, race, and so on. When we realize ourselves, when we self-realize, we become divine."

How to do this in concrete terms? "We must stop relying on economics, on politics, and first relate to our own place, to where we are. The globalized world of corporations and power is not compatible with planetary consciousness. We must 'think globally, act locally,' with our head in the heavens and our feet on the ground. Will you buy organic food in a local market, or imported food? Challenge the world economy, and buy locally. The Gandhian world-view is against mass consumption over long distances. Love the place you live, not just ideas."

The next speaker was the celebrated "Catholic," Rosemary Radford Ruether, of Graduate Theological Union, whose most recent book, Integrating Ecofeminism, Globalization, and World Religions, apparently inspired her talk, "Globalization, Christian Ecofeminism, and World Religions." A sprightly, grandmotherly lady, Dr. Ruether offered an "ecofeminist" analysis of the "Christian roots" of the problem under discussion.

She began by reassuring her audience that "Christianity is not necessarily worse than other religions, but it is the vehicle of Western Civilization. I am not interested in how bad it and its Greek roots are, but rather in its positive side that can help heal the ecology."

With this generous concession, she went on to advise us that "we must look at how the terms 'man' and 'nature' are part of hierarchy," which in turn has given us such baleful phrases as "man's unlimited mastery over nature" and "let us create man in our own image... and have dominion over all the Earth." "I find these phrases humorous — how do you do that?" Ruether added. "But they are bad, because they give creation into the hands of man (that is, of ruling class males). Now in response to criticisms of this sort, scholars have said that 'dominion' is a mistranslation and that the word used means 'stewardship' or 'care,' not 'ownership.' But this does not explain how historically this dominion has meant 'mastery.' Moreover, this mastery has come to mean dominion over the slave classes."

Ruether went on to explain that Christianity is in reality "a merger of two patriarchal traditions — the Hebrew legal tradition that puts 'Man' over slaves, and Greek dualism, which placed spirit over matter, and man over woman. St. Augustine is typical of this view. Christian asceticism sees the body as ephemeral and subject to temptation. Though not evil in itself, fixing one's affection on the world lowers one's spirituality.

"What Christianity did was to fuse these two traditions into simultaneous control over nature and flight from it. In so doing, it denies a relationship between the exploiting classes and their servants, allowing use of them without responsibility. This explains how they and the environment can be used destructively while the users are oblivious to the results. These attitudes intertwined with dominion over subjugated peoples (in terms of gender, class, and race); subjection in turn was held to make them dirty."

Ruether went on at great length to explain that the holders of power — white males — were led to view their subjects in three ways: as incomplete in themselves, awaiting domination or use to give them value; as evil, being either rebellious against white male authority, or else as sources of temptation and corruption; and as good only insofar as they are submissive and/or useful to white males. In the latter case, however, they may, if submissive or useful, then be romanticized. Thus, in Ruether's view, the image of the Virgin is for women as Uncle Tom is for blacks.

Ruether complained that conservatives see feminist theologians as witches and lesbians. She went on to point out how intertwined the issues of race, gender, and ecology are. To heal them, she advocated abandoning the image of God as tribal war-god for one of the "wisdom pervading the universe," which wisdom is, of course, feminine. Amongst groups who see God as she does, Ruether cited the Wiccans, which was interesting in light of her annoyance at feminist theologians being characterized as witches.

She called for a new consciousness of "ecojustice" and the development of "appropriate technology." She declared that the great religious divide today was not between denominations or religions but rather within them, pitting holders of the new consciousness against conservatives. Of course, she reminded us, the latter remain divided among themselves by existing differences, whereas the new thinkers are united amongst each other by emerging consensus. As at the World Parliament of Religions, "progressives are developing their own traditions. Perhaps this represents the birth pangs of a new consciousness through which we can build a healed world."

Then came lunch, an affair of tasty if vegetarian sandwiches preceded by non-denominational prayer. This was a low-key affair compared to the last dialogue, which had featured Indian-style dance. But the good conversation more than made up for the lack of a floor show.

Next to bat was Vijaya Nagarajan, of the Jesuit University of San Francisco, author of the forthcoming The Earth as Goddess Bhu Devi. An articulate lady in a sari, her talk was titled, "The Kolam: A Hindu Tradition of Embedded Ecology." She explained her background, born as she was in India and raised traveling back and forth between there and suburban Maryland. Dr. Vijaya Nagarajan had been an environmental activist, and had studied natural and cultural resources. This led her to work for the "recovery of the commons," that is, the wisdom of the common people.

Our last speaker was Sister of Social Service Martha McCarthy, who doubles as a lobbyist with a Sacramento-based advocacy group, Jericho for Justice, and as a shepherdess. Her talk was titled, "Sisters of the Earth." A keen, bouncy, and starry-eyed lady in pants, she radiated enthusiasm. She told us, "there are advantages for women left out of the institutional conversation of the Catholic Church. We have heard today about the devastating effects of the duality of the Western Christian tradition. Well, there was a meeting in 1984 at Clark's Summit of sisters concerned about the environment. The result was the 'Sisters of Earth,' a network of religious women concerned with healing the systems of earth. The Sisters of Earth are teachers, artists, farmers, foresters, and on and on.

"In the Midwest, many motherhouses were large landholders. They have turned their lands back into prairie. Sisters have established 'earth literacy' courses to teach students to protect the Earth. One community rehabbed their mother house into a 'green' building."

But Sister Martha assured us that for the Sisters of Earth it was not just a question of work but of "a spirituality that is emerging that gives them passion." After all, Sister told us, the land and nature were at the heart of the monastic tradition; in recent years such thinkers as Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry have brought this out. "We are challenged to deeper implications of the sacred," she solemnly assured us. "One is that all traditions share a sacred source that predates all written and oral traditions. We meet in the still point of a sacred revelation over 14 billion years old."

This revelation is only now being brought out by scientific advance, Sister Martha continued. We must free ourselves of the old notion of the "plate covered by the bowl — the flat earth and the rounded heavens." To start, we should lie on the grass at night and stare up at the stars, making ourselves realize that they are not "up there" but "out there," and that we are on a small spinning globe. "We are at a crossroads of consciousness. The Universe story is our story, our heritage. When the world is seen as gift, revelation, or sacrament, its care comes from reverence. Where traditional Catholic teaching saw us as stewards, caretakers, and dominators, we are really participants."

But with all of this, Sister still finds spiritual needs: "we need to liturgize these insights. The way to do this is found in the three 'P's: Sense of Place: look at where you are in terms of bio-region Perspective: why am I here at this time and place with these challenges and ideals? and Purpose: find something other than your family to draw you out of yourself. Passion: this is easier to do with others. The Sisters of Earth feed my fire."

Fortified by Sister's insights, we were ready for Dr. Chapple's presentation, "Resources for Dialogue, Hindu and Christian." He began with an interesting exposition of the history of the place we were in and its surroundings, from Indian site to Hughes Aircraft property. He eloquently described the successful efforts to save Ballona Creek (which flows through Culver City), as well as Indian artifacts. Chapple then pointed out that "we do not have to make up some weird theology to deal with ecology. The new pope sees that today's spiritual yearning is not unrelated to the emptiness of consumerism." He then compared Catholic theology to the Hindu notion of Samadhi or "non-separation," which, he reminded us, lasts only a moment. "Let us cultivate them, and make better decisions."

So ended the symposium. While the Hindu participation this time was much more authentic, the Catholic side was still rather unrepresentative. This is not to say that Dr. Ruether's and Sister Martha's contributions were not important; they do represent the views of many (particularly elderly) Church functionaries across the country. At the same time, those of younger people, and of those who accept the teachings of the Church, would add to the diversity of the occasion. Catholic teaching on the matter at hand was only touched upon by Dr. Chapple, and that briefly.

There is a huge body of orthodox Catholic writing on environmental issues, including works not only by such authors as G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, but also H.J. Massingham, J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Maurin. Most glaringly omitted was E.F. Schumacher, whose views were rooted in Catholic teaching, as Joseph Pearce pointed out in his Literary Converts (see The Education Of E.F. Schumacher at www.godspy.com). Therein, Pearce quotes Schumacher on Paul VI's encyclical condemning artificial contraception, Humanæ Vitæ: "If the Pope had written anything else I would have lost all faith in the papacy."

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