H
HagiaSophia
Guest
“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…”
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."
**"…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.”…"
And then from another participant Rosemary Reuther:
" 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…"
losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/2005/0506cc.htm
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."
**"…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.”…"
And then from another participant Rosemary Reuther:
" 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…"
losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/2005/0506cc.htm
