Written by: United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities November 22, 2024

What Is Black Liberation Theology?

What is Black Liberation Theology - Featured Image

At its most basic, Black liberation theology is a contextual theology that centers its focus on liberating Black people from historical and ongoing oppression—namely, the multi-layered, criminally zealous, racially motivated, and dehumanizing oppression of Black Americans by myriad generations of white Americans. Black theology envisions a Black God and Black Jesus who are completely aligned with and sympathetic to Black people’s ongoing struggle.

Black liberation theology also offers a framework through which Black Americans can reject the whitewashing of Christianity.

Origins of Black Liberation Theology

Black liberation theology grew from a long-held understanding that, in America, the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court ruling that promised “separate but equal” accommodations for Black and white Americans was a sham; unequal segregation was the true goal, and Black Americans were effectively disinherited, disempowered, and disenfranchised. In addition, how white Americans repeatedly used the Bible to justify slavery, and all of its attendant ills, made Bible-focused Christianity less welcoming to Black believers.

As slaves, Black Americans were deemed property. Once “freed,” Black Americans were denied the promise of land, and many turned to sharecropping, an unregulated system whereby they farmed a small plot of land, and paid rent by giving shares of the crop proceeds to the capricious white landowner. Lynchings, common from 1880 to 1940, aimed to preserve white dominance and promote Black worthlessness. So-called “Jim Crow” laws—which lasted close to 100 years in the South—enforced racial segregation, and promoted vastly inferior social, economic, and educational opportunities for people of color.

Some researchers identify an early form of liberation theology among Black and womanist abolitionists. By the early 20th century, African Methodist Episcopal Church leaders spoke in favor of a social gospel informed by liberal theology and Marxism.

The idea of Black Power rose from the 1950s into the 1960s. The idea was championed by organizations as diverse as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and its Chairman, Stokely Carmichael, the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X (who rejected Christianity as a white man’s religion), and the Black Panther Party.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist preacher, and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, espoused non-violent resistance. But he also associated with some of the 51 signatories to the “‘Black Power’ Statement by National Committee of Negro Churchmen” that appeared as a full-page ad in the New York Times on July 31, 1966. The statement sought to impress upon readers how the failure to address racism posed a national danger. “We are faced now with a situation where conscience-less power meets powerless conscience, threatening the very foundations of our nation.”

In Section II: “TO WHITE CHURCHMEN: POWER AND LOVE” the statement reads: “We commit ourselves as churchmen to make more meaningful in the life of our institution our· conviction that Jesus Christ reigns in the ‘here’ and ‘now’ as well as in the future he brings in upon us. We shall, therefore, use more of the resources of our churches in working for human justice in the places of social change and upheaval where our Master is already at work.”

During the 1960s, James H. Cone, an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church who grew up in the segregated south, felt that his faith was being challenged by the Nation of Islam’s repudiation of white Christianity and the Black Power movement. The 1967 Detroit riots, during which 43 people (33 Black) were killed, spurred him into action.

Black Theology and Black Power, Cone’s 1969 book, followed quickly by A Black Theology of Liberation in 1970, launched the Black liberation theology movement. Cone’s publications also came soon after the Black Christian National Movement was founded in 1967 by Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., a Detroit preacher who published The Black Messiah in 1968.

Foundational Principles of Black Liberation Theology

Cone was so impassioned when he wrote Black Theology and Black Power that he completed the book in just one month. Cone explained, “I just felt myself driven by the truth, the truth of Black history and culture and what it had to say about the nature of Black faith in the struggle for justice.”

First and foremost, Black liberation theology is a clarion call to social justice for Black Americans. As Cone declared in Black Theology and Black Power, “If the Church is to remain faithful to its Lord, it must make a decisive break from the structure of this society by launching a vehement attack on the evils of racism in all forms. It must become prophetic, demanding a radical change in the interlocking structures of this society.”

Included under the umbrella of social justice is the concept of liberation from oppression. In the 1970 preface to A Black Theology of Liberation, Cone unabashedly states, “It is my contention that Christianity is essentially a religion of liberation. The function of theology is that of analyzing the meaning of that liberation for the oppressed so they can know that their struggle for political, social, and economic justice is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor in a society is not Christ’s message. Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is not Christian theology.”

Black liberation theology is an active belief system that is grounded in the exigency of the present struggle to dismantle hundreds of years of white oppression. As Cone asserted in Black Theology and Black Power, “If eschatology means that one believes that God is totally uninvolved in the suffering of men because he is preparing them for another world, then Black Theology is not eschatological. Black Theology is an earthly theology!”

For generations of Black slaves, sharecroppers, and churchgoers who were told to pin their hopes on finding a reward in heaven, Black theology places itself firmly in the present day. The words Liberation Theology tie directly to an ethos of lifting oppression wherever it lives as taught in the gospels.

In Black Theology and Black Power, Cone asserts that Black liberation theology asks, “What does the Christian gospel have to say to powerless black men whose existence is threatened daily by the insidious tentacles of white power?” He goes on to describe Black theology as “permeated with black consciousness”—a “ghetto theology.” It is a theology through which Black Americans can see themselves and recommit to the struggle for justice.

Cone addresses the issue of redemption in his 2011 book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis Books). “The gospel of Jesus is not a rational concept to be explained in a theory of salvation,” Cone explained, “but a story about God’s presence in Jesus’ solidarity with the oppressed, which led to his death on the cross.” He continued, “What is redemptive is the faith that God snatches victory out of defeat, life out of death, and hope out of despair, as revealed in the biblical and Black proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection.”

The Future of Black Liberation Theology

In 1989, four New York City seminaries organized a conference to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Cone’s Black Theology and Black Power and encourage church leaders to bring Black theology from academic circles into the pews of modern Black churches and bridge the disconnect between the pulpit and the parishioners. Though Cone did not attend (much to the chagrin of the organizers), he agreed to a phone interview with a New York Times reporter.

“The Black church,” Cone observed, “has produced outstanding preachers…but the church hasn’t produced theologians of equal quality. Without strong theology, preaching becomes entertainment, and there is a tendency to make church life center around the preacher.”

Rev. Dr. J. Deotis Roberts, another pioneer of Black theology who knew Cone and attended the event, praised the evolution of a “new Black ecumenism” that included perspectives of Black women and biblical scholars. Three prominent women theologians had already made the case for womanist theology earlier in the decade:

Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon wrote a book chapter “The Emergence of Black Feminist Consciousness,” in Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (1985);
Rev. Dr. Jacquelyn Grant, who studied under Cone, penned an article in the Spring 1986 Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center titled “Womanist Theology: Black Women’s Experiences as a Source for Doing Theology”; and
Dr. Delores Williams’ seminal article, “Womanist Theology: Black Women’s Voices,” was published in the March 2, 1987 issue of Christianity and Crisis.

At the same time, Roberts decried ways in which progress for Black people had stagnated. “Racism itself,” he claimed, “has become more insidious. If our people are to survive, it will be largely due to how well the Black church carries out its mission.”

Dr. Roberts’ emphasis on hope and acknowledgment of the intractable quality of racism in America, undergird reasons why Black liberation theology remains essential. Dr. Esau McCaulley, associate professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College, quoted in a 2023 article, noted that Black theology “is a transformational, ecclesial tradition…that is willing to listen to and enter into dialogue with Black and white critiques of the Bible in hope of a better reading of the text.”

Dr. Jemar Tisby, a contemporary Christian historian who has written about Cone, has authored several books. In The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Zondervan, 2019), Tisby asserts, “History demonstrates that racism never goes away; it just adapts.” He also characterizes many American churches as practicing “a complicit Christianity rather than a courageous Christianity.”

In a country still rife with religious, institutionalized, and deeply embedded racism, Black theology offers a crucial framework for holding fast to hope and faith without losing sight of justice struggles that persist.

Conclusion

Championed by James Cone, Black liberation theology rose to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is a theology tethered to the plight of Black Americans intent on fighting against oppression and following Christ’s model of working to lift up the downtrodden.

Since Cone’s ground-breaking publications, many other theologians have carried forward the study and practice of Black Liberation Theology.

Dr. Anthony Reddie is the professor of Black Theology and director of the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture at Regent’s Park College in Oxford, England. He is also the editor-in-chief of Black Theology: An International Journal and has authored numerous books, articles, and book chapters including Theologising Brexit: A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique (Routledge, 2010), and the republished Is God Colour-Blind? Insights from Black Theology for Christian Faith and Ministry (SPCK, 2020)
Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley is the Jonathan Blanchard Associate Professor of New Testament and Public Theology at Wheaton College in Illinois. His books include Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope (IVP Academic, 2020), which won several book awards, and How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South (Convergent Books, 2023). He is also a contributing writer for the New York Times.
Dr. M. Shawn Copeland is a womanist theologian and a professor emerita of systemic theology at Boston College. She was the first African American to serve as president of the Catholic Theology Society of America. Her books include Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being (Fortress Press, 2020) and Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience. (Orbis Books, 2018).
Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney is the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Texas and a womanist theologian. Her publications include Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel (Fortress Press, 2008) and Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne (Westminster John Knox Press, 2017)
Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School, won the 2015 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale University Press, 2010). He has also authored After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging (Theological Education between the Times) (Eerdmans, 2020)

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Black Liberation Theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

United’s erudite professors and alums can offer many suggestions for Black liberation and womanist theologians to follow and books to read. In fact, for the past 62 years, United has been steadfastly committed to promoting social justice and working toward social transformation.

As Dr. Demian Wheeler, a United faculty member who teaches Black liberation theology courses, shares, “Rigorous and empathetic dialogue helps us remember that privilege and power shape the way we see things. It helps us remember that we are fallible, limited human beings with incomplete, partial, and historically conditioned perspectives. It helps us remember that all theology is contextual theology.”

He adds, “Cone’s Black theology arose out of the need to make sense of Christianity in a white racist society, a society that has attempted to systematically strip black people of their very dignity, being, and humanity.”

Nearly every United degree program—from the MA to the MAL to the MDiv—includes a requirement to take coursework in Ethics and Justice. That means most students can learn more about Black and womanist theology. The DMin in Social Transformation also invites students to study theologies of liberation. Even our 15-credit Certificate in Ethics and Justice includes an option to study Black and womanist theology.

If you found this blog informative, please share it with others. If you feel called to seminary, contact our admissions team to explore United’s 30+ seminary degree programs today!

We appreciate your willingness to explore Black liberation theology and its mission to dismantle white supremacy and create true freedom for all Black Americans.

¹ “This Far by Faith,” PBS, accessed November 2024, https://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/journey_5/p_2.html.

² APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Assoc.) Cone, J. H. (2018). Black Theology and Black Power. Orbis.

³ APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Assoc.) James H. Cone. (2010). A Black Theology of Liberation—Fortieth Anniversary Edition: Vol. Fortieth anniversary edition. Orbis.

⁴ APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Assoc.) Cone, J. H. (2018). Black Theology and Black Power. Orbis.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Peter Steinfels, “Conference on Black Theology Unites Scholars and Pastors,” The New York Times, October 29, 1989. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/29/us/conference-on-black-theology-unites-scholars-and-pastors.html

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Chris Meehan, “Black Theology Offers Hope,” Christian Reformed Church, February 1, 2023. https://www.crcna.org/news-and-events/news/black-theology-offers-hope

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May 20, 2026

Activism Community leadership Legacy VOICES

The Barnabas Society: Transformative Legacies Lead to Transformed Lives

Since its inception in 1962, United has been sustained by faithful supporters who believe in transformative theological education. This support—from one-time gifts, to recurring contributions, to stock designations—makes the seminary’s work possible. One group of dedicated donors, members of United’s Barnabas Society, views their commitment to progressive seminary education as extending for a lifetime and beyond. The Barnabas Society recognizes those who have included United in their estate plans. This group of donors is named after Barnabas, an apostle introduced in Acts 14, who provided financial support to his fellow apostles with proceeds from the sale of his land. These gifts typically reflect donors’ values— principles that are aligned with the seminary’s mission, vision, and values. Legacy gifts ensure these precepts are practiced in the classroom and realized beyond the institution’s walls. Gifts can include income-return gifts and beneficiary designations—financial support that expresses the donor’s philanthropic intent while providing long-term stability for United’s mission—and the legacies of their generosity live on in endowed scholarships, faculty chairs, lectureships, and seminary programming. Now in its 35th year, the Susan Draper White Lecture is a beloved annual event that draws leading feminist theologians to the seminary. It was named after the grandmother of United alum Rev. Cil (Priscilla) Braun† (’83), who, with other donors, endowed the lectureship series. Cil and her husband, Jack, the Barnabas Society through a legacy gift that helped support the newly established Wilson Yates Chair in Theology and the Arts. Cil’s legacy has spanned decades, and her generosity has informed, inspired, and continued to support United students. In 2021, United celebrated the creation of a tenure-track faculty position. Rev. Dr. Andrea Johnson (’17, ’23) and David Fry committed $1.75 million to endow the Johnson-Fry Chair in World Religions and Intercultural Studies, held by Dr. Munjed M. Murad. As an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Andrea sought to strengthen the seminary’s commitment to Interreligious Engagement, saying, “While we are grounded in our Christian heritage, more and more we are educating leaders in religions other than Christianity. And we need all our religious leaders to be deeply responsive to the realities of religious and spiritual diversity.” An alum and trustee, Andrea knows how United impacts its students and their communities, sharing, “I was transformed by the education I received at United, and [I] am passionate about supporting its future.” At Fall Convocation in September 2024, Dr. Demian Wheeler, director of Advanced Studies, was formally installed into the newly endowed Sophia Chair in Religious and Theological Studies. Former trustees Keith Bednarowski and Dr. Mary Farrell Bednarowski, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies (1976–2004), who funded the Chair, have been part of the United community for nearly 50 years. In an interview for the Winter 2024 Issue of VOICES, Mary reaffirmed her commitment to United, saying, “I have a very deep faith that this full-of-life seminary will persist and flourish for many, many years. Keith and I want to be part of that flourishing.” The Barnabas Society is growing. In 2026, trustee Therese Pautz and her husband, David Graham, committed to a legacy gift. Reflecting on their decision, she writes, “We support United because it equips spiritual leaders and community healers.” She continues, “Those vocations are essential to every civil society, especially in times of conflict.” Therese and David will be formally welcomed into the Barnabas Society later this year. These are just a few shining examples of the cadre of faithful supporters who have made legacy gifts and transformative commitments. Their support for the sustained life of the seminary reflects their values and belief in the importance of United’s mission in our ever-evolving world. To discuss a legacy plan, contact Rev. Dr. Cindi Beth Johnson, Vice President for Advancement, by email at cbjohnson@unitedseminary.edu or by phone at 651.255.6137.

United Receives Grant from Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES, April 23, 2026. In the wake of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) occupation of the Twin Cities metro region since early 2026, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (United) has secured a $30,000 grant to help, as the grant proposal states, “process our experiences of this time, both the blessings and the trauma, so that we can remain effective and compassionate educators and draw on our experiences in a way that expands student knowledge.” The grant, awarded April 2, will fund a two-year project titled “Teaching and Learning in the Midst of Government-Sponsored Violence.” Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Social Transformation, supported by the McVay Endowment, and Director of United’s Social Transformation program, envisioned, proposed, and will lead the project in collaboration with staff. “We wish to explore,” Rev. Dr. Sabia-Tanis articulated in the grant proposal, “which practices of support are effective for faculty, and other school personnel, that equip us to engage with our students in healthy, meaningful, and productive ways during this time of crisis. Drawing on what we learn, we seek to create a model of care for our seminary that can be of use to other educators who may face unprecedented and protracted times of crisis and violence.” Rev. Dr. Sabia-Tanis identified these goals: Offer effective support to seminary faculty and staff who have been impacted by Operation Metro Surge, both for the well-being of our educators and to consider how best to support students who have been traumatized by the political situation. Draw upon our experiences as practitioners in justice and peace efforts in the Twin Cities to provide meaningful learning opportunities for our students preparing for ministry and community service. Collect and preserve primary sources related to street activism and chaplaincy, and the life and teachings of faith communities as a resource for teaching about theology, worship, arts, and social movements. Make these materials accessible to a wide audience of educators, with a focus on theological educators and faith leaders. Citing United’s long history of educators acting as public theologians—60+ years of teachers who were also protesters, activists, justice-practitioners, and thought leaders—Rev. Dr. Sabia-Tanis noted that “this moment offers us the opportunity to live our faith and to transparently share that with our students.” Explaining further, he continued, “The religious imperative to act with compassion and to champion justice, especially for those who are vulnerable, is not simply an academic conversation but an authentic expression of our beliefs and convictions. Loving your enemy and welcoming the stranger are not theoretical questions but ones that demand our concrete and immediate responses daily.” In her grant award letter, Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield, director of the Wabash Center, asserted, “Your project is poised to make a significant impact.” She added, “Thank you for your commitment to strengthening teaching and the teaching profession.” Rev. Dr. Cindi Beth Johnson, Vice President for Advancement—with whom Rev. Dr. Sabia-Tanis collaborated during the proposal process—remarks, “By virtue of our location and in honor of the stellar work that our alums, students, faculty, and community members have done, and are doing, United is uniquely qualified to lead this important project.” With support from the Wabash Center, United’s Leadership Center for Social Justice is working to gather and preserve information about non-violent resistance and resilience efforts that emerged in response to the ICE Occupation in Minnesota. We invite you to be a part of this project, especially those in Minnesota; please click here to submit resources and materials developed in response to Operation Metro Surge. About United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities Founded as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the cutting edge of progressive theological thought leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who dismantle systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge. About the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion Founded in 1996 through a Lilly Endowment, Inc. “Theological Teaching Initiative” grant, the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion in Crawfordsville, IN, exists to “enhance and strengthen education in theology and religion in theological schools, colleges, and universities.” In so doing, it aims to enhance the “impact of religious leadership on both congregations and public discourse.” Contact Nathanial Green (he/him), Director of Marketing and Communications United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities press@unitedseminary.edu • 651.255.6138

What Is Eco-theology/Eco-justice?

Introduction For many, many decades now, as humanity’s careless and pernicious actions have caused a global environmental crisis, the world has experienced increasing incidences of devastating droughts and water scarcity, catastrophic floods, widespread and destructive fires, dangerously rising sea levels, melting glaciers, damaging storms, and rapidly declining biodiversity due to habitat loss. Soil erosion and toxified land and water contribute to the swelling swaths of inhospitable landscapes. In an anthropogenic world, we are careening toward certain ruination. Eco-theology, a constructive, praxis-oriented, and liberation-leaning theology that emphasizes interrelationships between religion and nature, strives to break the cycle of anthropocentric dominance of nature and restore an ethos of preserving and healing the natural world, drawing upon the wisdom of religious traditions from around the world. Eco-justice brings into focus those people and ecosystems who suffer most from human-made natural disasters, industrial pollution, and a lack of clean air and water. Understanding Eco-Theology If we understand the term “eco-theology” as encompassing not only doctrines formulated by those who use the term “eco-theology” nor only doctrines that belong to theistic traditions, but instead understand “eco-theology” as encompassing all eco-friendly dimensions of religious doctrines around the world, then eco-theology could be said to have countless versions. These range from Christian teachings on stewardship to Islamic teachings on the signs of God in nature to Buddhist teachings on interdependence and on showing compassion to all creatures. The very first expositor of religious teachings in response to the environmental crisis, in particular, Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, explained that the ecological crisis is rooted in a spiritual and intellectual crisis in which nature is no longer considered sacred, but, through modernism, has been viewed for its material dimension alone.1 Among the salient features of eco-theology is the re-establishment of a view of the sacred in nature, the rediscovery of metaphysics to see the cosmos and the human in light of the sacred, the examination of scriptures and religious teachings for their environmental wisdom, the study of religious and traditional practices for their positive environmental effects, and the development of ethics and discourses that could lead to a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. Definitions of Eco-Theology As Ernst Conradie, a South African eco-theology expert, posited in 2004, “The danger of reading into the text randomly may be avoided if the articulation of such ecojustice principles is done in conjunction with historical, literary, and cultural modes of analysis.”2 Eco-theology must be rooted within context. It cannot ignore the destructive arc of human hubris that felled forests, reconfigured rivers, overtook habitat from plants, animals, and native cultures, and cratered and covered the land with impervious surfaces and structures. At the same time, it must heed the quantifiable realities of the ecological crisis, while lifting up Christian scriptures that encourage a more communal relationship with nature, and working with other faith communities to actively push for change. “I have come to understand eco-theology,” observed Rabbi Lawrence Troster, an environmental activist and eco-theologian, in 2013, “as the integration of the new scientific perspective on the natural world with traditional theological concepts, producing a new theological paradigm.”3 Kelebogile Thomas Resane, a research fellow for the Department of Historical and Constructive Theology at the University of the Free State in South Africa, adds, Ecotheology is a form of constructive theology that focuses on the interrelationships of religion and nature, with a special focus on environmental concerns. Ecotheology reflects the positive response and sagacious thinking of contemporary religious thinkers to the ecological crisis. It advocates and reconfirms the trinitarian relationship of God-humanity-nature to approve the sacredness of the natural world and to realise the harmonious coexistence between human beings and the cosmos.4 Origins of Eco-Theology Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an Iranian-American scholar and philosopher born in 1933, articulated a tie between spiritual dimensions and the environmental crisis in a series of lectures at the University of Chicago in May 1966, marking the first historical identification of the environmental crisis as being rooted in a spiritual crisis. In 1968, the lectures were published in an innovative and pioneering book titled Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis of Modern Man. In Man and Nature, Nasr speaks of a “disequilibrium between modern man and nature” caused by the “destruction of the harmony between man and God.”5 He also points to a disconnect between humanity’s outward and inward life. “For a humanity turned towards outwardness by the very processes of modernization,” he writes, “it is not so easy to see that the blight wrought upon the environment is in reality an externalization of the destitution of the inner state of the soul of that humanity whose actions are responsible for the ecological crisis.”6 Historian and University of California at Los Angeles professor, Dr. Lynn White, Jr., galvanized the Western eco-theology movement with his 1967 essay in the journal Science, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.” In his treatise about the historical underpinnings of humanity’s subjugation of nature, White states early, “All forms of life modify their contexts.”7 He goes on to trace developments in technology (as early as 800 AD) that started to harness water and wind power through modern times, noting the role that Christianity played in promoting the idea of humans as nature’s master. Both Nasr and White reference St. Francis of Assisi as a model of a humble man who revered nature. White proposes that Francis be a “patron saint for ecologists” since “present science and present technology are so tinctured with orthodox Christian arrogance toward nature that no solution for our ecologic crisis can be expected from them alone.”8 While Nasr considers St. Francis to be a good model for being in harmonious relationship with the environment, he sees that, moreover, religious traditions around the world have countless models, teachings, and even traditional sciences and crafts that we could learn from and see to apply today. Beliefs that Support Eco-Theology In his 2004 review of the Earth Bible Project,10 Conradie outlines the core principles and beliefs that underpin ecotheology. Page 128: Ecotheology believes that our world, and everything within it, has intrinsic worth. Every fungi, plant, animal, protista, and monera springs forth with innate value. Ecotheology understands that the Earth is an interconnected and interdependent community of living things. As Conradie notes, “We are deeply dependent on the complex web of relationships that allows life on Earth to flourish.”11 Ecothology gives voice to the Earth, in celebration and to call out injustice. Ecothology posits that the universe, Earth, and all of its components are part of a cosmic design, and each component plays a role in that system. Ecothology advocates a system of mutual custodianship. Responsible custodians should operate not as rulers but as partners with Earth to sustain essential balance and diversity. Ecothology respects Earth and its inhabitants’ ability to suffer from human-created crises, as well as the power to resist injustice. The Theology of Eco-theology One salient teaching of religious wisdom bearing on solutions to the environmental crisis is that the rupture of the balance between humanity and nature is rooted in a preceding rupture in the balance between humanity and Heaven. “The Earth is bleeding from wounds inflicted upon it by a humanity no longer in harmony with Heaven and therefore in constant strife with the terrestrial environment.”12 Poets, scientists, and clerics have long agreed that there is something divine within our natural world. George Washington Carver, a prominent agricultural scientist and inventor whose life spanned the 19th and 20th centuries, once wrote, “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system through which God speaks to us every hour, if we only tune in.” In his 1854 book, Walden, naturalist, philosopher, and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau asserted, “The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.” In more recent times, as a largely agrarian society gave way to rampant colonization and industrialization, many people have lost touch with a contemplative, selfless spirituality of nature. These effects are most acutely felt in indigenous communities. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer—Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director, Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at State University of New York, Environmental Science and Forestry—writes, “For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”13 By reminding believers that Earth and its environment are sacred, Christian theologians can promote similarly relevant moral and ethical principles. As Willis Jenkins, the John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, explains, “pragmatic theological creativity already characterizes lived Christian experience. As concerned communities confront problems by producing new ethical capacities from their traditions, they rediscover or invent the ecological dimensions of Christian experience.”14 Eco-Theology in Practice Eco-theologian Heather Eaton, professor of Conflict Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario, suggested in 2004 that there are four clearly defined religious approaches to the present ecological crisis. The first tactic, promoting ecological stewardship among congregants, she notes, includes both “a biblical motif as well as an easily acceptable ecological paradigm for many Christians.”15 Theologically, the largely New Testament invitation is to take care of God’s creation by preserving and conserving natural resources. The second approach, which reveals a greater level of complexity within the ecological crisis, is eco-justice. Consonant with liberation theologies, eco-justice, Eaton asserts, illustrates how “ecological problems are enmeshed with other systemic social problems, such as discrimination based on ethnicity, class, or gender.”16 In this approach, the theological focus is on justice—how to make certain finite resources are distributed equitably to all, particularly to those who are disenfranchised or at society’s margins. Eco-feminism, an amalgam of ecological and feminist perspectives, draws from the nexus between women, nature, and their common mistreatment across time. As eco-feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote in 1974: “Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological crisis within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continues to be one of domination.”17 The role of cosmology, the important fourth approach, Eaton explains, is to illuminate “both the scientific understanding of the universe as well as the macro-narratives through which human communities appreciate their existence.” In her article in the 1990 book, Liberating Life: Approaches to Ecological Theology, theologian Sallie McFague states, “I propose that one theological task is an experimental one with metaphors and models for the relationship between God and the world that will help bring about a theocentric, lifecentered, cosmocentric sensibility in place of our anthropocentric one.”18 McFague’s cosmological reframing of “the world as God’s body” wrests eco-thelology from the yoke of destructive humanity. Eco-Justice: A Call to Action “Ecology, ” observes Conradie, “touches on virtually every single academic discipline so that the biophysical, geological, political, economic, health, safety, ethical, philosophical, religious, and theological dimensions of ecology all need to be factored in.”19 Eco-justice, precisely because ecology is so complex, strives to reveal and address multivalent consequences of environmental degradation that disproportionately affect impoverished and marginalized human communities as well as the rich profusion of plant and animal species. As German reformed theologian Jürgen Moltmann proclaimed in “The Great Ecological Transformation:” We need both a “great transformation” and ecological justice that gives the nature of the earth and the animals their rights. We also need to recognize that ecological justice is related to social justice and, especially, to the rights of future generations. We need a new understanding of nature that liberates the nature of the earth from its modern, alienated status as a mere object. We need a new understanding of humanity that embeds human beings in the community of creation. Finally, we need a new cosmic spirituality that sanctifies lived life and engenders “respect for life” for everything that lives.20 Centuries of environmental pillaging has wrought mass destruction of fragile ecosystems. Too often, as in the case of industrial pollution, toxified land and underground water supplies harm communities who have few resources to fight or no voice at all. The erosion of topsoil, essential for food production, can hurt us all, but will mostly harm those who are already food-insecure. In almost all cases, the effects of climate change will displace and destroy those life forms that lack the resources or adaptability to move to safety. Eco-justice concentrates on the attendant ills intrinsic to environmental degradation on a global scale. It fights ethically for what eco-theologians Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim describe as “new forms of equitable distribution of wealth and resources” worldwide.21 It asserts the rights of chronically disadvantaged populations and threatened species, and propels society toward a more sustainable model of existence. Pursuing an Eco-Justice Degree at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities United added an Eco-Justice concentration to its MA degree program in early 2022. The MA in Eco-Justice offers students the opportunity to become uniquely prepared faith and spiritual leaders and academics in the areas of environmental ethics, ecological justice, and eco-theology. Equipped through the lens of a religiously-formed and scientifically-informed framework, these students will have the knowledge and skills to address pressing issues facing our planet: climate change, environmental crises, and ecological harm, as well as their embeddedness in spiritual and intellectual matters The Eco-Justice program at United seeks justice for the environment with recourse to the wisdom of religious traditions around the world. Dr. Munjed Murad, who successfully defended his ThD dissertation, “A Tale of Two Trees: Unveiling the Sacred Life of Nature in Islamic and Christian Traditions,” at Harvard Divinity School in 2022, joined United’s faculty the same year. In early 2023, he was installed into the Johnson-Fry Endowed Chair in World Religions and Intercultural Studies. In his courses, Dr. Murad helps students draw upon religious traditions from around the world for wisdom with which they can respond to the Anthropocene. He writes, “To undo [the global environmental crisis], we need a rediscovery of nature through the sacred. It is the sacred alone that can affirm fully and objectively the spiritual value of non-human creatures.”22 United has long supported greater awareness and action on issues related to ethics and eco-theology. For example, we regularly host the Picard Lecture on Environmental Theology and Ethics, supported by an endowment made possible through the generosity of United alum, the Rev. Frank Picard (’02), and other Picard family members. Launched in 2005, the purpose of the lectureship is to explore questions and issues concerning the state of the creation from theological and ethical perspectives. It seeks to raise questions such as the relation between our spiritual life and the state of the natural world, and the response of religious leadership to the decline of the planet. In establishing the endowment, the Picard family especially wishes to remember the deep appreciation for God’s creation they shared with the late David and Roland Picard. In April 2019, our guest speaker was Dr. Nathaniel Van Yperen, chair of the Religion Department at Princeton Theological Seminary, speaking about his 2019 book, Gratitude for the Wild: Christian Ethics in the Wilderness. Eco-feminist theologian Dr. Catherine Keller, the George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology at the Theological School and Graduate Division of Religion within Drew University, appeared over Zoom in April 2022. Her speech was titled “Apocalypse After All? Climate, Politics and Faith in the Possible.” Held in October 2024, Dr. Kiara Jorgenson, associate professor of Religion and Environmental Studies at St. Olaf College, delivered an address titled “Hope through Tears.” Two respondents, Dr. Timothy Eberhart and Dr. Munjed Murad, presented brief reflections on Dr. Jorgensen's remarks. Even our Susan Draper White Lecture turned to eco-eschatology in 2022, when adjunct professor Rev. Dr. Nancy Victorin-Vangerud spoke. Her lecture—titled “Re-soil/ing the New Jerusalem: Dream-Reading Revelation (22:2) and Women’s Speculative Fiction for a Future that Feeds Us”—started with this startling statement: “Since colonization, erosion of the soils in Minnesota has increased 100-fold.” Because the need to address the world’s environmental crisis in meaningful ways grows more dire every year, United’s MA in Eco-Justice can allow students to pursue careers such as: A scholar or professor in a seminary, divinity school, or college An ethics teacher in a private school, church, or religious community A “public theologian” whose primary audience is society or the wider culture An environmental program leader A leader in a progressive eco-justice think tank A minister who makes eco-justice a central component of their church mission Conclusion “The Great Work now,” noted renowned cultural historian and religious scholar Thomas Berry in his 1999 book The Great Work: Our Way into the Future, “is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner.”23 Berry, who died at age 94 in 2009, knew what was at stake. The damage to our ecosystem from centuries of exploitation is incalculable, and the consequences are dire. The global climate crisis, caused largely by human activity, will continue to worsen without a worldwide effort to stem activities that exacerbate it. Empowered by religious understanding and a clear ethical compass, faith leaders can work at the vanguard of eco-theology and eco-justice. Their work is imperative since the effects of environmental degradation are too often visited on those least equipped to withstand them, and we all stand to lose as the environment deteriorates. References/Credit: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Man and Nature (Chicago, IL : ABC International Group, 1997). Ernst M. Conradie, “Towards an ecological biblical hermeneutices: a review essay on the Earth Bible Project: review article,” Scriptura 85 (2004): 123–135. https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC100654 Lawrence Troster, “What Is Eco-Theology?” CrossCurrents 63, no. 4 (December 2013): 380–385. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/19393881/2013/63/4 Kelebogile Thomas Resane, “Moltmann Speaking at the Ecoenvironmentalists’ Conference: Ecology and Theology in Dialogue,” Scriptura 120, no. 1 (2021):1–16. https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/issue/view/173 Nasr, Man and Nature (Chicago, IL : ABC International Group, 1997): 20. Nasr, Man and Nature (Chicago, IL : ABC International Group, 1997): 3. Lynn White, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” Science 155, no. 3767 (March 10, 1967): 1203–1207. White, 1207. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Conradie, “Towards an ecological biblical hermeneutics,” Scriptura 85 (2004): 128 Ibid. 127 Nasr, Religion and the Order of Nature, 3. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2013): 9. Willis Jenkins, “After Lynn White: Religious Ethnics and Environmental Problems,” Journal of Religious Ethics 37, no. 2 (June 2009): 283–309. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9795.2009.00387.x Heather Eaton, “This Sacred Earth: At the Nexus of Religion, Ecology and Politics,” Sciences Pastorales, 2004, pages 35-54. [ISSN: 0713-3383] Ibid. Rosemary Radford Ruether, New Woman/New Earth: Sexist Ideologies and Human Liberation (New York: Seabury Press, 1974): 204. Sallie McFague, “Imagining a Theology of Nature: The World as God’s Body,” Liberating Life: Approaches to Ecological Theology, eds. Charles Birch, William Eakin, and Jay B. McDaniels. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books: 1990), 201–227. Ernst Conradie, “A Green Reformation of Christianity? Anthropological, Ethical, and Pedagogical Reflections on Ecology as an Ecumenical Theme,” Scriptura 120, no. 1 (2021): 1–10. https://scriptura.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/2006 Jürgen Moltmann, “The Great Ecological Transformation,” trans. Steffen Lösel,Theology Today 80, no. 1 (2023): 9–17. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00405736231151651 Mary Evelyn Tucker and John A. Grim, “Introduction: The Emerging Alliance of World Religions and Ecology,” Daedalus 130, no. 4, Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? (Fall 2001): 1–22. Munjed M. Murad, “Perceiving Nature: Rūmī on Human Purpose and Cosmic Prayer,” I of the Heart: Texts and Studies in Honor of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, eds. Muhammad U. Faruque, Atif Khalil, and Mohammed Rustom (Leiden: Brill, 2025): 261–275. Thomas Berry, “The Great Work,” The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (New York: Bell Tower, 1999): 3.