Kainulainen, Pauliina
Maan viisaus Ivone Gebaran ekofeministinen käsitys tietämisestä ja teologiasta
(The Wisdom of the Earth. Ivone Gebara’s Ecofeminist Concept of Knowing and Theology)
Abstract
Maan viisaus Ivone Gebaran ekofeministinen käsitys tietämisestä ja teologiasta
The Wisdom of the Earth Ivone Gebara’s Ecofeminist Concept of Knowing and Theology
Pauliina Kainulainen 2005, University of Joensuu, Finland ISBN 952-458-702-5 (print) ISBN 952-458-703-3 (online)
This study is motivated by the need to examine the possibilities to do ”ecologically sensitive theology” that could adequately meet today’s global ecological challenges. In order to approach this large issue in a reasonable way, in this study I focus on metatheological themes. The purpose of this study is to examine the concept of knowing in the ecofeminist theology of the Brazilian Catholic philosopher and theologian Ivone Gebara (b. 1944). Her epistemological views have a significant impact on her concept of the nature and the function of theology in general.
In this research, I have three interpretative frames: theology of spirituality, hermeneutics, and feminism. My hypothesis is that Gebara’s theology is most appropriately understood in the context of the theology of spirituality. This study confirms my hypothesis and gives reason to name Gebara’s theology ”praxisoriented wisdom theology” or today’s ”ethical mysticism”.
Gebara seeks to contribute to a wider cultural change by guiding the discussion to the theme of concepts of reality. Gebara states that in the Western thinking, there is a need for a major shift from mechanistic models to a holistic interpretation of reality. This shift also has its implications on concepts of human being, God, and knowing. Theologically, it can be argued that Gebara’s concept of reality is sacramental.
After examining Gebara’s concept of reality, I proceed to a more detailed analysis of her epistemology. My analysis shows that Gebara’s theological background lies in Latin American liberation theology. In addition, she explicitly refers to phenomenological, feminist and ecofeminist sources. Gebara’s methodological elements reveal a tendency towards concreteness and spirituality. Furthermore, ecofeminist spirituality brings along a significant orientation to the earth.
Implicitly, Gebara draws from different praxis-philosophies and from process thinking. These currents shape her hermeneutical notion of revelation. They also cause some tension in Gebara’s thinking, especially in her attitude towards metaphysics.
In this research, Gebara’s concept of knowing is named as ”integrating”. Gebara aims at bringing together important perspectives that help to analyse today’s world: ecological awareness, poverty, feminism and spirituality. She enlarges the concept of knowing so that, for example, bodily knowing figures prominently. Ethics, aesthetics and spirituality come together in her model, in which she seeks to restore the idea of the sacredness of the earth – an idea with potentially important ecological implications.
Despite some gaps in Gebara’s theological model, I consider the implications of her thinking significant in the ongoing discussion on the role of theology. She reintroduces the sapiental way of doing theology in the Western context, with its appreciation of experience, of the cosmic dimension of spirituality and of poetic language. Her innovative contribution to sapiental theology is her thoroughly postpatriarchal frame of reference and her strong emphasis on the perspective of the earth. These features may prove to be relevant in the larger ecological discussion.
Gebara’s enlargened concept of knowing and her return to the idea of wisdom enable the integration of spirituality into Western ways of interpreting reality. Spirituality, for its part, can motivate people to act ethically by, for example, offering powerful symbols. An integrating concept of knowing may also be helpful in the task of finding meaning in a fragmented world. Gebara takes a step towards transforming the Christian tradition to an ecologically sensitive direction.
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