This thesis examines the role played by non-human creation in the liturgies for the feast of Holy Pascha (Easter), of the twelve major feasts of the Orthodox Church, and of the period of Great Lent. Applying to liturgical texts and practices the methodology developed by Paul Ricoeur for biblical interpretation, the thesis argues that the kind of world opened by these liturgies allows for the participation of non-human creatures in the liturgy and thus is amenable to an ecological theology. It investigates the implications of the liturgical texts for contemporary theological reflection about salvation, incarnation, sin, and theosis in light of the ecological crisis and the frequent Orthodox claim that the liturgy is ‘cosmic’ in scope. Chapter 1 looks at the role of non-human creation in the Paschal/Pentecost season and lays out the case for the need to include all of creation. Chapter 2 focuses on the feasts of the incarnation and argues for a more inclusive theological interpretation of the incarnation. Chapter 3 examines the liturgies of Lent and Holy Week and develops hamartiological implications of the ecological crisis. The final chapter focuses on the feasts of Theophany and the Transfiguration and proposes a view of theosis that extends beyond humans.

This dissertation explores the prospects for Christian-Muslim dialogue regarding the ecological crisis. It compares the views of Sallie McFague and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, leaders in ecological theology and ethics. In 1990, at the Spirit and Nature symposium at Middlebury College, they dialogued unsuccessfully. They could not understand each other across the ideological gulf of McFague's postmodernism and Nasr's traditionalism. However, beneath an outer shell of significant differences, McFague and Nasr share profound common ground. They both understand the ecological crisis as a result of the desacralization of nature in human perception. They believe that Western Christianity's failure to cultivate a spiritual vision of nature set the stage for the development of a thoroughly mechanistic and desacralized worldview in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. They both articulate visions for the resacralization of nature. While unique, these visions both image the world as a body animated by the Spirit of God rather than as a lifeless machine. Furthermore, both authors find insights to support human harmony with the natural world in the mystical wisdom of their traditions. The dissertation models a process of dialogue that unveils McFague's and Nasr's common ground. The first two chapters explore their stories and contexts, modeling the importance of getting to know one's interlocutor. In chapters three and four, their overall ecological theologies are outlined. Only in chapter five, in a dialogical setting in which both authors' ideas are viewed empathetically, are their differences engaged. Chapter six looks at their common ground, tracing how it grows out of their mutual ecological concerns. Finally, chapter seven creatively synthesizes their ideas, especially their proposals for the reintegration of nature into cities and their descriptions of the mystical understanding of the God-world and human-world relationships. The dissertation explores how the mystical consciousness of the unity of the human body with the body of the world needs to be cultivated more widely, and extended into the practice of interfaith dialogue. Christians, Muslims, and all others concerned about the ecological crisis need to become more aware of our unity and see through the illusion that we are separate.

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This dissertation explores relationships between Christian communities, ecological theology, food and meal patterns, and planetary wellbeing amid changing climates in the Plantationocene. The thesis is that a process theology of the Eucharist provides a framework for Christian sacramental theology to respond to the dynamic conditions of food amid changing climates on Earth by prioritizing processes of restoring and sustaining communion with God and all our creaturely kindred in ecological wellbeing. This dissertation presents and develops the process theology of Norman Pittenger, a Christian process theologian and theological interpreter of Alfred North Whitehead. By critically retrieving Norman Pittenger’s process ecclesiology, I aim to encourage Christian process theology to develop theological perspectives of sacramentality as celebrated through the church and Christian life for the wellbeing of the planet. In addition to developing a process theology of the Eucharist, this dissertation also lays foundations for a broader process theology of meals that seeks to respond to the dynamic conditions of food in changing climates in modernity. Weaving together the work of Theodore Walker, Jr., William T. Cavanaugh, Catherine Keller, Nick Estes, S. Yael Dennis, Filipe Maia, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing, and William Cronon, I critique modernity as a paradigm of commodifying relationships that depend on isolating people from one another and dismembering ecosystems for capital profit. I identify modernity’s meals as products of and contributors to anthropogenic climate change in the Plantationocene that depend upon processes of commodification and dismemberment of ecological bodies. How humans eat matters for the wellbeing of the world. For many Christians, the Eucharist meal is central to relationship with God and other people. The particularities of local eucharistic communities influence how the church experiences eucharistic relationships with God. Likewise, experiences of the Eucharist influence the particularities that characterize any local church. This dissertation contends that encountering cosmic Love in the Eucharist meal transforms the church to reveal and enact love in all our meals, promoting planetary wellbeing through food justice and ecological health.

This thesis examines the role of Melodi Ya Tshwane Christian Youth Ministry (MyT CYM) in the context of what is increasingly observable environmental crisis with a view of developing a contextual approach to ecological mission. The research does not focus primarily on the environmental crisis itself except to note that its scope incorporates not only environmental issues, but has some important implications for social justice as well. The research recognises the role that MyT CYM must play as part of their contribution towards addressing the environmental crisis. Such a role is based not on a pragmatic response to the situation, but flows from the missional nature and theology of the church. Therefore, the missional church has an obligation to address this issue, through Christian mission that takes seriously the biblical call to care and preserve the integrity of creation. Finally, this research aims to assist MyT CYM to understand the theological basis for contextual action towards developing an appropriate ecological mission. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology with Specialisation in Urban Ministry)