In order to further explore the significance of McFague's thoughts, this thesis will compare her theology with some other theologians with quite different ideas on ecological theology or understandings of the relationship between feminism and Christianity. Furthermore, this thesis will also adopt McFague's approach to metaphorical theology to evaluate the merits and shortcomings of the theories advocated by the contemporary Sino-Christian theologians such as Liu Xiaofeng and He Guanghu, especially their approaches to the relationship between the Christian tradition and the contemporary Chinese context. / McFague believes that all Christians may have their own working theologies one that can actually function in their personal, professional, and public lives. Hers is merely one of the possible options. Again and again she expresses that what she has done is merely to share her theological model with the others and see if it can help others to work out their own. / McFague defines her theology as a post-modem theology because its assumptions are radically different from those of the Enlightenment or Modernity. For her, the traditional language of Christianity that supported the hierarchical, dualistic and deterministic ways of thinking is no longer appropriate for our time. However, this does not mean that one should totally deny the Christian tradition or our religious heritage. What we have to do is to "revitalize" the religious language through employing new metaphors which may become gestures to the unknown God. This approach of employing metaphor as a means to convey theological truth is not only in line with Jesus' own way of communication and the Protestant tradition of anti-idolatry, but also appropriate for the postmodern sensibility and capable to address the contemporary issues. / McFague proposes that Christian theology should adopt "mother," "lover," and "friend" as the key metaphors for the doctrine of God and "the body of God" as the central metaphor for the model of God-world relationship. This metaphor or model, which highlights the interdependence and unity between us and everything else on earth, represents McFague's rather distinctive contribution to ecological theology and her imaginative attempt to contribute to the rescue from nuclear nightmare or ecological disaster. / Sallie McFague (1933- ) is one of the most famous eco-feminist theologians. Her theology is very influential within the theological circle of liberal Protestantism in North American. She regards her metaphorical theology as thought experiment in response to the challenges Christianity encounters in the modem world, including particularly the criticisms of Christianity from the perspectives of feminist liberation movement and ecological concern. When facing these challenges or criticisms, whereas some Christians may attempt to repeat the same traditional expressions of Christianity or abandon the Christian tradition entirely, McFague attempts to employ some new metaphors to express the Christian tradition in order to make Christian theology meaningful and appropriate for the contemporary context. / The thesis will conclude with a summary of the significance of McFague's metaphorical theology for the critical reflection and positive construction of contemporary Sino-Christian theology, including: (1 ) being respectful to the Christian history and orthodox tradition; (2) being sensitive to the contexts, including spatial, temporal and cultural contexts, of theology; (3) being methodologically sound in theological thinking; (4) being open to the non-Christian resources and affirmative to the adoption and integration of the resources in the Chinese language. / 高健群. / Advisers: Pan Chiu Lai; Chi Tim Lai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-133). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Gao Jianqun.

The industrial food production system is a head-on collision of ecology, morality, and human health, and their respective bodies of earth, animal and human. This thesis is an attempt to grapple with that damage from a theological perspective. What would it mean for a theology to answer to the degradation of American soil that sustains nothing but oil-drenched monoculture? to the horrifying conditions under which we as a nation raise, feed, and slaughter the animals for our consumption? to the dizzying array of food-related diseases that now affect our country in staggering frequency, particularly among lower socioeconomic classes? And what would that theology look like in the real world? The first chapter of this thesis surveys the damage done to earth, animal and human bodies by the industrial food system. A discussion of corn, the backbone of the entire system, and its effects on the land leads into a discussion of corn-fed animals and the conditions under which they live. In the final section, some of the health effects directly traceable to eating industrial food are overviewed. The second chapter highlights and examines three groups of people who, often for theological reasons, are growing food in alternative ways: ways that not only do not harm bodies, but sustain them and help them to thrive. The third chapter is a set of theological reflections on the first two, in which I try to pin down some essential theological differences between the first two chapters, and bring in theologians who are helpful in this enterprise. The four theological points I discuss are taking bodies seriously, a panentheistic approach to the world, interrelatedness and the presence of complexity, and mutuality and relational power.

The aim of this study is to explore how the concept of sin, guilt and responsibility can be used in the contemporary discourse of the climate catastrophe. In a comparative textual study on Sallie McFague’s A New Climate for Theology and Richard Bauckham’s Bible and Ecology these concepts are analyzed. The conclusion is that McFague and Bauckham both uses “responsibility” frequently, but neither “sin” or “guilt” are well used in there works. Yet, when they reflect on “sin”, both of them abandons the (in the western theology classical) Augustine theology on sin. McFague when she argues that “evil” is a perversion of good rather than a consequence of an external reality, Bauckham when he claims that the fall of sin is an ongoing process rather than a momentary event.   Hannah Arendt and Alistair McFadyen are used as an interpretative and theoretical background to the conclusions of McFague and Bauckham in the discussion that follows the comparative textual study. Arendt and McFadyen reflects on sin, guilt and responsibility with the Holocaust as context. In the discussion, their thoughts on the Holocaust are essayed to apply on the contemporary climate catastrophe. Hannah Arendt talks about “collective responsibility” and “personal guilt”, concepts that in the discussion part, when applied on the climate catastrophe and in a better way fits the contemporary situation, inverts to “collective guilt” and “personal responsibility”. The talk of collective guilt tangent the Augustine teaching of original sin where sin is a common heritage from the fall of sin. McFadyen uses original sin to explain the mechanism of the German people during the Holocaust which in many ways are similar to the processes of the climate catastrophe of today.    In the discussion of this study, original sin is used as a model to better understand the fact that people cannot escape guilt in the contemporary situation and to comprehend why people act as they do. The study intends accordingly to in a constructive way contribute with new perspectives on sin, guild and responsibility to the ecological theology of today.