Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature

by Sallie McFague

A former dean at Vanderbilt University's Divinity School, Sallie McFague calls Christians down to earth. In a readable and available style, alive with concrete imagery and autobiographical material, McFague crafts a Christian spirituality centered on nature as the focus and locus of our encounter with the divine. She helps us see all life as created in the image of God.

Genres: Theology, Spirituality

207 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 1997

About the author

Sallie McFague (born 1933) was an American feminist Christian theologian.

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally very good, punctuated a bit by moments that come across as a bit too generalised (only humans doing wicked things - killing, overeating etc. [a bit simplistic]; all pets are oppressed [tell that to a number of dogs and cats I know]). This distracted from a book that had so much going for it - why Christians (and humans in general) should love nature. Despite this I think it is a readable and important contribution to ecotheology.

[Rick Engstrom · Rating 2 out of 5]

The vast majority of the book was wonderful. McFague does well in painting a philosophical, ecological theology. In theory, her work is great and much needed for the Church today. Where I disagreed with McFague was in practice. Are all pets oppressed, enslaved beings? Does humanity strip the subject-hood of animals by domesticating them? Beyond that, the line "It is only human beings who rape, overeat, and murder..." (p. 64) gave me little confidence in her remaining arguments. McFague was highly Darwinian (referring to the intervention of humanity as 'oppressive', 'controlling', 'patriarchal' and 'manipulative'), while at the same time calling forth the subject-hood of creation that is largely objectified by humanity. It was the implementation of her theory that confused and upset this reader. For that reason, I was left mostly disappointed in this work.