ABSTRACT
The Christian tradition has at times been accused of elevating the spiritual over the bodily and of allowing, even advocating, negative attitudes to the human body. Against this, ecological theology (ecotheology) looks to the wider body/bodies of the earth and has claimed that ideas or practices which have permitted or sanctioned the neglect or abuse of the body or bodies of the earth are a tragic distortion not only because of their ecological consequence but also because the most central Christian doctrines and texts are profoundly grounded in embodiment – both human and other-than-human. Two concepts affirm embodiment in a way that is ecotheologically significant. Sallie McFague’s model of the world as the body of God affirms the intimate and immanent relationship between God and all the bodies of the world and sees the role of the Christian person today in terms of care and love for the entire world. The idea of deep incarnation presents an ecological Christology which suggests that divine enfleshment occurred so deeply in the entire animate and inanimate world that Jesus Christ may be seen as extensive with all of creation. Both ideas are ecologically significant because they construe God as deeply present to the wider physical body of the entire biosphere, ascribe a high value to all earth bodies, and suggest a nonanthropocentric understanding of the human person as an earth body among other bodies.
