Obituary: Theologian taught God was interested in bodies, economics
Credit to Author: Douglas Todd| Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 23:34:29 +0000
A student of prominent Vancouver-based eco-theologian Sallie McFague has written an insightful tribute to her professor, who died in November at age 86.
In this obituary Shauna Kubossek describes the devotion that McFague, a major figure in liberal Christian theology, showed to the realms of ecology, feminism, economic theory and an emerging worldview known as panentheism.
After McFague arrived in 2000 at Vancouver School of Theology from a high-profile career at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Tennessee, I was also able to interview her several times, including about the value of self-restraint.
One of the most intriguing developments in McFague’s life came in 2011 when she was flown to India for a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, which is also about the time she took out her Canadian citizenship.
McFague and her partner lived in an apartment overlooking Jericho Park, where she walked almost daily until slowed down by a serious ailment. She was a solid supporter of The Westcoast Centre for (r)Evolutionary Theology.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, Jan. 11th, at 2 p.m. at Pacific Spirit United Church, 2195 W 45th Ave, Vancouver.
Here is Shauna Kubossek’s revealing guest tribute to her professor:
One day, less than a year ago, I sat in Sallie McFague’s office. I was frustrated that day with the disengagement and apathy of the Christian church in response to the suffering of the world.
“Sallie, I think we need to burn the church down. The only way that a green sprout of something new and better will be able to grow is if there is a crack in the pavement somewhere.” Not missing a beat, Sallie looked at me and said, “Shauna, you are a sprout.”
I have reminded myself of her words many times, in moments when I feel my nihilism creeping in. Sallie, a woman I had looked up to for years, whose work I had read for years, told me that I was the very thing I was hoping for. And to keep going. “The world needs you.”
Vancouver School of Theology masters’ student Shauna Kubossek says Sallie McFague didn’t see God as “transcendent and un-involved in the world.”
Sallie McFague was, most recently, the Distinguished Theologian in Residence at the Vancouver School of Theology. She was also the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Theology and dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School, emerita.
She was known for her panentheistic views of God, the understanding that God is intertwined and involved in the created world, though distinct from it. This view contrasts with a more classical understanding that sees God as transcendent and un-involved in the world. She was also known for her work in feminist theology and her contributions to metaphorical understandings of God.
I grew up around beautiful and good-hearted Christian people, but many did not have satisfactory answers to the questions I had about God and the world, about suffering and ‘evil’ and existence: the questions closest to my heart.
It was in Sallie’s work, when I was in my early twenties, that I finally found an articulation of God that made sense to me. Sallie wrote of a God who cares deeply about the world, who notices suffering, who values bodies and the natural world, a God who is interested in economics.
Blessed are the Consumers was the first book of hers I picked up and I felt like I had finally stumbled upon something real. The book was tenacious. Her words had conviction. I had found my new hero!
As an eco-feminist theologian, Sallie did not shy away from difficult or complicated questions. She spent her life working to articulate theologies that offered new insight and hope to the economic, social and environmental ills of our time. She cared about and worked toward a Christian worldview that was deeply relational. She wrote, “we need to replace our current individualistic worldview which supports the inequality of capitalistic economics as well as contributing to climate change.”
Sallie had gravitas. She was unsettling in the best sense of the word – in the sense you get when you are in the presence of someone from whom you have a lot to learn, who has struggled and worked and earned all the wisdom they have acquired.
She had raw talent and gut and intellect to be sure, but there was also something in her countenance that spoke of tireless work and sacrifice. Not many people can be as sure as they are generous, or as convicted as they are kind. Sallie was.
Her work focused on everyday elements. In early November she said to me that most of the poetic traditions utilize symbols of “really common things” – food, water, death, life etc. Her work focused on the earth and on materiality.
Sallie McFague’s “work was human, it dealt with the world. It did not over-spiritualize,” says Kubossek.
In this way, her work was simple. It focused on connection, relationality, the basics of being human and how we might talk about God in ways that allow us to be more of who we are while also giving others the space to do the same. This is one of the reasons I believe her legacy and work really matters. Her work was human, it dealt with the world. It did not over-spiritualize.
She had hope for the world. It was not a misplaced, blind or naïve hope. It was rooted in experience, study and a deep knowledge of biological science and economics. Even knowing these things as well as she did, somehow, she had hope. It was this combination of deep knowledge and hope that I will remember her for. Most days I am not able to find the balance that seemingly came so easily to her.
The other day I picked up her book Blessed are the Consumers to re-read one of the chapters. On the front cover was a picture I had looked at many times but never really paid attention to: a green sprout breaking through cracked pavement. This is who she was to me, and to many others – a reminder that light and new life has a way of breaking through the cracks when all else seems dark.
– Author Shauna Kubossek is working towards her Master of Arts in Theological Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology. Her thesis is in liturgical theology, with a focus on how Eucharistic hospitality can be transformative for bodies.
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