Intersystemic Care: How Religious Environmental Praxis Expands the Pastoral Theological Norm of Relational Justice

Abstract

This essay provides theological reflection, theoretical resources, ethnographic data, and pastoral theological proposals regarding religious environmentalism as a form of intersystemic care that can connect social and ecological justice-making pursuits. The religious environmental praxis of the Central Texas Episcopal Church demonstrates how this form of religious praxis represents efforts at an ecologically inclusive relational justice, a key norm for pastoral theologians. This article explores theological and contextual rationales for pastoral theological engagement with ecological issues as a more thorough way of addressing structures of violence that impede the flourishing of both people and planet.