Table of Contents

Chapter 1:
Introduction: Feminisms, Materialisms and Reading with Earth

Section 1: The Materiality of Breath

Chapter 2:
Breath and Earth Voice: Exploring an Ecological Hermeneutics of Retrieval

Chapter 3:
Retrieving an Earth Voice: Reading Materially ‘as if it’s holy’

Chapter 4:
Strained Breath and Open Text: Exploring the Materiality of Breath in Relation to Reading Luke 4:16-30

Section 2: Situating Ecological Materialism

Chapter 5:
Reframing Feminist Approaches Ecologically: Matter, Freedom and the Future

Chapter 6:
Climate Change as Material Situation: Interpreting the Present Period alongside Luke 12.54-56

Chapter 7:
Rethinking Neighbour Love: Political Theology, Ecological Ethics and an Ecological Materialist Reading of Luke 10.25-37

Section 3: Shared Vulnerabilities

Chapter 8:
An Ecological Feminist Approach to Cross Species Relatedness: Compassion and Luke 10.30-37

Chapter 9:
Mountaintop Removal Mining (MTR) and Isaiah 40.4 (and Luke 3.5): Resisting the Violence of Homogenization

Chapter 10:
The Great Barrier Reef and Reading toward Activism: Transfigurations and Disfigurations

Chapter 11:
Concluding Reflection

Bibliography
Index

Promotional Information

Demonstrates a decolonizing ecological feminist hermeneutics for biblical study informed by the material turn and engagements with literature.

About the Author

Anne Elvey is Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia, and Honorary Research Associate at University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia.

Reviews

The extraordinary breadth in this braided conversation between the biblical text and contemporary ecological contexts is impressive. Elvey combines analysis with creativity, complexities with poetry, nuance with passion. This work challenges, inspires and exhorts us to change and to imagine the future of our world differently.
*Elizabeth Dowling, Independent Biblical Scholar, Australia*

This work builds upon the ecological hermeneutic of the Earth Bible project, while drawing also from feminist theological readings, the new materialism, indigenous scholarship and activism, and poetry, all in the service of reading Luke “with the Earth.” This is a sophisticated, passionate, and timely reading. The Earth cries out, and Elvey enables us to hear these cries.
*Shelly Matthews, Brite Divinity School, USA*

With great expertise and the fresh vision of a poet, Elvey draws disparate sources together into a searching eco-feminist conversation. This is a compelling appraisal of what it takes to face the traumas of ecological damage, colonialism and patriarchy and move towards the flourishing of all, including our more-than-human kin.
*Vicky Balabanski, Adelaide College of Divinity, Australia*

This book is a breath of fresh air. Its braided ecological feminist materialist approach breathes exhortation, encouragement and consolation to enable shifts in perception. This book energises impelling action for a future unlike the present in cooperation with Earth and the more than human in all their vibrant materiality.
*Kathleen P. Rushton, Independent Biblical Interpreter, New Zealand*

Anne Elvey’s work is a deeply personal, ongoing wrestle with Scripture and the nature of its demands in a deeply unjust world. It is a challenging and compassionate journey of ecological entanglement, poetic feminism, and fundamental ecological understanding, urging us to let ourselves be embraced by a more complete, just, and harmonious world.
*Christina Petterson, Australian National University, Australia*

Anne Elvey has written a very helpful guide to addressing the crisis of climate change in the context of biblical hermeneutics and feminist scholarship.
*The International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church*

[T]here is much in the text to stimulate and challenge … I commend Reading with Earth as an important contribution.
*Modern Believing*