In the wake of a global pandemic, rampant genocidal and ecological violence, and the insecurity of reproductive rights, the work of Rosemary Radford Ruether generates timely and necessary conversations on theology, ecology, and justice. Valuing Lives, Healing Earth is a tribute to Ruether’s work, situating themes from her edited volume Women Healing Earth into an updated context. The edited volume recognizes the need to “build on the foundations forged by Ruether” whose commitment to planetary justice and human’s relationship to non-human creatures centered global voices (3). Through a rich diversity of creative mediums including poetry, art, photography, and communal anecdotes, the book blends artistic reflection and richly substantive scholarship to bring attention to local and global projects that “produce community wellbeing in real, beloved places” (9). In the lineage of Ruether, the work highlights communities committed to ecological and feminist action that are also grounded in a religious identity.

The seventeen essays are divided into four parts, each of which “reflect dimensions of meaning” (5). The first section entitled “Knowledge” centers on indigenous knowledge of land and sustainability, imagining the restorative potential of reclaiming and applying this knowledge. Throughout this section, contributors reclaim cultural, historical, and religious language as powerful resources in the fight for gender, class, and racial equality as well as for environmental restoration. The collapsing of the identity of female garbage collectors into the garbage they collect stands alongside Zimbabwean and African American imagery of “trees of pain” in an excellent commentary on the power of knowledge’s potential to be both weaponized and reclaimed (25). This reclamation is further seen in the re-envisioning of the Korean understanding of salim. What is typically understood as gendered female housekeeping duties is re-imagined to include all actions that helps sustain the flourishing of the earth. This is situated alongside a re-reading of the Catholic catechism that rejects anthropocentrism in favor of the uplifting of both human and non-human creatures. The Indigenous process of mythopoesis – “the creation of story” – is presented in the bookending chapter as a means of Indigenous resistance, thus highlighting the power of storytelling as a “pathway to justice” (80).

The second section entitled “Ritual” explores the healing power of rituals for both earth and the communities that enact them. The rituals highlighted take many forms across different geographic spaces and cultures: art, agricultural harvest and celebration, psychedelic ceremony, and historical Indigenous healing practices. These rituals, all situated in a Latin American context, center the experiences and practices of Indigenous and/or marginalized women in their respective communities. The section showcases women gathered in communities who dream and work towards a more just relationship between people and the planet. Because the people and the land suffer the history of colonial violence , many of these communities must work toward restorative justice throughreclaiming ancestral rituals and methods of knowing rooted in a relationship to the land. Contributors highlight the medicinal practices of Indigenous healing women in Mexico and the use of psychedelics in Peruvian shamanism, calling for a “pluriversal” paradigm that allows different forms of knowing to exist simultaneously (131).

The third section entitled “Activism” reflects on diverse grassroots movements led by women and the interconnected systems of “race, power, gender, colonialism, and indigeneity” that inform and necessitate their efforts (5). Contributors highlight the efforts of different groups of women around the world leading “eco-just” movements on the basis of religious, spiritual, and ethical convictions (145). An essay by Ruether herself is featured in which she writes about the work of Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the Kenyan Green Belt Movement. Though the women discussed in this section represent a variety of cultural contexts, the problems they all face reflect a clash between predatory industrial agents and the residents of the land those industries threaten.

The final section entitled “Food” articulates how the process of food procurement is deeply imbedded in cultural inheritance and relationships with nonhuman creatures. This section centers on a variety of efforts in different North American and Latin American contexts to address food insecurity. Efforts such as a Jewish farm in Canada, sustainable farms founded by women in the US, and the founding of Campesina school programs in El Salvador all model ways in which communities are coming together to address the deeply felt weight of food insecurity that has only increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This section concludes by imagining alternative ways of buying and consuming food modelled by the historical Hispanic tianguis, or marketplace.

Valuing Lives, Healing Earth is rich orientation to the current ecofeminist efforts for those new to the ecofeminist lens as well as those in need of inspiration for how commitments to land and equality currently manifest. This tapestry of essays, poetry, art, and communal stories form a beautiful and scholastically rich addition to the discourse surrounding the applicability of ecofeminism to a modern context. Using Rosemary Radford Ruether’s work as a guide, the contributors and editors have created a collection that both demonstrates current efforts toward equality and land restoration while also imagining new ways of being that will benefit all creatures. While the work expands the conversation begun in Women Healing Earth and includes voices from all over the world, it primarily includes voices of scholars in the Americas. Future scholarship has an excellent model for the blending of art, history, story, theory, and practice to continue widening and expanding conversations of gender equality, ecological justice, and theological reflection.