| abstract |
This dissertation addresses the eco-justice movement, an environmental social movement that emerged within mainline Protestantism in the late twentieth century, and the movement's attention and inattention to the moral status of nonhuman animals both within its theoethical claims and its practice in denominational contexts. Using the context of The United Methodist Church as a case study, I argue that despite the stated nonanthropocentric values of the eco-justice movement, eco-justice theoethics in practice consistently fail to attend to the moral status of animals beyond sweeping generalized valuing of animal species.
I trace potential causes of lack of eco-justice attention to the value of animals, pointing to eco-justice's support of the human-focused environmental justice movement, eco-justice's resonance with ecological holist environmental philosophies, the single-issue focus of the animal rights movement, and the slow process of denominational change as barriers to a more animal-friendly eco-justice theoethic. Employing an ecofeminist lens, I suggest potential pathways for a transformed eco-justice framework that values the moral status of each animal life.
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