A Field, Not One Argument

Ecotheology developed well beyond a single response to White's essay into a genuinely diverse field spanning multiple traditions and theological methods. Christian ecotheologians developed several distinct approaches, including stewardship theology, which reinterprets the Genesis dominion language as a mandate for responsible care rather than license for exploitation, and process theology, which draws on a panentheistic account of God as intimately present within and affected by the natural world rather than standing entirely outside it. Ecofeminist theology, connected to the thealogy this atlas records separately, argues that the domination of nature and the domination of women share common conceptual roots and require a common theological response.

Scholars of ecotheology have also engaged substantially with indigenous religious traditions' own longstanding ecological theologies, and with Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic ecological thought, each developing distinct religious grounds for environmental responsibility from within their own textual and theological resources rather than simply adapting a Christian framework. This breadth means ecotheology is better understood as a shared field of inquiry engaging many traditions and theological methods than as a single argument or position.