Empires come and go. Cultures come and go. Pax Romana is no more. Pax Americana is decaying. What next? After the Agricultural Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, we are now on the threshold of some kind of ecological revolution. After the Copernican Revolution, and the Darwinian Revolution, we are now on the threshold of a new epistemological revolution that pertains to human relations and the very nature of humanity, male and female. This page explores the increasingly apparent confluence of the ecological crisis and the feminine consciousness, and finds that Mary of Nazareth is a pivotal point of reference for both integral human development and an integral ecology.
The Agricultural Revolution (circa 10,000 BCE) was the process of transitioning from hunting-gathering to farming. The Industrial Revolution (starting circa 1,800 CE) entailed learning to use fossil fuels as a source of energy. As we enter the third millennium CE, human population and consumption of natural resources has grown to the point in which an Environmental Revolution may be required for the survival of the human species. Whereas the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution were about increasing the flow of energy to do more, the Environmental Revolution is about doing more with less energy, because the remaining reserves of fossil fuels are not infinite and too much toxic waste is polluting the planet that serves as our common home.
Further advances in science and technology may be helpful, but it seems reasonable to infer that the third great revolution will require significant adaptations of human behavior. There are bio-physical limits, including thermodynamic limits, that preclude perpetual population and consumption growth in a finite planet. Colonization of outer space may be a good subject for science fiction movies, but it would seem unwise to assume that massive migration to other planets will be a 2.0 version of the discovery of the New World. It seems more reasonable to assume that navigating the ecological crisis will require culture change. In fact, it may require a radical renewal of humanity.
Paving the way for such renewal of humanity, an epistemological revolution is underway that pertains to human relations and the very nature of humanity, male and female. How humans relate to the human habitat is a mirror of how human relate to each other, so there is no hope of humans ceasing to abuse non-human nature as long as they keep abusing each other. This is especially the case regarding gender relations: man/nature relations are a mirror of man/woman relations. The Copernican Revolution was about geocentrism. The Darwinian Revolution was about anthropocentism. We now need a revolution to overcome androcentrism, and the increasingly visible emergence of a feminine consciousness is a reassuring sign. A new culture of interpersonal communion
between man and woman may not be sufficient, but is necessary if we are going to be more, and do more, without the cheap but dirty energy of fossil fuels.
The feminist movement immediately comes to mind when dealing with this dynamic of cultural evolution. It is undoubtedly a sign of the times and confirms that the patriarchal culture is practically dead. Usually regarded as a relatively recent phenomenon, feminism has historical and prehistorical roots that go back to the ancient myth of Adam and Eve. The apparent misogyny of the text notwithstanding, and regardless of whether she did right or wrong, it was Eve who had the initiative of taking the "forbidden fruit" and giving it to Adam. Fast forward to 4 BCE, and we find a "New Eve" that assented to getting pregnant by the Holy Spirit -- without first consulting with Joseph -- for the glory of God and the good of humanity. At the very inception of the Common Era, Mary of Nazareth acts as a fully liberated woman and sings the passing of the patriarchal order of things.
Why has it taken 2000 years to recognize that the incarnation is the beginning of the end of patriarchy? Because "original sin" has a long tail. Even long after the biological sciences have established the reality of a gender mosaic, simplistic misconceptions about human nature, such as the "patriarchal binary," persist to this day. Religious patriarchy is a key reinforcer of ancient gender stereotypes. Not even Thomas Aquinas was able to clearly refute the Aristotelian misconception about women being "defective males." It may be providential that the sexuality and gender sciences are flourishing as we enter the anthropocene because, in the long term, patriarchy and sustainability are mutually exclusive; there can be no sustainability without solidarity, and there can be no solidarity based on unilateral domination of some humans by other humans, and of the planet by humans.
The Theology of the Body provides a solid basis for understanding that, while Christendom was culturally patriarchal, the Christian faith is not intrinsically patriarchal. However, some Christian churches, including the Catholic Church, exclude women from ordained ministry. The impedimentum sexus is still enshrined in article 1024 of the Code of Canon Law: "A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly." How can the Catholic Church contribute to integral human development and an integral ecology, while retaining a hierarchy that reinforces the patriarchal culture, is increasingly hard to understand. It may be a matter of cultural conditioning and/or ecclesiastical politics, but there is no dogmatic imperative and is theologically baseless. It is preposterous to keep suggesting
(Evangelli Gaudium 104) that the nuptial mystery of Christ and the Church can reasonably be reduced to a patriarchal marriage.
Patriarchy reduces human persons to sexual functionality. In the patriarchal culture, both men and women are, primarily, sexual objects, not personal subjects. Women were not considered "persons" until rather recently in human history. Mary of Nazareth was not considered a "person" in her culture. That Christ was born of a woman was, for the early Christians, a sign of divine humility that anticipated the redeeming humiliation of Christ on the cross. And yet, Mary of Nazareth is the Mother of Christ, and therefore Mother of the Eucharist, a unique calling that she answered during her entire life. For this reason, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 773, states that the Marian dimension of the church precedes the Petrine dimension. To elevate the Blessed Virgin Mary above all priests and bishops is of course correct; but to exclude all other women from priestly ordination is a patriarchal prejudice that is not a matter of faith, culturally stagnates integral human development, and reinforces social/ecological injustice.
As we enter the third decade of the third millennium CE, there is an increasingly visible convergence of two global megatrends: the bio-physical infrastructure of human civilization is decaying due to overpopulation and overconsumption, and the bio-cultural gender spectrum of humanity is flourishing due to the feminine consciousness and advances in the human sciences. The life and acts of a woman, Mary of Nazareth, were the beginning of the end of the patriarchal culture that has prevailed since time immemorial; and now the signs of the times point to the end of the end of the patriarchal era and the possibility of a new beginning as domination and exploitation morph into solidarity and sustainability. It would be a nonviolent Marian Revolution to mercifully end the patriarchal era and renew all human relations. This is not a false hope. It is a very reasonable hope that can become reality if we forgo the old path of domination and wisely choose a new path of interpersonal communion and partnership with nature.
Sustainable Ecological Footprint ~ Art by Luís Henrique Alves Pinto
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