Life Abundant by Sallie McFague
**Overview of "Life Abundant" by Sallie McFague**
"Life Abundant" is a theological work by Sallie McFague that engages with contemporary issues facing middle-class North American Christians, particularly the challenges of poverty, inequality, and ecological degradation. McFague argues for a reinterpretation of Christian theology that aligns with modern realities, emphasizing that theology should respond to specific contexts and the pressing needs of the world. Central to her thesis is the idea that the dominant economic model, which prioritizes individualism and consumerism, is inadequate and harmful, leading to both environmental and social crises.
In contrast, McFague advocates for an ecological economic model that fosters community, justice, and sustainability. She redefines the concept of the "good life" to encompass not just material prosperity but also emotional, social, and spiritual well-being for all individuals. By emphasizing the interconnectedness of human beings and their environment, McFague calls for a shift in worldview that acknowledges our dependence on nature and advocates for a more equitable distribution of resources.
The work presents a vision of Christian discipleship that focuses on love for God through caring for the world, viewing Jesus as a model of total self-giving. Ultimately, McFague challenges affluent Christians to reconsider their lifestyles and values in pursuit of a truly abundant life that benefits all creation, urging a collective commitment to sustainability and justice.
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Life Abundant by Sallie McFague
First published: Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2001
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Theology
Core issue(s): Capitalism; discipleship; God; Incarnation; justice; nature
Overview
In Life Abundant, Sallie McFague, one of the preeminent theologians of the early twenty-first century, addresses middle-class North American Christians. She sums up the theology developed through some of her previous books: Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language (1982), Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age (1987), The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (1993), and Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature (1997). Life Abundant reinterprets many of the classical themes of Christian theology for the contemporary world.
The need for theological reinterpretation arises from the interrelated problems facing the world: poverty, increasing disparity between poor and rich, and ecological devastation. To be relevant, theology must respond to the needs of its particular context, thus it changes for each age. Theology also plays a part in one’s perception of and response to reality by shaping a worldview.
Worldviews are humanly constructed frameworks for seeing and interpreting our context. Although we are largely unconscious of our worldview, it largely determines our attitudes and behaviors by defining the ideals by which we live. According to McFague, the dominant worldview offers an impossible and contradictory interpretation of reality by ignoring (even causing) poverty and ecological devastation. Therefore, an alternative worldview is needed to redefine our ideals and values and address the problems facing us all.
McFague articulates a new theology and alternative worldview to respond more adequately to reality, to shape values, and to counter false images of abundant life, human purpose, and ultimately the future viability of the human species and our planetary habitat.
Before describing both the dominant worldview and an alternative, McFague explains why theology matters: Theology is “an aspect of discerning God’s will” and its goal is functional—“to help the world prosper.” Thus theology informs Christian living. The development of theology begins with personal experience of God’s love, yielding insights about God and the world.
For Christians, Incarnation is the eternal truth about God and the world: God loves the world and chooses to be always with us. Jesus is understood to be Christ because he is a revelation, a parable of God, and is paradigmatic of God with us. Jesus is not, however, the only way that God is with us. In light of Incarnation, discipleship means becoming like (the image of) God: knowing others/the neighbor and “feeling with them in their pain and joy.” According to McFague, because God loves the world, we should love the world: “Loving God through loving the world, is the Christian way.”
At the heart of Life Abundant is an explication and analysis of the neoclassical economic model undergirding the dominant North American worldview and McFague’s presentation of an alternative ecological economic model. The dominant worldview emphasizes individualism and presumes that distribution of resources will best be worked out by individuals acting out of self-interest. The world is imagined to be a kind of machine operated by humans. This economic model values growth that creates wealth that leads to the so-called good life. Human beings are defined as consumers, “individuals whose goals are personal profit and pleasure.” What this model ignores is the finitude of creation. Limitless growth is impossible. Consumerism is “devastating the natural world and creating great inequities between the poor and the wealthy” and neglects to ask whether “the consumer life [is] the good life.”
In contrast, the ecological economic model is “concerned with community, justice, and sustainability.” In this model, human beings are regarded as individuals-in-community, a species dependent on its habitat. Long-term human survival requires care and maintenance of the habitat (nature) and the sharing of material goods among all. Social, emotional and creative well-being are valued as much as economic well-being. The good life is redefined as “having . . . adequate food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care, creative and spiritual opportunities, fellowship and leisure time and space.” This approach more closely reflects the reality embraced by Christianity.
Christian Themes
Theology is first and foremost about God. Talking about God, however, means talking about human experience and interpretation of that experience. Therefore theology is about God and us as well as God and the world. According to McFague, because theology “is meant to be an aid to right living,” virtually no arena of life is outside of its scope. McFague asks “. . . does the consumer society make those of us who have it happy, as claimed?” and because we should love what God loves and God loves the whole world, “is it the good life for all people and for the planet?” She suggests that the ecological-economic view of the good life is “a partial reflection of God’s will for the world” and evokes a doxological response to “the creator/liberator/sustainer God.”
We begin with God, “the breath of life in every being that exists.” Echoing philosopher Paul Tillich’s notion of “the ground of being,” McFague holds that God is “being-itself”; reality is not apart from God for there is nothing beyond or greater than God. The Christian belief that God is love leads to the conviction that reality is good. The key question facing human beings, therefore, is no longer alienation from God, as is seen in post-Reformation Protestantism’s emphasis on atonement and redemption (the concept of human alienation also undergirds the neoclassical economic model’s insistence on individualism). Because all that exists is in the presence of God, the question becomes that of the well-being of all.
As “the embodiment of God’s love and power” rather than as a sacrificed redeemer of greedy individuals, Jesus manifests “God’s total self-giving to the world.” Our response to the gift of life and the goodness of reality is to “praise God by helping all God’s creatures flourish.” How we help God’s creatures flourish is shaped by the perspective of those who have the least, whose flourishing, even survival, is most threatened, McFague says. We must use economics, a discipline concerned with the allocation of scarce resources, as a tool to help all creatures flourish. Of paramount importance is choosing the tool appropriate for the task: an ecological economic model.
Christian discipleship entails looking to Jesus to “see what we are meant to be,” and following Jesus means living as close to this model as possible. Sin is denying the pervasive reality of God and God’s love, McFague says. Because life within the reality of God connects our well-being to the well-being of all creation, sin is “a relational matter. . . . Sin is primarily systemic evil.”
Loving other people individually or nature generically is not sufficient for justice and sustainability in the long run. Christian commitment must be to a change of lifestyle modeled after Jesus’ “sacrificial generosity.” McFague argues that our society needs a new paradigm of the good life. Poverty and ecological devastation will become distant memories only if our worldview and resulting behavior change. New treaties and laws that promote sustainability over growth are needed. The task facing twenty-first century churches is to say no to market capitalism and unrestricted consumerism and to promulgate “a different view of the abundant life.” By entering into public debate, theology will be relevant to our time.
McFague asks pointedly if we affluent, privileged North American Christians are willing to commit ourselves to the good life for all of creation, knowing that it will require frugality and a lower standard of living than that to which we are accustomed. This would be truly living the life abundant and sharing it with all.
Sources for Further Study
Daly, Herman E., and John B. Cobb, Jr. For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. 2d ed. Boston: Beacon, 1994. An economist and a theologian suggest a new approach to economic problems whereby the economy is at the service of the community. Offers a biocentric worldview compatible with Christianity.
Gebara, Ivone. Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1999. Connects poverty to ecological destruction and reinterprets Christian themes as a basis for redefining relationships among humans and with nonhuman beings.
Knitter, Paul, and Chandra Muzaffar, eds. Subverting Greed: Religious Perspectives on the Global Economy. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2002. Practitioners from seven religions offer analyses of the global economy and religious responses to the problem of poverty.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing. New York: Harper Collins, 1992. Constructive theology suggesting a reinterpretation of creation, judgment, sin, and redemption geared toward healing ecological and social damage wrought by domination legitimated by traditional Western Christianity.
Santmire, Paul. Review of Life Abundant. The Christian Century 118, no. 26 (September 26-October 3, 2001): 33-37. Reviewer finds McFague’s main argument to be that people should free themselves from assumptions about economics and theology so that they can appreciate nature and take care of impoverished people.
Tatman, Lucy. Knowledge That Matters: A Feminist Theological Paradigm and Epistemology. Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 2001. Contains some discussion of McFague.