Grace Ji-Sun Kim is one of the most prolific and powerful liberation theologians I know, always directing attention to the ways our Christian beliefs in love, justice and mercy can and must help us engage the world. In a time when President Donald Trump is (again) removing the United States from climate control initiatives and simultaneously threatening enemies at home and abroad, I’m grateful to talk with Grace about Earthbound, her recent book reading our ecological engagement as a theological issue worth highlighting. Grace serves as professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion in Indiana. I’ve previously talked to her for BNG, and I am grateful, as ever, for her engagement with my questions.
Greg Garrett: Could you talk about why, with all the things going on in the world, you felt it necessary to lean into conversations about climate and justice with Earthbound?
Grace Ji-Sun Kim: Climate change is one of the most urgent social justice issues of our time. Without a healthy, strong planet Earth, human life and all life cannot survive.
For this reason, working toward climate justice is not an option; it is essential.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Climate justice involves God, as God is the Creator of this entire universe. If God’s universe is being damaged, it is no longer just an ecological issue, but also a spiritual issue. Therefore, people of faith no longer can ignore this spiritual crisis we are facing today. We are called to action for the survival of our planet and all that inhabit it, recognizing Earth and its ecosystems are part of God’s creation, and we must take care of and protect it.
Climate justice is not an isolated concern. It is deeply interconnected with other social justice issues, including gender justice, racial justice, economic justice, ageism, ableism and more.
These injustices intersect and influence each other, making it more devastating as they intersect and cause more injustices. Those who are most vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate-related disasters are often the same communities already marginalized by systemic injustice.
We know of environmental racism where people of color are affected way more than white people. People of color who are in large numbers living in poorer areas have big companies and corporations dumping waste and chemicals in those areas. When we engage in climate justice work, we are simultaneously addressing these intersecting injustices.
This interdependence is precisely what makes climate justice so critical. To place climate justice at the forefront of our social justice commitments is to affirm a holistic vision of justice. It tries to understand the well-being of people, communities and Earth as inseparably linked and consequential. Our work for justice must therefore be collective, sustained and grounded in care for all God’s creation.
GG: I live in the American Southwest, where water scarcity is an ongoing issue. One of the most powerful points in your book is about water, who controls it and who gets it. Could you explain how in your research water can be used as a weapon or as an instrument of oppression?
GJSK: We cannot live without water. The human body is composed of roughly 60% water, and Earth itself depends on water to grow, thrive and sustain life. All living beings rely on water for survival and growth. Water scarcity is not limited to just the American Southwest or the desert areas; it is a global crisis. In many parts of the world, people lack access to clean water for drinking, cooking and sanitation. This absence of safe water is an injustice that demands urgent attention and action.
I have served on the World Council of Churches Working Group on Climate Justice and have seen how access to water is shaped by power and inequality. For example, in Palestine, water is often unclean and not consistently accessible, while Israel has regular access to clean water without similar restrictions. Such disparities are not merely environmental problems; they are justice issues rooted in political, economic, religious and structural inequities. To address one is to address all these intersecting issues.
“Water should not be a commodity to be hoarded, bottled or sold for profit at the expense of the vulnerable.”
For many years, the Lutheran World Federation adopted the motto “Creation Not for Sale,” a powerful theological reminder that everything on Earth belongs to God. The water we drink, the air we breathe and the plants that provide food are all from God. Water should not be a commodity to be hoarded, bottled or sold for profit at the expense of the vulnerable. Instead, water is a shared gift meant for the flourishing of all creation. Justice demands water be distributed equitably so every person has access to clean water, which is the foundation of health, dignity and life itself.
GG: The book addresses how our images of God influence our understanding of how we approach climate and justice issues. Could you teach us a little about the misunderstandings and misreadings of what it means to lean into a white male version of God?
GJSK: Our images of God are precisely that, just images. We cannot know the fulness of God, and therefore rely on metaphors, symbols and language to help imagine who God is and how God relates to the world. These images matter deeply because theology is never neutral or unbiased and it always is done in a specific context. The ways we imagine God shape how we understand ourselves, one another and the structures of power within society.
Christianity’s long history of seeing God as a white male figure has had profound consequences. Such imagery has contributed to placing men and white people at the top of social and ecclesial hierarchies, thereby “safely” reinforcing racism, patriarchy and white supremacy. When God is consistently depicted as white and male, whiteness and maleness are associated with divinity, authority and normativity. These theological constructions have allowed systems of oppression to persist and for people of color, and especially women of color, to suffer and be further subordinated.
If we are serious about dismantling racism and sexism, we also must reexamine and reimagine our images of God. One step toward this work is envisioning God using nongendered and nonracialized metaphors. I began this theological exploration in my earlier book, When God Became White, and I extend it further in this new work, Earthbound, where I invite readers to move beyond static and harmful images of God toward more liberative theological possibilities.
In Earthbound, I introduce what I call a “theology of verbs,” which encourages a shift from understanding God primarily through nouns to understanding God through verbs. Rather than asking what God is, we are invited to attend to God as a verb. In both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, God often names Godself through the verb “to be,” emphasizing presence, becoming and relationality rather than fixed identity. God tells Moses that “I Am” has sent you to release the enslaved Israelites from Egypt.
This theological shift from nouns to verbs is significant. A theology of verbs helps move us away from rigid, exclusionary images of God and toward a dynamic, life-giving and liberative view of the divine. By reimagining God in this way, we open ourselves to a theology that resists domination and affirms justice, mutuality and the flourishing of all creation.
“A theology of verbs helps move us away from rigid, exclusionary images of God and toward a dynamic, life-giving and liberative view of the divine.”
GG: One of the most powerful positions in the book for me is your argument that human-created climate damage violates our core Christian values. As a Christian theologian, how would you explain this to people in and out of the Christian tradition?
GJSK: Drawing on Sallie McFague’s eco-theological work, if we understand Earth as God’s body, then what we do to Earth we are also doing to God. God is not distant from creation but is present within it and all around us. Recognizing God as Creator who dwells with and within creation leads us to the realization that environmental degradation is not only ecological harm but also theological violence and corruption.
Many Christians hold a panentheistic understanding of God, affirming that God is in all things. From this perspective, God’s presence permeates all living beings. If God is indeed present in all that lives, then care for creation becomes a moral and spiritual imperative. Practicing creation care in our daily lives is not optional but must be a faithful response to God.
GG: One of the most powerful and positive aspects of the book for me was when you leaned into the han concept from Korea as a way of discussing this issue. How does this idea offer us some ways forward in considering the issues?
GJSK: Han is a Korean concept that is difficult to translate into English. It is often understood as “unjust suffering” and deep, agonizing pain from systemic oppression, violence and unresolved injustice. While suffering is a universal human experience, han names suffering that is produced by unjust social, political and economic systems. Such unjust suffering inflicts profound and lasting wounds that can be passed on for generations if it is unresolved.
The systems that generate climate injustice, racial injustice, gender injustice and economic injustice are deeply interconnected, which compounds harm and intensifies suffering. To confront han requires challenging these oppressive structures that perpetuate this suffering rather than merely addressing symptoms.
Therefore, the concept of han offers a powerful lens for understanding the condition of Earth today. The planet itself is suffering as a result of human negligence, exploitation and unjust actions. As Earth cries out in pain, we witness storms intensifying, droughts becoming more severe and weather patterns becoming increasingly extreme. These realities are Earth’s cry of han, which demands our full attention and action.
I hope my book, Earthbound, which brings this Asian perspective on suffering, han, will become an urgent call to action to climate justice. When Earth suffers, we all suffer. To listen to Earth’s han is to recognize our ethical and spiritual responsibility to respond. It calls us to repentance, transformation and committed action toward ecological justice, reminding us that healing Earth is inseparable from healing the systems that cause suffering in the first place.
Greg Garrett
Greg Garrett is an award-winning professor at Baylor University, where he is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Professor of Literature and Culture. One of America’s leading voices on religion and culture, he is the author of 30 books, most recently the novel Bastille Day and The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America’s Great Prophet Can Teach Us about Life, Love, and Identity. He is currently administering a major research grant on racism from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation and finishing a book on racist mythologies for Oxford University Press. Greg is a seminary-trained lay preacher in the Episcopal Church and Honorary Canon Theologian at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris. He lives in Austin with his wife, Jeanie, and their two daughters.