Leopold's Land Ethic and Ecotheology

Abstract

Aldo Leopold is widely regarded as the foundational figure in philosophical environmental ethics; his A Sand County Almanac has achieved an almost canonical status. Within ecotheology, however, Leopold has had much less influence. True, many cite with approval Leopold’s call to extend ethics to the natural world. Beyond that, however, most references to Leopold in theological literature are of the ‘sound bite’ variety: they make brief mention to illustrate or bolster a point, but do not seriously engage his thought. On those few occasions when theologians have discussed Leopold’s land ethic in some depth, they have, for the most part, criticized it. Why has there been such a lack of attention to Leopold’s work in ecotheology? Why, when his work is attended to is it usually critiqued instead of being constructively appropriated?