Christian ethics of eating: Food and self from a Korean ecofeminist perspective

Eating, the most basic and intimate interaction we have with nature, provides a place to being to understand who we are and how we relate to God, nature, and other human beings. This dissertation examines the discourse of the concepts of self and nature behind Genetically Manipulated (GM) food technology from a Korean ecofeminist perspective that is strengthen by the ecological understanding of eating and self put forward by the second successor of the Korean Tonghak movement in the nineteenth century, Haewol.;The goal of this project is to build up an ecological self understanding that is matched by a new social practice that overcomes the isolated concept of self that contributes significantly to today's ever growing environmental problems and organizes human life in relation to one another and to nature, and to strategize an everyday life action that is applied to the problems of global bio-food commerce today.;The understanding of self and others in the works of ecological philosophers, such as deep ecologists, ecofeminists, and Christian environmentalists, as a theoretical tool for a response to the consequences of GM food, informs the critique of the classical understanding of human and nature found in modern science. In order to actualize the affirmation that all beings are interconnected and interdependent, particular attention is given to Haewol's "Pob ei Hannul (Food is God)," the Christian Eucharist tradition (Jesus' table fellowship), and sociological and feminist studies of "everyday life." These diverse sources all agree that a holistic understanding of eating that overcomes hierarchical dualism between the physical and spiritual, body and mind, and nature and culture contributes to forming an understanding of the inter-relational self that generates discontent with the patriarchal and hierarchical relationships between God, nature, and human. In other words, one's daily food practice, as a way of actualizing the interconnectedness among God, nature, and humans, resists the distorted relationship between God, nature, and humans and creates a sustainable bio-community of human and nonhuman beings.