St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Westwood hosted the latest installment of The Howe Lectures, featuring Dr. Andrew R. H. Thompson, Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Director of the Center for Religion and Environment at the School of Theology, University of the South (Sewanee).
In his lecture, “Eco-Theology and Private Property: A Radical Episcopal Critique,” Thompson argued that contemporary environmental injustices, especially those rooted in racism and colonialism, are inseparable from Western notions of private property. Drawing on the work of Episcopal lay theologians Vida Dutton Scudder and William Stringfellow, he invited the Church to re-examine how its relationship to ownership shapes its witness to creation, community, and justice.
“If our way of seeing and relating to the living world has been formed inside the spirituality of ownership,” Thompson said, “then to think differently will mean thinking against what seems obvious, necessary, and natural.”
The evening brought together parishioners, UCLA students, clergy, and visitors from across the Diocese of Los Angeles for conversation at the crossroads of faith, ethics, and ecology. The Rev. Adam Dawkins, rector of St. Alban’s, opened the event, giving thanks for Dr. Daniel Walker Howe and Sandra Shumway Howe, longtime parishioners and namesakes of the lecture series.
“The Howe Lectures invite us to hold faith and reason together in the service of the world God loves,” said Fr. Dawkins. “This evening reminded us that gratitude and belonging must extend not only to one another, but to all creation.”
The event concluded with a reception and book signing for Thompson’s 2023 book, Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism’s Colonial Legacy (Fortress Press).
The Howe Lectures were established by St. Alban’s to foster dialogue at the intersection of theology, scholarship, and public life. Future lectures will continue exploring how faith communities engage moral questions of justice, environment, and belonging in the modern world.