"An Ecological Theology of Liberation" accomplishes three vital tasks in the service of the North American church. First, it elucidates the complex ways in which the crises of material inequality and ecological degradation are interlinked. Second, it demonstrates that the interrelated preferential options for the poor and earth are intrinsic to Christian faith. Finally, it considers the various practical forms that these interrelated options might take within the contemporary political and cultural landscape. The book accomplishes these tasks through constructive and critical engagements with the thought of Gustavo Gutiérrez, Pope Francis, recent ecological and postcolonial readings of scripture, and contemporary works in political ecology and environmental science.

Highlighting the need for the radical transformation of society, the book recovers the language of liberation in order to critique the manner in which the terms "sustainable development" and "ecological modernization" are commonly used to legitimize the neoliberal globalization project. Accordingly, the book critically retrieves Gutiérrez’s classic concept of “integral liberation” to clarify conceptually the way in which the Christian witness to salvation (expressed through the interrelated loves of God, neighbor, and earth) must call for the conversion of what Francis terms the “global system.”

The book reinforces its integralist framework narratively, offering an eco-liberationist reading of key themes in biblical theology. It employs these narrative engagements in the final part of the book to scrutinize further the context of the global eco-social crisis, and to help inform a practical-utopian Christian imagination capable of discerning meaningful and effective responses to the crises.