Habitats of Ecological-Justice, Wisdom, Grace, Connections and Collaboration

Habitat was a key concept in the writings of Elaine Wainwright, RSM (25 August 1948 – 5 July 2024), as Anne Elvey has written in her chapter in this volume. Elvey writes that the ‘use of the concept of habitat as a “place to know and a place from which to know”, moreover, offers a further entry point for considering her contribution to scholarship’. She goes on to argue that ‘Elaine invites readers to incorporate creative responses . . .’ It is this invitation to ‘creative responses’ that is at the heart of this volume which reflects on and engages with the work of Elain Wainwright.

‘Habitat’, is also a key theme, a concept, which links the writers here in this collection. As Vicky Balabanski argues in her contribution ‘Habitat becomes a key analytic category, where the materiality and sociality of a particular place are brought into focus . . . habitat used as a category in an ecological reading invites us to notice that the complex and often delicate interweaving of the needs and requirements of many species co-exist in particular locations’. A habitat acts as an organism, animal, or persons’ ‘home’ and provides exactly what is needed for survival.

The concept ‘shaped’ Elaine’s scholarly research and she gave it a particular theological weighting in her writing career which she combined with academic, administrative and supervisory roles for many years here in Australia and then in New Zealand. After her doctoral studies she was from 1982 to 2001 Lecturer in New Testament at Pius XII Seminary/St Pauls Theological College and Brisbane College of Divinity. Following this, Elaine was head of Theology and Professor of Theology at Auckland University from 2003 to 2014 and then after her return to Australia was the international coordinator of the Mercy International Reflection Process (MIRP), during all this time she was also active at an international level in various groups, associations and annual meetings. All of the history of her work is detailed in a number of the papers within this volume.

While the ecological was cental in Elaine’s later writing, and that she wrote extensively on the Matthew’s Gosepl, it is fair to suggest that ‘habitat’ was the hermeneutic underlying much of her work. Thus her writings on ecological-justice, was a habitat, her work on feminism was a habitat, her emphasis on pursuing wisdom was a habitat, her connections with ‘Aboriginal Sisterhood’ became a habitat, and her collaborative manner was a habitat. Justice, feminism, connections and collaboration were necessary for Elaine’s ‘survival’. They were all ‘places to know and a place from which to know’.

Habitat was a key concept in the writings of Elaine Wainwright, RSM (25 August 1948 – 5 July 2024), as Anne Elvey has written in her chapter in this volume. Elvey writes that the ‘use of the concept of habitat as a “place to know and a place from which to know”, moreover, offers a further entry point for considering her contribution to scholarship’. She goes on to argue that ‘Elaine invites readers to incorporate creative responses . . .’ It is this invitation to ‘creative responses’ that is at the heart of this volume which reflects on and engages with the work of Elain Wainwright.

‘Habitat’, is also a key theme, a concept, which links the writers here in this collection. As Vicky Balabanski argues in her contribution ‘Habitat becomes a key analytic category, where the materiality and sociality of a particular place are brought into focus . . . habitat used as a category in an ecological reading invites us to notice that the complex and often delicate interweaving of the needs and requirements of many species co-exist in particular locations’. A habitat acts as an organism, animal, or persons’ ‘home’ and provides exactly what is needed for survival.

The concept ‘shaped’ Elaine’s scholarly research and she gave it a particular theological weighting in her writing career which she combined with academic, administrative and supervisory roles for many years here in Australia and then in New Zealand. After her doctoral studies she was from 1982 to 2001 Lecturer in New Testament at Pius XII Seminary/St Pauls Theological College and Brisbane College of Divinity. Following this, Elaine was head of Theology and Professor of Theology at Auckland University from 2003 to 2014 and then after her return to Australia was the international coordinator of the Mercy International Reflection Process (MIRP), during all this time she was also active at an international level in various groups, associations and annual meetings. All of the history of her work is detailed in a number of the papers within this volume.

While the ecological was cental in Elaine’s later writing, and that she wrote extensively on the Matthew’s Gosepl, it is fair to suggest that ‘habitat’ was the hermeneutic underlying much of her work. Thus her writings on ecological-justice, was a habitat, her work on feminism was a habitat, her emphasis on pursuing wisdom was a habitat, her connections with ‘Aboriginal Sisterhood’ became a habitat, and her collaborative manner was a habitat. Justice, feminism, connections and collaboration were necessary for Elaine’s ‘survival’. They were all ‘places to know and a place from which to know’.

• Edited by Hilary Regan