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Making Peace with the Land

4.48 of 5 stars 4.48 · rating details · 21 ratings · 6 reviews

God is reconciling all things in heaven and on earth. We are alienated not only from one another, but also from the land that sustains us. Our ecosystems are increasingly damaged, and human bodies are likewise degraded. Most of us have little understanding of how our energy is derived or our food is produced, and many of our current industrialized practices are both unheal...more

Paperback, 182 pages

Published March 22nd 2012 by IVP Books

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Aug 13, 2012 Abram K-J rated it 5 of 5 stars

The newest offering from IVP Books’ Resources for Reconciliation series is Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation. The Resources for Reconciliation series pairs a practitioner with an academician, who then together address the theology and practice of reconciliation in a given sphere of life.

Practitioner Fred Bahnson is an agriculturalist and writer (and excellent theologian); academician Norman Wirzba is a theology professor at Duke Divinity School (and grounded pract...more The newest offering from IVP Books’ Resources for Reconciliation series is Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation. The Resources for Reconciliation series pairs a practitioner with an academician, who then together address the theology and practice of reconciliation in a given sphere of life.

Practitioner Fred Bahnson is an agriculturalist and writer (and excellent theologian); academician Norman Wirzba is a theology professor at Duke Divinity School (and grounded practitioner). Making Peace with the Land makes the Biblical case that “redemption is cosmic,” and so extends to the whole created order, not just humanity. God wants all creatures (“human and nonhuman”) to be “reconciled with each other and with God.” In other words, our Biblical theology of reconciliation is anemic if it does not extend to a loving stewardship of the whole of God’s creation. The authors warn against “ecological amnesia.”

Our “ecological amnesia” is at its core a theological issue. God is God of the soil, a gardener who loves the soil and brings forth life through it (as noted in Genesis). But we have worked against the land in developing systems and structures for farming that draw heavily on “our own agricultural scheme” and “monocultures of annual crops.” Instead we need to “look to nature as a model for how to practice agriculture,” engaging in what Bahnson calls regenerative agriculture, founded on the truth that “the ecosystems in which we find ourselves–created by God and deemed ‘very good’–are far more adept at growing things than we are.” The profile in chapter 6 of the work of ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization) both astounded and inspired me.

Bahnson and Wirzba are compelling: “Surely it is a contradiction to profess belief in the Creator while showing disregard or disdain for the works of the Creator’s hands.” After reading a lengthy description of how Chicken McNuggets are made, I was about ready to become a vegetarian. Regardless of how the phrase “animal rights” makes you feel, animal torture is not possibly justifiable by those who have been called to co-steward the creation with God.

At times I desired more exegetical nuance when the authors dealt with Scripture. For example, though the prologue is convincing enough that we ought to view God as gardener, to accept that God’s gardening work is “the most fundamental and indispensable expression of the divine love that creates, sustains, and reconciles the world” is difficult for me to… well… reconcile with the expression of divine love on the cross. In the end, it’s all of the above. That said, Bahnson’s note on the acacia tree in Isaiah 41:18-19 as a nitrogen-fixing tree and thus “divine agroforestry advice” was awesome. And the authors do affirm elsewhere that reconciliation begins with the person and work of Jesus–it is in Jesus that all things hold together, as they point out from Colossians 1.

Many of us practice “a sort of gnostic disdain for manual labor, soil husbandry, caring for physical places and living within our ecological limits.” If I make enough money to simply buy food, I don’t need to get close to that food except to pick it up at the store (or restaurant!). Then I eat it and keep going with my work, however disconnected I may be from the source of that food. However, "Reconciliation with the land means learning to see the land as part of God’s redemptive plan and acknowledge God’s ongoing presence there. That will require putting ourselves in proximity to the land and staying there long enough to be changed."

After reading this book, I’m unsettled. I’m a lot farther from “the land” than I perhaps should be. I’m not sure what to do with that.

But if I’m unsettled, I’m also inspired. What if I allowed my having been reconciled with Christ to inform a ministry of reconciliation not limited to other people? What if we followed Wirzba’s advice to allow our weekly “Eucharistic eating” to “not only transform the eating we do with people,” but to also transform “the entire act of eating, which means [changing] the way we go about growing, harvesting, processing, distributing, preparing and then sharing the food we daily eat”?

That would be an abundant life.

(Thank you to IVP for the free review copy, in exchange for an unbiased review, and–as it turns out–a re-examined life. This review is a condensation of one posted at abramkj.wordpress.com)(less)

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Jul 27, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology-philosophy, food-farming-and-the-environment

When I have heard theologians talk about the environment and creation, it tends to border on the typical vague "steward the land" motif. Although I absolutely affirm stewardship, most of the times it doesn't translate into anything deep or practical, and at worse even ignores the most obvious structural problems such as consumerism and exploitative land use in agriculture and industry.

Thankfully, I would say that this book gave me faith that Christians, both theologians and laity, CAN speak mean...more

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Sep 22, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a refreshing read after "The Worst Hard Times!" The Dust Bowl book was 300 pages of despair caused by poor farming, conversely this book is 173 pages of hope! There are people out there that understand the blessedness of creation care and to top it off, are committed to transferring this knowledge and practice around the world to food desperate places.

pg. 30 - economic systems that succeed by destroying the earth
pg. 45 - Type 2 diabetes for 1/3 of children born after 2000
pg. 73 - new cre...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-justice-issues

In reading this I discovered that 99% of Americans are not positioned to grow their own food and that while 1 billion are starving, another billion have a problem with obesity. Clearly, our relationship with food, the land, and our starving neighbor needs healing.

That's what this book is about. Bahnson and Wirzba take turns writing considering our estranged relationship with the land, how we may experience reconciliation not only to God and each other in Christ but also with the land and how we...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Sustainable Traditions rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the most important books for Christians to read. Authors Norman Wirzba and Fred Bahnson sound a call to be reconciled to GOD's Creation - locating faithful care and cultivating of the earth in the context of the broader story of the Gospel which is GOD's work of reconciling all things to Himself. This book is a great mix of theology and narrative. It is a call to both a renewal of belief as well as practice. This book also reminds me alot of the great agrarian writer Wendell Berry. I high...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology, summer-reading

Making Peace with the Land is an excellent introduction to the theology of food, community, and justice. Both authors have clear, accessible, writing styles, and extensive reference to stories of faithful communities. This book really challenged me to think more deeply and clearly about the way I purchase, share, and consume food. Great resource for small group and classroom settings.

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Shelves: kindle

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