Landscape & Environment, Christianity - General & Miscellaneous, General & Miscellaneous Christian Life

Learning the Language of the Fields: Tilling and Keeping as Christian Vocation

Name: Learning the Language of the Fields: Tilling and Keeping as Christian Vocation
Author: Daniel Deffenbaugh
ISBN: 9781561012824

by Daniel Deffenbaugh

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

Deffenbaugh calls us to “live in a reciprocal relationship” with our biotic communities-the plants, animals, and other non-human cultures that share our particular places in the world. By rerooting our global lifestyles in the ecological knowledge of our homes, we may truly begin to mend the health of our planet. Deffenbaugh marries Christian theology and spiritual disciplines with Native American mythology and the practice of organic gardening to deepen our engagement with the places in which we live.

Synopsis

Deffenbaugh calls us to live in a reciprocal relationship with our biotic communities-the plants, animals, and other non-human cultures that share our world. By rerooting our global lifestyles in the ecological knowledge of our homes, we may truly begin to mend the health of our planet. Deffenbaugh marries Christian theology and spiritual disciplines with Native American mythology and organic gardening to deepen our engagement with the places in which we live.

About the Author, Daniel Deffenbaugh

Daniel G. Deffenbaugh teaches a variety of religion courses at Hastings College, in Nebraska. When he is not teaching or writing, Dan enjoys organic gardening, canning and cooking, fly fishing, raising chickens, bird-watching, and playing bluegrass music with his friends.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Heartsandmindsbooknotes.Blogspot.com

Learning the Language of the Fields would be more than adequate as a book about a Christian view of ecology and environmental stewardship. And heaven knows we need to be reading those kinds of creation-care books. But it is more. As the back cover states, it 'connects ecology with ritual and spirituality with community.' Deffenbaugh writes in gentle, flowing prose even as he argues forcefully that our aggressive agricultural models have been disastrous. It is a very nice book.

Sojourners

Something is bound to go terribly wrong when so many Christians see the planet as an unimportant holding place where we await salvation; or when preachers and teachers of the faith place too much emphasis on humanity's privileged status without also explaining our responsibilities to tend the garden; or when Christians see God as transcendent but not immanently present in creation. The result, according to religious studies professor Daniel Deffenbaugh, is twofold: an ecological crisis and an 'evident exodus' of ecologically sensitive individuals from churches across the country.