What does it mean, I wonder, to encounter a burning bush, flaming but not consumed, and hear nothing? Beauty manifests God, but what if God does not call your name out of the flames? Only silence. No appointment with destiny. You admire for a moment and walk on by.
People were doing this. Churches were organizing community gardens and small farms, trying to combine faith practice, community, discipleship, health, justice. Healing land and community at once, reconnecting faith to place.
Farm Refugia and Church on the Edges Read More »
Michigan, nature, spirituality
Questions of what more-than-human creatures are worth, what they mean, what is their ultimate value—these questions become more urgent as the species extinction crisis accelerates.
One can compare one’s beloved to apple, palm, pomegranate, or incense trees. And it’s clear that all the good stuff happens under apple trees.
No One Will Make Them Afraid: The Arborist’s Bible Read More »
nature, theology
At one point, Trevor was down below looking for his GPS, foolishly leaving Ron and me in charge. Well, here comes a gust of wind. We immediately started rounding up and almost burying the rail.
Meanwhile, healing takes a long time, and the first stages look like a mess. The grasses are scruffy, the trees old and some dying. Windthrow and snags are a key part of a habitat in equilibrium anyway, but seeing them on a golf course makes the place look neglected and unkempt. As the LCWM website points out, “in restoration, ugliness is often the first sign of progress.”
Meanwhile Messes, Meanwhile Graces Read More »
memoir, Michigan, nature, Uncategorized
“Creatures, our free forty minutes are almost up. So I just want to encourage you all and review our mission objectives. It’s been great to have some relief from the humans for a while, but this is all for a bigger purpose.”
Conference of the Creatures Read More »
climate change, nature, silly
We must increase our capacity for and interest in virtues and their formation, especially in this time of climate crisis, not succumb to a belief that “Oh well, there is little interest in being just or courageous, so I guess this business of virtue ethics is a dead end.”
Cultivating Ecological Virtues: An Interview with Steven Bouma-Prediger Read More »
climate change, Interviews, nature, theology
The guiding question for my reading is this: how will our spirituality (and our churches) need to change in order to survive the unprecedented challenges ahead, particularly the climate crisis? Here’s what I’m learning so far.
Thirty Days, Thirty Books Read More »
climate change, nature, theology
Macfarlane’s journeys, remarkable as much for the philosophical and emotional strain as for the physical rigors they demanded, uncover what underlands mean to us: in these hidden worlds, we shelter what we treasure, dispose of what we fear, and coax the earth to yield what we desire. I found following Macfarlane’s journeys both arduous and compelling, yielding up the conclusion for me that the earth is a mysterious and uncanny place, and we don’t know the half of it.
