Agrarian Spirit

Norman Wirzba, a leading voice in Christian theology and ecology, adds another welcome contribution to the field. Drawing on the writings and impact of Wendell Berry, Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land brings together several strands of discourse from Wirzba’s numerous publications and pushes theological ecology forward in innovative ways. At its heart, this book is an attempt to prompt readers to think more deeply about themselves as but one creature among many in God’s creation and to live more lovingly and gently in creation as a result. 

In the first part of this volume, Wirzba outlines the agrarian perspective in theological, societal, and personal frames. In chapter 1, an agrarian-formed faith involves seeing the world and its life as “sacred gifts of God that are meant to be cherished and celebrated” (3). Some alternative spiritualities see the material world and our bodies as holding little value, and to be eventually discarded. He argues that these views are harmful to us and the world, are prevalent in many religious circles, and have no basis in Christian scripture and theology. Rather, God’s love, attention, and presence are located in the created world, where one can find God. The Christian life is not an escape from creaturely life, but a transformation of life “so that God’s love is everywhere incarnate and active” (7).

Analyzing the effects of contemporary urbanization and consumer society in chapter 2, Wirzba calls for a return to an agrarian outlook for the health of the world. This is not simply a return to rural farming life, though some may venture away from cities, but an aesthetic outlook and kinesthetic experience of engaging with the world as God’s beloved creation. The author notes that this shift will require “people seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting fields, waterways, and fellow creatures as gracious gifts and not merely as units of production or consumption” (13; emphasis in original). For Wirzba agrarian living is intimately connected to the physical work of making and growing things. These activities put people in contact with physical creation, foster an understanding of creation, and help individuals better understand how their lives are intertwined with the life of the world.

In chapter 3, Wirzba contends that humans struggle with a disintegration of the self; humanity has lost touch with its creatureliness, and is striving to be “eternal, changeless, and self-subsisting” (34). At the same time, removed from close contact with nature, humanity has had such a profound impact on the planet that we now live in an epoch called the Anthropocene. Using the concept of “meshwork,” Wirzba demonstrates how humanity’s freedom to act is always a placed and shared reality—always contextualized as creatures within creation. In the spiritual life depicted in this chapter, one seeks to be with God where God is, among the creatures God made and loves.

Part 2 of the book, chapters 4 to 9, delves into a series of spiritual exercises that help cultivate an agrarian spirituality, what Wirzba calls “the ways of faith” in the Introduction (8; emphasis in original). Each subsequent chapter addresses a specific spiritual practice and demonstrates how that practice nourishes the agrarian spirit. These exercises help the practitioner learn how to pray, see, descend, and hope, as well be humble and generous.

Prayer is at the heart of most spiritualities, but with Wirzba’s guidance in chapter 4, it takes on new resonance in the spiritual life. Prayer is people learning “to tell the stories of their lives with God as a central character” (62). Wirzba explicates the Lord’s Prayer through his agrarian lens and demonstrates how prayer ultimately leads to love of God and God’s creation. In chapter 5, the spiritual practice of seeing involves looking deeply at the world as well as interpreting of one’s location, time, and social context. Drawing from Pierre Hadot, Wirzba describes the agrarian view of the world as shaped by theoria (serious contemplation), ethos (a practical way of being), and askesis (personal discipline) (89). This path of discipleship rightly orders one’s vision “so that we can see each other and everything as God sees it” (95). Chapter 6 contrasts Christian spiritualities that have emphasized mystical ascent away from the physical world with a mystical descent toward the land where one dwells. The spiritual practice of learning, knowing, and loving a physical place is a commitment to be governed by the land and seek its flourishing. This mystical experience of descent, becoming rooted amidst creation, requires a metanoia or change of heart. Learning humility, in chapter 7, means “coming to truthful terms with the kind of world we are in, the kind of creatures we are, and what is proper for us to do in our world and with others” (141). Humanity, humility, and humus are all connected to createdness. The need and vulnerability of creatures in the spiritual life leads to a sense of belonging, responsibility, sympathy, and gentleness. Chapter 8 explores how generosity embraces all of creation as a gift to be shared. Generosity commits one to embodying the self-giving of the Creator and to respond with care for other creatures.

Finally, in the midst of our daunting ecological crisis, Wirzba finds fertile soil for hope in chapter 9. Following the example of restorative farming practices, the discovery of goodness, beauty, and love in creation elicits confession and repentance of harmful practices, and leads to living in resonance with the land around us.

Wirzba brings superb and accessible writing to successfully achieve the aims of this book. While Agrarian Spirit is especially suited for a theologically centered ecology or environmental ethics course, church book clubs might also find this an enlivening text for conversation. Readers will find this a source of inspiration for pursuing a more bountiful way of life among God’s other creatures.

Kyle A. Schenkewitz is an assistant professor in religious studies at Mount St. Joseph University.

Kyle Schenkewitz

Date Of Review:

May 4, 2023