For millennia of human history societies have been agrarian in their economies and cultural outlook. Though cities existed too, agrarian realities and responsibilities were ever-present. That has changed in the wake of industrial and global urbanization. Today’s urban economies and cultural priorities increasingly show little interest in agrarian concerns. How does this unprecedented cultural shift affect the way we think about Christian faith? That is the central question for this course.
Description & Purpose:
A farmer or pastoralist is likely to think differently about theological matters than today’s urbanite. Location and occupation are important because where one is and what one is doing there open up lines of vision, sympathy, and questioning, as well as parameters for reflection. Farmers think differently about the world and its life because their practical experiences, particularly their interaction with land, plants, and animals, as well as the specific character of their work patterns, compel questions and responses that may not arise for a person living in an urban, industrial world.
This class will consider how the character of modern industrial, technological, consumer cultures has given shape to and directed particular kinds of theological reflection. We will then examine how an agrarian position differs and what this difference means for our thinking about creation, God, salvation, and the nature and mission of the church. This course will encourage students to read scripture, and thus reinterpret theological motifs, with an agrarian point of view in mind because this was the dominant view in the time of the Bible’s history. We will spend considerable time first exploring agrarian sympathies and responsibilities (both ancient and contemporary) so that we can then draw a contrast with current urban perspectives. Our aim is not to vilify urbanism but to see how an agrarian critique can transform urbanism into something that more closely resembles God’s heavenly Jerusalem, a city that embodies key agrarian elements. We will also explore critiques of agrarianism and challenges to its future vitality.
Texts:
Ellen F. Davis. Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture (Cambridge University Press) SCA
Wendell Berry. The Art of the Commonplace (Counterpoint) AC
Wendell Berry. Jayber Crow (Counterpoint) JC
Norman Wirzba, ed. The Essential Agrarian Reader (Counterpoint) EAR
Liberty Hyde Bailey. The Holy Earth (Dover) HE
Wes Jackson. Nature as Measure (Counterpoint) NAM
Hagenstein, Gregg, and Donahue, eds. American Georgics (Yale) AG
Course Schedule:
Week 1– Introductions – What is Agrarianism? (AC – Intro; EAR – Intro)
Week 2– From Agrarianism to Agribusiness (AG – 81-86, 165-171, 322-326; AC – Part II, EAR – 6, 7; NAM – 147-154)
Week 3– Agrarian Principles (AC – Part III, “A Statement of Principles” [Twelve Southerners] in AG, 257-263)
Week 4– Agrarian Principles (EAR – 1, 2, 8; AG – 15-27, 64-72; NAM – 3-108, 139-145, 179-226)
Week 5– Reading Scripture (SCA – Intro, Ch. 1 & 2, “The Land” [Walter Brueggemann])
Week 6– Creation (SCA – Ch. 3 & 4, “The Drama of Soil” [Norman Wirzba]; HE)
Week 7– Economy (SCA – Ch. 5 & 6; AC – Part IV; EAR – 4; AG – 96-103, 112-118, 140-147)
Week 8– READING WEEK (Read Jayber Crow)
Week 9– Community (Jackson, “The Common Life” [Scott Russell Sanders], “Dwelling” [Deborah Tall], “The Rootless Professors” [Eric Zencey], “Pseudo-Communities” [David Ehrenfeld], “The Line of Approach” [H. Robbins], “The Community” [R. Jebb])
Week 10– Church (“Proper Work” [Childress]; “The Membership Includes the Dead” [Laytham]; “Landscapes of Flesh” [Shuman])
Week 11– Prophetic Mission (SCA – Ch. 7; EAR – 10, 13, 14, “Standing by Words” [Wendell Berry])
Week 12– A New City (SCA – Ch. 9; EAR – 11, 12; “The Salvation of the City” [F. Bahnson]; “River of Life in God’s New Jerusalem” [Barbara Rossing])
Week 13– Incarnating Faith (SCA – Ch. 8, AC – Part V; EAR – 5, 15; “Dark Night of the Soil” [Wirzba]; “Let the Place Judge” [Roger Owens])
This syllabus pertains to when the course was offered in 2012