The Theology of Growing and Eating is an experiential and experimental course which will use traditional materials such as lectures and small group discussions; electronic or visual media; and actual manual labor and reflection on these experiences to discover what (all) it means that human beings eat and grow. There are elements of ecology, of attempting to communicate with our neighborhood, and also of ministry practice in the course.
Objectives:
- To encourage students to learn how to reflect biblically and theologically on daily and ordinary events in their and their parishioners’ lives.
- To explore the world that surrounds us and our fellow Christians to break through the barrier of differentiating between the sacred (or religious) and secular (or irreligious). To integrate the various perspectives by which we see the world.
- To explore the social context in which we eat and grow.
- To actually grow some food and to think about what that growing means, also to become more mindful of our eating.
Relation to Saint Paul School of Theology objectives:
- To study rigorously to know and interpret the biblical, theological, and practices of the Christian heritage.
- To understand the nature of the economy and the natural environment in ways that parishioners experience them.
- To explore what it might mean to eat and grow justly.
- To think about the spirituality of growing and eating which rural parishioners (but increasingly urban and suburban ones as well) have developed, and to encourage such development in the parish.
- To think faithfully about one’s own growth and eating practices.
- To pursue leadership in integrating the practical and the academic; to think about how to encourage joyful reflection on the Christian life and to witness that joy.
(N.B. These five objectives are tied to and use the language of the Objectives of the M.Div. – and to some extent the M.A.S.M., M.A.T.S., and D.Min.—at Saint Paul School of Theology. )
Tentative organization:
Week 1: Introduction. Why teach this class in a program geared to rural ministry and leadership in local congregations. What might we mean by speaking of eating as a spiritual practice and a moral discipline? What might we mean by speaking of growing as a spiritual practice and a moral discipline? Gifts of the Rural Congregation and Community: knowledge of food production and the processes of growing – its theological relevance and its relevance for living the embodied, ecological life in the web. Thinking about how to welcome the community around Saint Paul to join us in our gardening so that we can become part of their neighborhood. (Dangerous: Not only might we learn how to grow strange vegetable, we might learn to speak to our neighbors!)
Week 2: The Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality of Eating. Assignment: Animal Vegetable Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. Chapters 1-4; Food for Life, by Shannon Jung, Chapters 1-3.
Week 3: Eating the Way God Intended; Food for Life, Chapters 4-7; Maybe we’ll take a field trip to the grocery store.
Week 4: Eating Locally; Food for Life, finish; Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, finish; Selections from John Wesley, on reserve.
Week 5: The Theology of Growing; Terry Hershey, The Art of Gardening, first half; John Koenig, Soul Banquet, Chapters 1 & 2; One page – Idea for project or research paper – Please be sure that whatever your project or paper is described as fully as possible. Give sources or ideas or websites or whatever. This will count for 10% of the final paper or project.
Weel 6: Gardening; Mr. Lala Kumar, from the Master Gardeners of Kansas City; Read: C.E. Voigt and J.S. Vandemark, Vegetable Gardening in the Midwest, first half. Also explore http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/hort/#Vegetables and Mr. Kumar writes “all the publications found there on vegetable gardening); If the weather is nice, we will probably go see our site.
Week 7: Gardening; Mr. Lala Kumar, Horticulture Specialist, University of Missouri Extension; Assignment: Finish the materials assigned on March 10.
Week 8: Planting (either indoors or outside, depending on the weather); Finish Hershey and Koenig
Week 9: Integrating the Growing and the Eating; Read Vigen Guroian, Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening; Read selections from Wesley on growing.
Week 10: Bringing It Home to Our Congregations.
Week 11: Present your projects or papers to the class for their edification and reaction; Gardening.
Week 12: Projects.
Week 13: Projects or papers due.