This offsite, experiential course, based on substantial reading and reflection, explores the theme of wilderness in relation to the Bible, Christian history, theology, and spirituality, as well as the American context of stewardship and a land ethic. Set in the Iron Range of the upper peninsula of Michigan, this May course includes a wilderness experience on the Flambeau River and local trails. The course is open to twelve students per year and is graded on a pass/fail basis. Acceptance into the course by the instructors is based on an application essay and demographic considerations.
Bibliography:
- Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness,” 69-90.
- Waller, “Getting Back to the Right Nature: A Reply to Cronon,” 540-67.
- Fretheim, “Nature’s Praise of God in the Psalms,” 16-30.
- Bouma-Prediger, “What’s Wrong With the World?” 39-66.
- White, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” 15-31.
- Barr, “Man and Nature,” 48-75.
- Macquarrie, “Creation and Environment,” 32-47.
- Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: the Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry. Edited by Norman Wirzba, 219-35; 305-20.
- Anderson, Creation versus Chaos, 11-47, 171-77.
- Habel, The Land is Mine, 134-158.
- “Guiding Principles for an Ecojustice Hermeneutic,” (a letter from N. Habel).
- McFague, “The Scope of the Body: the Cosmic Christ,” 286-96.
- Sittler, Evocations of Grace, “Nature as a Theater of Grace,”1-19; (by P. Bakken); “Evangelism and the Care of the Earth,” 202-206; “Nature and Grace in Romans 8,” 207-222.
- Hendry, Theology of Nature, 11-30.
- Achtemeier, Nature, God, and Pulpit, 40-49.
- Santmire, Brother Earth, 192-200.
- Nash, Loving Nature: Ecological Integrity and Christian Responsibility. Churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1991.
- Cobb, “Christian Existence in a World of Limits,” 172-87.
- Gustafson, “The Sense of the Divine: A Moral Stance,” 1-54.
- Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 165-226.
- Muir, The Wilderness World of John Muir, 231, 181-90, 311-23.
- Olson, Reflections from the North Country, 21-36.
- Paul Gruchow, Boundary Waters: The Grace of the Wild. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1997.
- Jey Kanagaraj, “Ecological Concern in Paul’s Theology” Evangelical Quarterly 70/4 (1998), 291-309.