Agrarian News…

It’s no secret that agrarian thought has deeply shaped both John and I in our thoughts about Slow Church. Wendell Berry, the foremost agrarian of our times, is essential to this project, as is the work of Norman Wirzba, Ellen Davis, Wes Jackson and others… I wanted to share a number of new resources with you that will be helpful in understanding agrarianism and how it relates to Slow Church…

At its heart, agrarianism is about reconciling with the land and with all creation (or to borrow the title of Norman Wirzba and Fred Bahnson’s recent book, Making Peace with the Land.)

If you want to learn more about agrarianism, I recommend the excellent anthology: The Essential Agrarian Reader.

Or our friend Ragan Sutterfield, author of the essential little book Farming as a Spiritual Discipline, has recently compiled a playlist of essential agrarian books for The Englewood Review of Books.  At the top of this list?  Wendell Berry’s Unsettling of America…

I have also recently started a New Agrarianism discussion group on Facebook (please feel free to join… Anyone is welcome).
This group has decided to undertake a book discussion together, starting with Ellen Davis’ important book, Scripture, Culture and Agriculture.  This discussion got started today (LGT: our conversation), and I highly recommend participating in and following it, if you are interested in how agrarian thought has shaped our reading of scripture and our concept of Slow Church…