I am going to Poland!

I just recieved word that my paper abstract has been accepted for the International Conference of the Center of Theology and Philosophy.  The Conference is called "What is Life?: Theology, Science, and Philosophy."  This year's conference will be held in Krakow, Poland.  My proposal is called "The Chief End of All Life," essentially it plays off of the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (what is the chief end of man) and an essay by Stanley Hauerwas and John Berkman called "The Chief End of all Flesh" (about the relationship between humans and animals).

 I aim to explore the telos or purpose for all life (not just humans or even humans with animals; but the whole biosphere) especially as it is concieved of by the great tradition of Christianity.  It is difficult to answer this question within modern thought.  The difficulty is that so much of modern thought is shaped by the dualism between nature and culture.  It is a dualism that confuses human relations with the non-human world.  With this dualism firmly in place, modern thought (including much Christian thought) cannot account for the purpose of non-human life.  And if we cannot account for it, then we cannot fully account for human purpose; the destiny of humanity is bound together with the destiny of non-human life. 

Alexander Schmemann is the major Christian theological voice that I will rely on to promote a Christian vision for the purpose of all life.  I will explore his classic For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy and give special attention to his theological anthropology.  As already noted I will build on the Westminster Catechism and the Hauerwas/Berkman essay.  For the dualism section, I will pull from a wide variety of sources: Bruno Latour, Pierre Hadot, Robert Pogue Harrison, Conor Cunningham, Norman Wirzba, Slovoj Zizek and Wendell Berry. 

The paper is far from being written.  All I have is a 200 word abstract and the ramblings above, but I am excited to dig in and see what this shapes into.  I hope to see you there. 

Should we all be farmers?

                                  
 A few facts: I am a social learner, my PhD reading list is huge, and I am a minister who works to train and educate Christians in a local church (in an affluent community).  Because of all this, I find that reading groups are a useful tool.  Currently I am in several reading groups.

Current Group Readings:
The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture Wendell Berry
Darwin's Pious Idea: Why the Ultra-Darwinists and Creationists Both Get It Wrong (Interventions) Conor Cunningham
Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life) Norman Wirzba
Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life) Eric O. Jacobsen  
For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy  Alexander Schmemann
 
A current theme through all of these books is: what is life for?  To be sure, each work addresses and answers the question from a different perspective, but interestingly, many of the arguments have to do with the way that humans relate to the non-human world (plants, animals, land, woods, agriculture, etc).

Wendell Berry

In some of these reading groups (especially the Wendell Berry and Norman Wirzba groups) the question is often brought up: Should we ALL become farmers, then?  The reason for this question is that both writers promote an agrarian vision of the world.  Wendell Berry argues that modern society has largely become a society of exploitation (he includes agribusiness, modern farming chemicals and the loss of the family farm) that has rejected the nurturing aspects of agrarian based societies (commitment to place, communities, work, and relationship to the non-human world.  It is a life of care not exploitation). 

Norman Wirzba often agrees with Berry.  He is, in fact, an editor for some of Berry's collected works; not to mention the fact that he has popularized Berry's Agrarian vision for those in theological/philosophical circles.  In his book on the Sabbath, he argues that sabbath is more than just a mindless ceasing from activity.  Instead, Sabbath life is the goal of all life, because it is a true participation in the delight and joy of God's good work.  And his sabbath vision extends beyond the delight and joy of humans alone.  It includes the land, animals, and all life.  In this work, he is constantly urging readers to understand Sabbath life as a life of mutual flourishing as opposed to human domination and destruction over the non-human world.  This is why he promotes agrarianism and living more closely to our food sources.

Norman Wirzba

So again: Should we ALL be farmers? It is a fair question when reading these writers (similar questions arose when the Wirzba reading group read Cavanaugh's Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire earlier this winter.  His arguments go hand in hand with those of Wirzba and Berry), because they stress knowing where food comes from, slowing down consumption, living more closely to the natural rhythms of the world, growing your own food, etc.  My answer to their questions is usually: NO, we do not need to be farmers.  Indeed, we CANNOT all become farmers in the traditional sense.  What we can do, instead, is slow down life and ask the most fundamental question: What is the telos (point, goal, purpose, end) of all my decisions, actions, and modes of consumption?  Below, is a list of things that everyday people can do to live more closely to the agrarian visions of Wirzba and Berry (not to mention Cavanaugh) without actually moving to Iowa and becoming a farmer:

1.) Grow a garden/participate in a community garden- Realize what it takes to make food, and to reconnect with the land.
2.) Buy Locally-  Know who grew/raised your food.  Did they treat their animals ethically or harmfully.  Know how buying from them impacts their life and family.
3.) Buy Less- Commit to eating what is in the pantry.  Too much food goes to waste.
4.) Limit technology use that isolates you indoors- It's not anti-technology, but it is about balance.  Reconnect with OTHER people and the non-human world.  This teaches us what it means to be human.
5.) Resist the lie that we need all the modern farm stuff to feed the world-  We are not feeding the world!  Also, the current chemical treatments on industrial farms causes soil erosion at the rate of: 7 tons per acre per year.  With healthy and nurturing agricultural practices we can slow erosion and even grow more soil (with composting).  In short, we can actually be very productive in our growing without all the erosion and destruction.  See: How to Grow More Vegetables: Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine John Jeavons

Dear readers, I am not even telling you that everything in our society is wrong.  I AM saying that just because things are the way they are, does not mean they should be this way!  Also, if you claim to be a Christian, then you are asked to live with a particular goal in mind...even if it means that you live differently than most of your neighbors.  I am saying that we need to be as educated as possible and that we must ask what is the telos (end, goal, purpose, point) of the way we purchase, live, and recreate.  So, do we all need to be farmers to live the good life?  No, but we can live more intentionally and more closely with one another and the non-human world.  It is after all a rich and delightful thing...to participate in the goodness of life, a life that has been divinely donated!

Nature/Culture Dualism: The Reason For Ecological Degradation (a Milbankian direction)

People, we have many ecological issues!  I know - yeah, yeah - I am not saying anything that you have not already had crammed down your throat.  But I do want to offer a few thoughts concerning the topic.

DISCLAIMER: To all readers who may deny either the presence or origin of global warming - DO NOT STOP READING.  Other ecological problems are undeniable and far less politicized: toxins in water, air pollution, excess garbage, dead zones in the ocean, etc. 

O.K, now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, we can get on to some good stuff.

I am currently studying under John Milbank, theologian and professor of religion, politics, and ethics at the University of Nottingham.  Milbank is quite brilliant and his intellectual range is staggering.  It is nothing for him to cite and pull from theology, philosophy, sociology, literary studies, novels, poems, and films all in one essay.  So when I told him of my interest in doing work in the intersection between ecology/theology/philosophy, I knew that I would be challenged by his direction.  The first thing he wrote to me was, in "Milbankian fashion," leveling and straight to the point.  He explained his opinion that the reason for an ecological issue is the dualism between nature and culture, and the only thing that could overcome the dualism is the Christian doctrine of creation.  Well, after being directed by Milbank for 6 months, I have to say that I think he is right.  But what is this dualism (or separation) between nature and culture?

This dualism divides the world into two categories:

Culture:                                               Nature:
Laws                                                    Wild
Society                                                 Non-Human World
Cities                                                    Forests, woods, "out there"
Technology                                           Untainted
World of Humans                                 Food-Chain
Art                                                       Un-civilized
Science                                                Feminine
Masculine                                            Object
Subject

What is the problem with this division?
- The ontological problem is that the human beings who inhabit societies and culture are natural.  Also cultures are inherently shaped by their surrounding non-human world or landscape!  For example, I come from a part of the country with great soil; hence, much of the local economy, celebrations, and activities surround agriculture. The dualism simply does not describe our lived experience.  At best, dualism helps classify and make things easier to talk about.

- The ecological problem is that this dualism makes it too easy for cultures and societies to see the non-human world as nothing more than mere resource for the disposal of people.  The dualism is not a balanced one: culture/society is considered more important than the side of nature.  This results in humanity's despotic rule of the non-human world.  

Now that I see this dualism and reject it completely, I have discovered strong ecological writers who effectively collapse this dualism in their work, either consciously or unconsciously.  Just look at some of the following quotes:

Norman Wirzba implies the collapse of nature/culture dualism with his creation ethic in his book on the Sabbath:

"...we will need to consider carefully the condition and health of all members of creation - friends and family members, but also the disenfranchised, the sick and feeble, the soil on which we walk, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the natural organisms that make up our biological neighborhood, and the geophysical processes that sustain us all - within our control or influence.  Does our engagement with them indicate that we are grateful to God for them and appreciate them as a blessing to us?  Do we honor God in our treatment of them, acknowledging that without them our lives would be impoverished or severely impaired?  If we are truly thankful for the gifts of God, these same gifts will be cherished and cared for.  If they are not well cared for, we will have to assume that gratitude and praise have been overcome by our anxieties, fears, obsessions, insensitivities, and arrogance." Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life) p. 24

Or consider Wendell Berry's thoughts on agriculture:

"The definitive relationships in the universe are thus not competitive but interdependent.  And from a human point of view they are analogical.  We can build one system only within another.  We can have agriculture only within nature, and culture only within agriculture.  At certain points these systems have to conform with one another or destroy one another." The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture p. 47

Or Erazim Kohak's personalistic treatment of a clearing in the woods:

"For a person, ultimately, is not just a being who possesses a psyche or manifests certain personality traits as much as a being who stands in moral relation to us, a being we encounter as a Thou." The Embers and the Stars p. 128-129

   Stay posted for how the doctrine of creation is the only way to collapse this dualism....                                                     

Consumerism and Christianity - 2/2

Consumerism and Christianity - 1/2

Sherry Turkle's new book on technology and relationships

MIT professor of psychology Sherry Turkle has an interesting new book out called Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.  Her book analyzes modern technologies like twitter, second life, face book, blogs etc. and its impact on human relationships.  She analyzes this through empirical methodology such as interviews and polls.  Her findings are interesting but not surprising.  She finds that as technology increases so does human reliance upon it, but what is more staggering is how technological proliferation seems to deteriorate human relationships.  Her arguments are clear and reasonable.  Turkle, at no point, says that technology is all bad; she is no Luddite.  Instead, she asks us to place technology in its proper role.  For instance, she thinks that Twitter is a helpful tool for building communities or sharing humor, but it can become negative when a person spends their entire day tweeting one sided communication while never participating in face to face dialogues where there is give and take in a conversation.  In effect, many technologies, like twitter, have deteriorated people's skills at conversation!  If you do not have time to buy and read the book you should at least listen to her interview at the radio Culture Shocks radio program.

We live in a time of high technology, but un-happiness still abounds!  I guess in our quest for the good life human relationships are still important...more so even than technology.  Listen to her interview and check out her book!