Dirty theology

The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. 

― Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

It seems as though I've quickly moved from being a casual gardener with an interest in nice-looking flowers to getting serious and excited about the prospect of creating an urban homestead. Actually, I find this rather funny because I really am a city girl, and the idea of having anything more than a hobby garden is an idea which I've never seriously thought about before. I had a small veggie patch at my home in California, but it was never big enough to supply most of our household's produce. It was fun to beam over the few ripe tomatoes and peppers as if they were precious newborn babies, but I still had to get in my car and drive to the local farmer's market to make up for the tiny output. When we moved to Reno for a couple of years I didn't even bother trying to grow food since the soil is so poor, so it's been a long time since I've given food a try.

So what's changed? Well, for one thing, I love to read books and websites which push back against my Western, urban middle-class worldview, and Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle began the process of tickling both my curiosity and conscience about how I have been living in a way that is really quite disconnected from creation. Since then, I have been profoundly influenced by reading Wendell Berry and Michael Pollan as well as a variety of websites that deal with issues such as sustainability, environmentalism, peak oil, and the locavore movement. This was all good and valuable reading, but I still hadn't gotten my hands in the dirt.

Ultimately, what moved me from thought to action, and from hobby to the stirrings of a new lifestyle, was theology. I am an Episcopal priest and parish minister, and although I am not a professional theologian by training I believe that thinking theologically is an important lens for any person of faith who wishes to view their life and their surroundings in a new context. There are serious theological conversations to be had on the issues of simple living, sustainability, food justice, and humanity's relationship to the rest of creation. These are the topics to which I return in both my reading and prayer life as now I now plunge my hands into the rich soil of southeastern Michigan.

In the next few posts I will take up each of these issues individually. I hope that you will join in the conversation.