From Nature to Creation (The Church and Postmodern Culture): A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World, by Norman Wirzba
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From Nature to Creation (The Church and Postmodern Culture): A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World, by Norman Wirzba
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How does Christianity change the way we view the natural world? In this addition to a critically acclaimed series, renowned theologian Norman Wirzba engages philosophers, environmentalists, and cultural critics to show how the modern concept of nature has been deeply problematic. He explains that understanding the world as creation rather than as nature or the environment makes possible an imagination shaped by practices of responsibility and gratitude, which can help bring healing to our lands and communities. By learning to give thanks for creation as God's gift of life, Christians bear witness to the divine love that is reconciling all things to God.
From Nature to Creation (The Church and Postmodern Culture): A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World, by Norman Wirzba - Amazon Sales Rank: #419062 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-09-23
- Released on: 2015-09-23
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Nature to Creation (The Church and Postmodern Culture): A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World, by Norman Wirzba From the Back Cover "A winsome argument for reimagining the natural world as creation""Norman Wirzba writes with verve, alacrity, and theological sensitivity in laying out particular arguments for bringing back the importance of creation for a theological anthropology relevant to earth ethics. Wirzba is careful to trace the history of ideas and show up their philosophical underpinnings, while illuminating our current impoverished condition. He is persuasive in noting the cultural need for a movement away from the disorientation resulting from an 'eclipse of creation' toward an orientation that is rooted in a profound understanding of creatureliness. This book will be valuable not only for individuals but also in a variety of ecclesial as well as educational settings."--Celia E. Deane-Drummond, University of Notre Dame"With insightful analysis and lucid prose Norman Wirzba offers a winsome argument for reimagining the natural world as creation--lovingly made, sustained, and redeemed by the triune God. From Nature to Creation expertly traces how major trends in contemporary culture undermine the possibility of care for creation. Most importantly, this book compellingly demonstrates how we may love God and embrace our creatureliness in ways that are faithful and life-giving for all of God's creatures."--Steven Bouma-Prediger, Hope College; author of For the Beauty of the Earth "In this, his most important book yet, Norman Wirzba asks the simple question: What difference would it make if we thought of the earth not as nature but as creation? His answer--that 'this is the world in which God delights . . . the world we are called to love'--challenges everyone. Drawing with magisterial and eloquent scholarship on a vast range of sources across both Christian and secular thought, Wirzba calls us to attentiveness, to rootedness--and above all, to gratitude."--Loren Wilkinson, Regent College, Vancouver"As commercialized nature and utilitarian thinking poison the planet and change the climate, what could be more important than 'creation' as the gracious way we live? No one is better than Wirzba in describing modernity's idolatrous and disastrous course and offering a Christian understanding of creation as the antidote."--Larry Rasmussen, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
About the Author Norman Wirzba (PhD, Loyola University, Chicago) is professor of theology and ecology at Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Making Peace with the Land, Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating, and Living the Sabbath.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A Thought Provoking Book with a Few Rough Edges By Spencer In his recent book, From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving our World, Norman Wirzba makes a case that much of the ecological degradation that has occurred and continues to occur due to a shift in the human relationship with the world around. His argument is that the shift from seeing the world as God’s creation to seeing it as mechanistic nature has allowed disregard for and utilitarian abuses of the environment to perpetuate.SUMMARYAfter an introduction, the book includes five chapters. Chapter One outlines the disassociation that many contemporary individuals feel from the world around. When Nietzsche declared God to be dead it reflected the attitude of many in the world, not simply the intelligentsia. However, when the concept of God faded from the forefront of society, so did the notion of an ordered creation. This allowed the value of nature to be reduced to its utility, whether aesthetic or functional. It also tended to accelerate the sense of separation that human had developed from the created order. The Enlightenment, as diverse as it was philosophically, had tended to treat the world mechanistically and humans as superior mechanism within it. This was accelerated by the so-called death of God, and this only increased the loss of a sense of place and order.One response to the the rise of the idea of nature was a disassociation from it. A second was the idolization of nature, which Wirzba considers in his second chapter. In some interpretations, nature was viewed as a good in and itself and the preservation of it untrammeled by human hands an act of absolute necessity. On the hand, some idolized nature for the benefits they could extract from it. Modernity, according to Wirzba, resulted in the process of humans bestowing meaning to the world instead of discovering meaning already in the world. This led to the ultimate idolatry, which is really worship of ourselves. Viewing the world as God’s creation prevents such a perversion.In Chapter Three, the point is that creation must be perceived as it is and that the process of rightly interpreting the world around is a necessary part of the human experience. Disassociation from the world around, which has been encouraged by many forms of technology, clouds people’s perceptions. It is thus necessary for Christians in particular to seek to gain, as much as possible, God’s perception of the world and its value. By seeing the world as it is and as it is meant to be, the idolatrous turn can be reversed.The fourth chapter details the importance of regaining a sense of our status as creatures. Perception helps to prevent the negative development of idolatrous attitudes, but humans are only situated in the world properly when they understand themselves as creatures made by God. In this chapter, Wirzba pushes for an agrarian understanding of the world, claiming that a greater connection with the soil is both biblical and vital to rightly understanding the world. He also ties the understanding of creatureliness into good eating habits, which are contemplative of the food eaten and the time, space, and community of the eating event. This sort of romantic solution to the environmental problems will resonate with hipsters and others who are pushing through the postmodern milieu. Whether it will truly help stem environmental degradation is another issue.Finally, Chapter Five, focuses on thankfulness as “the most fundamental and honest expression of what it means to be a human being, because it is here, in the thanksgiving act, that people appreciate and attempt to live into the knowledge that life is a gift.” (131) Wirzba blames a lack of gratitude on the use of money instead of trading. Currency increases the exactness of transactions, which thus leads to a sense of completion rather than open ended thankfulness. The reduction of the environment to its monetary value, as it sometimes is in cost benefit analyses, also reduces the notion that creation is a gift from God. Wirzba comes back again to the notion that gardening helps restore a sense of thankfulness for creation since, after all, the gardener can do nothing to actually grow the plants. An attitude of thankfulness is at the heart of a right understanding of the created order according to Wirzba.ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONAlthough this volume is short on practical application, it is a fine text and conveys many ideas that are worth mulling. Wirzba’s diagnosis of the problem is especially astute. Environmental degradation occurs when there is a sense of disassociation from the creation. It’s just dirt. Or, it’s only a bird. That sort of mechanistic understanding undermines compassion for other living creatures and a theocentric vision for seeing God’s handiwork in all of creation. As such, this is a worthy contribution to the series and an important book to read.However, there are points in the volume where Wirzba—who is an good scholar—gets sloppy. For example, he makes a bold assertion: “Many theologians believe bodies to be something that must be finally overcome and left behind.” (21) The trouble is that he cites none of them. In fact, I’ve been looking for someone to make that argument so that I can include it in my dissertation. The sad fact is the no orthodox theologian actually believes that. I have been unable to uncover a single one, though I am hoping that I find someone. It may be a sentiment in the pews of some churches, but it is certainly not a belief that is widely believed by theologians.In another place, Wirzba appears to misrepresent the atonement, which is no small criticism for a Christian volume. He writes, “The reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth that the Christ-hymn in Colossians describes happens through the blood of Christ’s cross, which means it happens through the self-offering life that Jesus demonstrated in his ministries of healing, feeding, exorcising, attending to, and touching others.” (24) He is exactly correct that the reconciliation of all things happens through Christ’s blood on the cross. He would have been correct to argue that the nature of that reconciliation was demonstrated or illustrated by the way Christ lived on earth. The context is talking about living on earth and not waiting to get plucked out of physical existence, but this passage makes it seem that Wirzba is moving the atonement from Christ's substitutionary death to his obedient life; both are important, but the penalty for sin was paid in blood, not servitude. It may be that this is simply worded poorly, but the atonement is one area that clarity is worth every moment spent.These problems are significant. However, they do not undermine the overall value of the volume. This is an important entry in an ongoing conversation and Wirzba’s argument of the importance of understanding the essence of creation as a gift from God carries significant weight. Thus this volume has a place in the library of those seeking a deeper understanding of the contemporary issues in Christian environmental ethics.Note: A gratis copy of this volume was provided by the publisher with no expectation of a positive review. This is an edited version of a review previously published at www.EthicsAndCulture.com.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Solid On The Ground Theology By Phil Aud My introduction to Norman Wirzba’s work came a few years ago when I read his incredible “Food and Faith.” Seeking to do some research on the topic I saw the title of his book and decided to pick it up. I was pleasantly surprised at the deep level theology and philosophy that was being written. I was excited when I saw the current title being released and am thankful to be able to review it. (Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy).In “From Nature to Creation,” Wirzba does not disappoint. In reading this book I was reminded again what an important voice Wirzba is to the church. His theology is, quite literally, on the ground. It impacts and challenges us at the core levels of our humanity. By engaging the question of what it means to be a human creature, Wirzba explores the questions that are fundamental to the flourishing both of humanity, but also the world. In his words, “To ask about who we are is also to ask about how we are to live where we are. The question of ‘who?,’ in other words, is not theorized in the abstract. It is worked out and discovered in economic and social patterns of life practiced in the world.” He explores the the importance of seeing the world in the right way, since how we see “is an imposition of ourselves upon what is seen.” Related to how we see is how we name, and how we name something will inevitably determine our relationship with it.In the second chapter Wirzba offers a sharp challenge to the development of nominalism and there, as well as in the final chapter, confronts any knowledge that is not rooted in relational intimacy. Such thinking ultimately leads us away from transcendence and towards idolatry. To return to understand creation in the right way means, ultimately, a return to Jesus. “Creation, we might say, flows from Jesus at its beginning, flows through Jesus as it is healed, and flows to Jesus as it is fulfilled. Jesus is the pivot of the universe’s movement and the key to its deep meaning and significance."Wirzba makes a compelling case for an agrarian reading of Genesis and engages wonderfully here with Bonhoeffer. I was also drawn to his writing on the embrace of human limit. Finally, his dealing (in the final chapter) with gratitude and a proper understanding (challenging Derrida) of gift were incredible.One leaves this book reminded of the immensity of the gospel and challenged that mission is deeper than we often assume, and yet right under our feet.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR By David George Moore Moore: You were trained as a philosopher. How did you get so interested in ecological issues?Wirzba: I grew up a farm kid on the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. I loved being outdoors and working with land and animals. When I started reading philosophy and saw that they often spoke of the “world” in rather abstract ways, I wanted to make things more specific and applicable to the lives people live in the day to day. I was especially drawn to philosophers who spoke of our involvement in the world as a way to derive meaning. Agricultural work did that for me, but not many philosophers engage agricultural traditions.Moore: Your book is loaded with quotes and insights from Wendell Berry. Tell us a bit about how your friendship with Berry.Wirzba: We became friends when I moved to Kentucky to teach. I saw in his work a way of naming and describing things that are fundamental but often ignored by philosophers and theologians. He also spoke to my own agricultural story.Moore: You do a terrific job of demonstrating that words or how we name things matters. Why is it important to see our world as created rather than a hunk of matter?Wirzba: How we name things determines how we are going to relate to them. I don’t treat a “weed” the same way as I treat a “flower” even though both are plants. If the world is a “store” we will position ourselves as consumers. If the world is God’s “creation,” and we appreciate what that name means, then we will have to position ourselves in unique ways.Moore: The fast-paced and distracted nature of modernity makes thoughtful thinking seem impractical. What can we do to slow down and be more aware of the world we inhabit?Wirzba: The more I live the more I think that Sabbath is crucial to our well-being and the well being of the world. We need to be able to think carefully about why we are so busy. What is our frantic pace ultimately for? Will we discover that we have impoverished our lives with all this busyness?Moore: Would you describe how a growing appreciation for the incarnation of Jesus brings greater awareness to the importance of physical realities?Wirzba: First, there is the basic, astounding fact that God saw a human, fleshly body as a suitable home for the divine life. In his body the fullness of the divine life dwelled. Christians who argue the dualist view that bodies don’t matter or ultimately need to be left behind, deny the incarnation. Second, Jesus loves material bodies, which is why he heals and feeds and exorcises and befriends them. It is crucial to resist the impulse to flee material creation. As Revelation makes clear, God’s eternal destination is creation.Moore: What are some ways we seek to gut the world of its mystery and so control it for our own consumer-oriented desires?Wirzba: We want to make everything into a possession that we can then control. That way we can life on our own terms. We are afraid of the messiness of our entanglements with other bodies. We are afraid of death. And so we flee into the worlds of our own making. There is a complex psychology behind all of this. We need to see that this is ultimately an evasion before life. Jesus doesn’t do that.Moore: What are some practical things we can do to increase our awareness of how God provides food?Wirzba: The best thing is to grow some, even just a little bit. You don’t need to plunge into a big garden to learn about the gift, fragility, pain, and beauty of life. If you can’t do much of that, make time to find and get to know gardeners and farmers and learn from them what you can. Read about our food system. Don’t be an ignorant eater. And then cook food together with family and friends to share. Talk about what you are doing and discovering.
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From Nature to Creation (The Church and Postmodern Culture): A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World, by Norman Wirzba
