Starting Monday, June 1 and meeting for five consecutive Mondays, Laurie Johnson will take participants through some of the more important concepts related to food and agriculture through the lens of Christianity. Sessions will start at 7 p.m. US Central Time (Chicago) and end at 8:30 p.m.
This class will focus on our connection with the land, our moral obligations to the land and the life that occupies it, and how thinking about agriculture and food differently can shape our spirituality in a positive direction. One does not need to be a Christian to benefit from the class, since the focus is on food and agriculture–all are welcome.
To join this class live, support the Maurin Academy on Patreon at the Worker Scholar level or above, or get the recordings of this class and everything else we do at the Salt of the Earth level. Catholic Workers and clergy can gain access by emailing us with the request at maurinacademy@gmail.com. Word of Life Church members (St. Joseph, MO) will be able to register at wolc.com.
Laurie will draw inspiration from two books, but also from her reading, her scholarship, and her own experience as a consumer, gardener, and supporter of the John Paul II Catholic Worker urban farm in Kansas City, MO. The two books:
- Norman Wirzba, Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2019.
2. Jurgen Moltmann, God in Creation, Fortress Press, 1993.
Also, for more background reading and scriptural questions, this book is highly recommended:
Ellen F. Davis, Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible, Forward by Wendell Berry, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Schedule:
The chapters that have asterisks are the ones you should certainly read if you are going to read for these sessions, but reading is not assumed or required to participate.
Week One: Setting the Stage (June 1)
We’ll set the stage, discussing what is currently wrong with the way we in the United States and other similar countries interact with food. In many ways we are eating unnatural food, and we are definitely eating food whose origin and quality we often do not know. We’re eating naively, not realizing the ways in which those choices not only affect our health, but our relationships to other people, and our environmental impact.
From Wirzba, Food and Faith: a Theology of Eating:
Chapter 1: It’s About Fidelity*
Chapter 4: Eating in Exile: Dysfunction in the World of Food*
Natalie Finn, Worker-Scholar at JPII Catholic Worker Farm, “Preparing the Ground for Spring, Part 1”
Natalie Finn, “Preparing the Ground for Spring, Part 2”
Week Two: The Ecological Crisis (June 8)
Having discussed the immediate problems we face concerning food and our food systems at a practical level, we will step back to gain a bigger picture of the ecological situation as a whole, as seen through the eyes of Jurgen Moltmann.
From Moltmann’s God in Creation:
Chapter 2: In the Ecological Crisis*
Week Three: Sacrificial Eating (June 15)
Coming back to our day-to-day practices and obligations, how can we square sensitivity to God’s creation with our spirituality? Is it possible and worthwhile to think of such things when we consider what and how to eat?
From Wirzba, Food and Faith:
Chapter 5: Life Through Death: Sacrificial Eating*
Epilogue: Faithful Eating in an Anthropocene World*
Week Four: Thinking Eucharistically (June 22)
Christianity has a special physicality to it due to its teaching about God not only creating human beings from dust, beings who are both body and spirit, but also God coming into the world as the man Jesus, and Jesus’ gift of the Eucharist, in which ordinary food and drink are given special spiritual significance. We’ll contemplate how awareness of this physical dimension of Christianity can help people imagine a new relationship to food and the land it comes from.
From Wirzba, Food and Faith
Chapter 6: Eucharistic Table Manners: Eating Toward Communion
Week Five: Practical Information and Discussion (June 29)
There will be no recommended readings for this week. Instead, we’ll take the time for discussing practical realities of making changes in how we get food, prepare it, and eat it. Hopefully we’ll be able to include one or two people who do organic diversified farming so they can give us their perspective. We’ll talk about the economic and other challenges of changing how we eat. We’ll leave time for any questions participants have.
More recommended reading and viewing:
Wirzba, Chapter 2: Thinking Theologically About Food, and Chapter 3: The Roots of Eating: Our Life Together in Gardens.
Moltmann, Chapter 1: God in creation, and Chapter 3: The Knowledge of Creation.
Moltmann, God in Creation, Chapter 11: The Sabbath: The Feast of Creation
Maurin Academy’s class on the Christian doctrine of the Universal Destination of Goods
Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Maurin Academy’s two sessions on Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home
Maurin Academy’s class on Agricultural Biotechnology (public clips)
Maurin Academy’s class on Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America (Patreon subscription)
About the Maurin Academy:
The Maurin Academy for Regenerative Studies is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization for alternative public education. Inspired by Peter Maurin’s call for ongoing public discussions towards integrating Cult (i.e., theology), Culture (i.e., arts and sciences), and Cultivation (i.e., food, farming, ecology), we strive to synthesize theological, philosophical, and ecological insights to generate a renewed, healthier future. This necessarily includes the incorporation of heterodox economic, political, social, ethical, and religious ideas. Our aim is realized through hosting seminars, lectures, podcasts, and workshops.
In addition to hosting classes and a lecture series, the Maurin Academy hosts three podcasts and you can find articles from our core members, guest authors, and Worker Scholars at the John Paul II Catholic Worker Farm on Substack.
Find out what’s going on now at pmaurin.org.
Here’s how you can help support the Maurin Academy and get access to all we do, live and recorded. Join our community!