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Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land
This refreshing work offers a distinctly agrarian reframing of spiritual practices to address today's most pressing social and ecological concerns.
For thousands of years most human beings drew their daily living from, and made sense of their lives in reference to, the land. Growing and finding food, along with the multiple practices of home maintenance and the cultivations of communities, were the abiding concerns that shaped what people understood about and expected from life. In Agrarian Spirit, Norman Wirzba demonstrates how agrarianism is of vital and continuing significance for spiritual life today. Far from being the exclusive concern of a dwindling number of farmers, this book shows how agrarian practices are an important corrective to the political and economic policies that are doing so much harm to our society and habitats. It is an invitation to the personal transformation that equips all people to live peaceably and beautifully with each other and the land.
Agrarian Spirit begins with a clear and concise affirmation of creaturely life. Wirzba shows that a human life is inextricably entangled with the lives of fellow animals and plants, and that individual flourishing must always include the flourishing of the habitats that nourish and sustain our life together. The book explores how agrarian sensibilities and responsibilities transform the practices of prayer, perception, mystical union, humility, gratitude, and hope. Wirzba provides an elegant and compelling account of spiritual life that is both attuned to ancient scriptural sources and keyed to addressing the pressing social and ecological concerns of today. Scholars and students of theology, ecotheology, and spirituality, as well as readers interested in agrarian and environmental studies, will gain much from this book.
For thousands of years most human beings drew their daily living from, and made sense of their lives in reference to, the land. Growing and finding food, along with the multiple practices of home maintenance and the cultivations of communities, were the abiding concerns that shaped what people understood about and expected from life. In Agrarian Spirit, Norman Wirzba demonstrates how agrarianism is of vital and continuing significance for spiritual life today. Far from being the exclusive concern of a dwindling number of farmers, this book shows how agrarian practices are an important corrective to the political and economic policies that are doing so much harm to our society and habitats. It is an invitation to the personal transformation that equips all people to live peaceably and beautifully with each other and the land.
Agrarian Spirit begins with a clear and concise affirmation of creaturely life. Wirzba shows that a human life is inextricably entangled with the lives of fellow animals and plants, and that individual flourishing must always include the flourishing of the habitats that nourish and sustain our life together. The book explores how agrarian sensibilities and responsibilities transform the practices of prayer, perception, mystical union, humility, gratitude, and hope. Wirzba provides an elegant and compelling account of spiritual life that is both attuned to ancient scriptural sources and keyed to addressing the pressing social and ecological concerns of today. Scholars and students of theology, ecotheology, and spirituality, as well as readers interested in agrarian and environmental studies, will gain much from this book.
264 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2022
About the author
Norman Wirzba
32 books93 followersNorman Wirzba is Professor of Theology and Ecology at Duke University Divinity School and a pioneer of scholarly work on religion, philosophy, ecology, and agrarianism. He is also the author of Food and Faith, Living the Sabbath, The Paradise of God, and From Nature to Creation. He lives near Hillsborough, North Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 5, 2022
Norman Wirzba has written a number of books on the care of creation, and this is his latest. Wirzba chooses"agrarian" as his prefered descriptor for his brand of environmental concern, and he defines it more broadly than the usual agricultural meaning.
There are many good things in this book:
1. It is good to be told that the act of creation is an act of the love of God. It is a manifestation of the same.
2. Wirzba boldly asserts the goodness of the material world and of bodies, land, sun and fertility. Our understanding of the land, food, water and weather are diminishing as more and more of us live in cities.
3. He stresses how work and handling creation actually changes us in the process. We do not merely work on creation, but in the process creation works on us.
4. He notes how the city theme in Revelation can be abused to justify where we are, rather than challenge the nature of our modern urban life.
5. Under "Learning to See" the section on Maximus was illuminating. p97f. As were those on descent and humility.
6. The 9 practical steps and habits on p173-5 are very good.
There is a good argument to read Simone Weil.
But, there are some gaps.
1. The books never refers to need for family life, human fertility and productivity in normal family life. It is as if these current topics are segregated from the discussion and we wonder why.
2. In chapter 3 there is along discussion of the denigration of the body since Plato, but it is unclear how Wirzba integrates the "soul" into his schema with such an emphasis on the current material life. This looks like an over correction. A distinction between body and soul is not a dualism. The horizon of human life is still beyond this life.
3. The calls to learn to pray are good, but could lapse into a "state of being". But the chapter is otherwise good and challenging.
Overall a stimulating addition to the discussion.
There are many good things in this book:
1. It is good to be told that the act of creation is an act of the love of God. It is a manifestation of the same.
2. Wirzba boldly asserts the goodness of the material world and of bodies, land, sun and fertility. Our understanding of the land, food, water and weather are diminishing as more and more of us live in cities.
3. He stresses how work and handling creation actually changes us in the process. We do not merely work on creation, but in the process creation works on us.
4. He notes how the city theme in Revelation can be abused to justify where we are, rather than challenge the nature of our modern urban life.
5. Under "Learning to See" the section on Maximus was illuminating. p97f. As were those on descent and humility.
6. The 9 practical steps and habits on p173-5 are very good.
There is a good argument to read Simone Weil.
But, there are some gaps.
1. The books never refers to need for family life, human fertility and productivity in normal family life. It is as if these current topics are segregated from the discussion and we wonder why.
2. In chapter 3 there is along discussion of the denigration of the body since Plato, but it is unclear how Wirzba integrates the "soul" into his schema with such an emphasis on the current material life. This looks like an over correction. A distinction between body and soul is not a dualism. The horizon of human life is still beyond this life.
3. The calls to learn to pray are good, but could lapse into a "state of being". But the chapter is otherwise good and challenging.
Overall a stimulating addition to the discussion.
August 16, 2022
Most Christians affirm that humans are not self-sufficient and that we depend on God for daily sustenance. But most would not think of the intricate paths of mutual nurture that connect human communities, fellow creatures and the land as the primary sites of God’s presence. As Wirzba puts it, we prefer to go “up and away” while God is already “down and among” us (p. 50). This book lays out the causes for our oblivion, but more importantly, makes the case for a spirituality that takes our embodied, creaturely condition seriously. Evangelical Christians in particular, who are typically interested in matters of the spiritual life, will want to pick up this book. They might find themselves challenged by it, because the book has the capacity to broaden and reshape the quest for a spiritual life and give language to express it more honestly.
Wirzba’s main critique is in relation to how common spiritual practices are so often used to escape this world and meet God somewhere else. There is a growing number of Christians for whom concerns for creation is much more than an afterthought in the mission of the church. Wirzba adds that a recognition of our embodied and intimately shared lives must be at the center of the spiritual life, too. But he goes beyond commending a privatized spirituality. To give but one example, saying grace is “a political and economic act because when people come more fully into the presence of the creatures they eat they are also better positioned to advocate for their gentle and just treatment” (p. 166). The invitation is to become more honest about the kind of beloved creatures that we are, so that our own flourishing can resonate with the flourishing of everything and everyone else.
(Note: I received a copy of this book from its author in exchange for an honest review. The full review is (hopefully) forthcoming elsewhere)
Wirzba’s main critique is in relation to how common spiritual practices are so often used to escape this world and meet God somewhere else. There is a growing number of Christians for whom concerns for creation is much more than an afterthought in the mission of the church. Wirzba adds that a recognition of our embodied and intimately shared lives must be at the center of the spiritual life, too. But he goes beyond commending a privatized spirituality. To give but one example, saying grace is “a political and economic act because when people come more fully into the presence of the creatures they eat they are also better positioned to advocate for their gentle and just treatment” (p. 166). The invitation is to become more honest about the kind of beloved creatures that we are, so that our own flourishing can resonate with the flourishing of everything and everyone else.
(Note: I received a copy of this book from its author in exchange for an honest review. The full review is (hopefully) forthcoming elsewhere)
April 18, 2024
wirzba does it again
Read
March 26, 2023Oooooooo yes. I really liked this. It’s giving Wendell Berry in the form of a divinity school professor. Part of me is like, “OK, seriously… this is the way of life that we, and particularly colonizing Christians, have been robbing indigenous folks of all along, so why is a white man talking about this?” But I think his work does a great job at 1) recognizing that truth, 2) redeeming Christianity’s potential by emphasizing early Christians’ generous and hope-filled agrarian, communal ways of life (and allllll the Scripture that points to justice-oriented, communal life as that which should follow from faith in God and the reception of God’s love), and 3) pointing to capitalism as the foundational reason for why the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. Really stoked to read more of Wirzba’s work and maybe email him about his scholarship:))
“If we adopt the (slightly amended) maxim of Saint Irenaeus that ‘the glory of God is a creature fully alive,’ then a city glorifies God by building, among other things, safe and reliable transportation networks, democratic and healthy food systems, well funded and readily accessible healthcare facilities, high-quality housing, clean and transparent energy systems, ample parks and recreation facilities, beautiful neighborhoods, and welcoming plazas and community centers where people can get to know each other and enjoy each other’s company. These should be our design priorities because these are the structures that are known to promote flourishing people and vibrant communities.”
“Moral choices are never simply a matter of personal decision-making and thus never simply reducible to individual virtue or vice. Built environments are themselves moral structures because they encourage, sometimes even demand, that people live in particular sorts of ways. As but one example, it is a mistake to blame underpaid and highly stressed workers for buying the cheap unhealthy food our industrial systems make everywhere available.”
“That our farms and cities are populated with so many monuments praising the accumulation of wealth and power reflects not only a rejection of, but a rebellion against, humility. To refuse humility is to build the material infrastructures – the financial institutions, insurance plans, military complexes, incarceration facilities, and gated communities – that hide our need and deny our vulnerability. It is to think we can be fully human without exercising the hospitality, that welcomes and respects others and the gentleness that witnesses to an understanding of our shared vulnerability. When a spirit of humility goes to work, the goal is to make, and maintain places so as to highlight their goodness, beauty, and sanctity.”
“If we adopt the (slightly amended) maxim of Saint Irenaeus that ‘the glory of God is a creature fully alive,’ then a city glorifies God by building, among other things, safe and reliable transportation networks, democratic and healthy food systems, well funded and readily accessible healthcare facilities, high-quality housing, clean and transparent energy systems, ample parks and recreation facilities, beautiful neighborhoods, and welcoming plazas and community centers where people can get to know each other and enjoy each other’s company. These should be our design priorities because these are the structures that are known to promote flourishing people and vibrant communities.”
“Moral choices are never simply a matter of personal decision-making and thus never simply reducible to individual virtue or vice. Built environments are themselves moral structures because they encourage, sometimes even demand, that people live in particular sorts of ways. As but one example, it is a mistake to blame underpaid and highly stressed workers for buying the cheap unhealthy food our industrial systems make everywhere available.”
“That our farms and cities are populated with so many monuments praising the accumulation of wealth and power reflects not only a rejection of, but a rebellion against, humility. To refuse humility is to build the material infrastructures – the financial institutions, insurance plans, military complexes, incarceration facilities, and gated communities – that hide our need and deny our vulnerability. It is to think we can be fully human without exercising the hospitality, that welcomes and respects others and the gentleness that witnesses to an understanding of our shared vulnerability. When a spirit of humility goes to work, the goal is to make, and maintain places so as to highlight their goodness, beauty, and sanctity.”
June 21, 2024
Excerpt from my rushed book report I wrote for class…eh!
Even as someone who is not religious, I found this book to be a calming and at times relatable read. I believe that there is a lot of benefit in caring for and connecting with our land. This connection could hopefully help us interact with the planet in a way that is less capitalist and extractive. By removing extractive notions we would be able to alter consumption and emissions patterns that have been leading to climate change and mass waste creation. […] This book reminded me of a poem that I read by Farmer Rishi, “Nature Does Not Exist,” where Farmer Rishi, talks about how human and human creation is part of nature, and nature isn’t something we have to “visit.” Rather we must understand nature as us and highways and buildings, so we stop creating the distinctions and separations that allow us to forget about and “control” nature. This sentiment is one that I have also seen in Indigenous belief in general; rather than considering nature as separate, Indigenous people “see themselves as inseparably intertwined with the land and with nature.” By creating a better relationship with nature, humans will feel a deeper connection and responsibility with it and thus will want to treat it better. I think that Wirzba touches on this through this book. He calls everyone and every animal and every being a creature. He calls on us to be hopeful, humble, grateful people who care for each other and the planet. This is where Wirzba and I agree. The power in within us and our communities. In a capitalistic, unjust world, we must consider our roles in our communities and work towards creating a future that benefits and supports all people and the planet.
Even as someone who is not religious, I found this book to be a calming and at times relatable read. I believe that there is a lot of benefit in caring for and connecting with our land. This connection could hopefully help us interact with the planet in a way that is less capitalist and extractive. By removing extractive notions we would be able to alter consumption and emissions patterns that have been leading to climate change and mass waste creation. […] This book reminded me of a poem that I read by Farmer Rishi, “Nature Does Not Exist,” where Farmer Rishi, talks about how human and human creation is part of nature, and nature isn’t something we have to “visit.” Rather we must understand nature as us and highways and buildings, so we stop creating the distinctions and separations that allow us to forget about and “control” nature. This sentiment is one that I have also seen in Indigenous belief in general; rather than considering nature as separate, Indigenous people “see themselves as inseparably intertwined with the land and with nature.” By creating a better relationship with nature, humans will feel a deeper connection and responsibility with it and thus will want to treat it better. I think that Wirzba touches on this through this book. He calls everyone and every animal and every being a creature. He calls on us to be hopeful, humble, grateful people who care for each other and the planet. This is where Wirzba and I agree. The power in within us and our communities. In a capitalistic, unjust world, we must consider our roles in our communities and work towards creating a future that benefits and supports all people and the planet.
January 27, 2026
And excellent book that addresses ecological theology in a thoughtful and systematic approach. Wirzba reaches into Christian and non-Christian tradition for insight and direction in offer a way of understanding one's relationship with all creation. It is refreshing to read a well crafted theology of ecology that is steeped in orthodox(ish) Christian identity and history.
December 29, 2025
According to Wirzba, “To be an agrarian is to do the work that nourishes life in its many material, physiological, environmental, social, and cultural dimensions. It is to know and act upon the fundamental truth that people are landed beings and so cannot possibly thrive apart from the thriving of the lands and its many creatures” (15).
With this definition, Wirzba fleshes out what it looks like to go about spiritual practices with the whole self, and the whole community of creatures and places around us, in mind. There is an unfortunate tendency of escapism in Christian spiritual teaching--our desires should be set on escaping earth, rather than bringing about its transformation or renewal. Wirzba seeks to correct this theology and this mistake in desiring and living that leads to harm for self, others, and fellow creatures and land.
“Scripture does not call people to flee their creaturely lives and places. Instead, it calls them to live in places that honor and further operationalize God’s life-giving, life-promoting ways with the world. It calls them to participate in God’s reconciling and redeeming ways with the whole of creation (Colossians 1:15-20)” (53).
Christians are not meant to flee from creation, but to be wholly present to it, because that's exactly where God is. He is *with* creation, sustaining it always and saving it, shown most fully in the incarnation of the Son.
Wirzba's spiritual practices include (accompanied notes and representative quotes):
Ch. 4, Learning to Pray
“Life is a relational reality in which people are constantly receiving from others and giving in return. When people pray to God, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ they are not only asking to be nurtured every day. They are also asking that their lives be transformed in ways so that they can, in turn, and in ways specific to their abilities, become gifts that nurture others" (80).
“When Jesus instructed people to pray, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,’ he was reminding them that the best life flourishes in communal, covenantal contexts where every effort is made to absolve people of the forms of bondage that oppress and degrade them…. Followers of God forgive because they know that debt and guilt prevent people from living out the fullness of their lives” (85).
“At its core, prayer is the daily action whereby people open themselves to receiving the love of God and letting it become operational within, all with the aim that whole persons–body, heart, and mind–are now directed to being a nurturing presence wherever they are and whomever they are with” (86).
Ch. 5, Learning to See
The way you see the world forms the way you live in the world. "Jesus... is for Christians the interpretive lens that enables them to see everything in terms of a new framework of significance and meaning. To participate in his ethos is to see every creature and every place as a sacred gift" (97).
“The essential task is to come into the presence of others with a student mindset that seeks to learn from them what is advisable to do, and a servant disposition that commits to come alongside them and help them realize their potential” (101).
Ch. 6, Learning Descent
As humans it makes a difference to say we "grow out of a place" rather than merely living on it. Understanding our proper place in the world frees us to live in life-giving ways in the community of creation. God is not far away as many mystics teach; God is closer than we think.
"The 'beyond' implied by transcendence... is not opposed to immanence but refers us to the unfathomable and mysterious divine power moving within creation. If we seek to be with God, then creation ought to be our focus and destination" (113).
Ch. 7, Learning Humility
"The world God creates is a vulnerable world susceptible to pain and suffering. To live well and beautifully within it, people must not only affirm the good of their need. They must also learn the skills of gentleness and compassion that are essential to life that is always life together" (134).
"Humility should not be about loathing oneself but about coming to understand oneself as a gifted and cherished creaturely being that needs and lives through the nurture and love that others must provide" (136-37).
The desire to assert oneself gets in the way of a true human life, which is life for others.
"Nothing has to be. That anything is at all must, therefore, be the result of a divine love that delights in something other than God being what it is. In other words, creation ex nihilo is also creation ex amore or 'from love,' since it is only love (rather than some divine lack or external pressure placed upon God) that prompts God to create at all" (139).
Creation ex nihilo and ex amore meants "that creatures are now free to become themselves. Put another way, God is glorified not at the expense of creatures, as when people believe they must become small and insignificant in order for God to be great, but when creatures live into the fulness of the lives they have been given" (148).
"The logic of creation teaches that God's creating and sustaining power is not coercive or manipulating power *over* others. Jesus... demonstrated that divine power is the kind of power that comes *alongside* others, *dwells with* them, and *shares* in their pain and joy" (148).
"Salvation is not what happens to people after they die. It is their ever-deeper immersion into God's life--what early church theologians described as theosis--in which embodiment is not left behind but transformed so that each human body can now be a vessel through which God's love freely flows" (147).
Ch. 8, Learning Generosity
"To live generously is to believe things are worth sharing and others worth sharing with" (156).
Our world has a commodifying lens that sees things and people as things to use and consume, resulting in contractual ways of relating. The alternative is a covenantal way of being. In a covenantal mindset, "One assumes that genuine flourishing is mutual and that the good of individuals is best realized in a community that nurture them" (158).
"A meal, for instance, rather than being a declaration of another's concern and love for you, now signifies as a package of calories or a unit of fuel that reflects someone else's business interest in you" (160).
"In every sacrifice there are two offerings: the offering of what is given to God, and the offering of oneself in the act of giving. Of the two, the latter is the most important because the cultivation of a self-offering mode of life prepares a person to live more gently and generously in the world" (170).
Ch. 9, Learning to Hope
"The cultivation of hope depends on inspiring the commitment and developing the practices that can position people to live *now* in ways that affirm, nurture, and heal life, ways that draw people more sympathetically into relationship with others and their shared places" (177).
"I believe that a desire for forgiveness is vital to the cultivation of hope because practices like confession and repentance communicate an earnest desire to be in right, or at least agreeable, relationship with each other" (180).
"There is no hope in being alone in a mute, commodified world. There is no hope in an unsympathetic existence. A hopeful life is founded upon resonant relationships in which confession and care, and repentance and a commitment to healing are primary practices" (194).
With this definition, Wirzba fleshes out what it looks like to go about spiritual practices with the whole self, and the whole community of creatures and places around us, in mind. There is an unfortunate tendency of escapism in Christian spiritual teaching--our desires should be set on escaping earth, rather than bringing about its transformation or renewal. Wirzba seeks to correct this theology and this mistake in desiring and living that leads to harm for self, others, and fellow creatures and land.
“Scripture does not call people to flee their creaturely lives and places. Instead, it calls them to live in places that honor and further operationalize God’s life-giving, life-promoting ways with the world. It calls them to participate in God’s reconciling and redeeming ways with the whole of creation (Colossians 1:15-20)” (53).
Christians are not meant to flee from creation, but to be wholly present to it, because that's exactly where God is. He is *with* creation, sustaining it always and saving it, shown most fully in the incarnation of the Son.
Wirzba's spiritual practices include (accompanied notes and representative quotes):
Ch. 4, Learning to Pray
“Life is a relational reality in which people are constantly receiving from others and giving in return. When people pray to God, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ they are not only asking to be nurtured every day. They are also asking that their lives be transformed in ways so that they can, in turn, and in ways specific to their abilities, become gifts that nurture others" (80).
“When Jesus instructed people to pray, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,’ he was reminding them that the best life flourishes in communal, covenantal contexts where every effort is made to absolve people of the forms of bondage that oppress and degrade them…. Followers of God forgive because they know that debt and guilt prevent people from living out the fullness of their lives” (85).
“At its core, prayer is the daily action whereby people open themselves to receiving the love of God and letting it become operational within, all with the aim that whole persons–body, heart, and mind–are now directed to being a nurturing presence wherever they are and whomever they are with” (86).
Ch. 5, Learning to See
The way you see the world forms the way you live in the world. "Jesus... is for Christians the interpretive lens that enables them to see everything in terms of a new framework of significance and meaning. To participate in his ethos is to see every creature and every place as a sacred gift" (97).
“The essential task is to come into the presence of others with a student mindset that seeks to learn from them what is advisable to do, and a servant disposition that commits to come alongside them and help them realize their potential” (101).
Ch. 6, Learning Descent
As humans it makes a difference to say we "grow out of a place" rather than merely living on it. Understanding our proper place in the world frees us to live in life-giving ways in the community of creation. God is not far away as many mystics teach; God is closer than we think.
"The 'beyond' implied by transcendence... is not opposed to immanence but refers us to the unfathomable and mysterious divine power moving within creation. If we seek to be with God, then creation ought to be our focus and destination" (113).
Ch. 7, Learning Humility
"The world God creates is a vulnerable world susceptible to pain and suffering. To live well and beautifully within it, people must not only affirm the good of their need. They must also learn the skills of gentleness and compassion that are essential to life that is always life together" (134).
"Humility should not be about loathing oneself but about coming to understand oneself as a gifted and cherished creaturely being that needs and lives through the nurture and love that others must provide" (136-37).
The desire to assert oneself gets in the way of a true human life, which is life for others.
"Nothing has to be. That anything is at all must, therefore, be the result of a divine love that delights in something other than God being what it is. In other words, creation ex nihilo is also creation ex amore or 'from love,' since it is only love (rather than some divine lack or external pressure placed upon God) that prompts God to create at all" (139).
Creation ex nihilo and ex amore meants "that creatures are now free to become themselves. Put another way, God is glorified not at the expense of creatures, as when people believe they must become small and insignificant in order for God to be great, but when creatures live into the fulness of the lives they have been given" (148).
"The logic of creation teaches that God's creating and sustaining power is not coercive or manipulating power *over* others. Jesus... demonstrated that divine power is the kind of power that comes *alongside* others, *dwells with* them, and *shares* in their pain and joy" (148).
"Salvation is not what happens to people after they die. It is their ever-deeper immersion into God's life--what early church theologians described as theosis--in which embodiment is not left behind but transformed so that each human body can now be a vessel through which God's love freely flows" (147).
Ch. 8, Learning Generosity
"To live generously is to believe things are worth sharing and others worth sharing with" (156).
Our world has a commodifying lens that sees things and people as things to use and consume, resulting in contractual ways of relating. The alternative is a covenantal way of being. In a covenantal mindset, "One assumes that genuine flourishing is mutual and that the good of individuals is best realized in a community that nurture them" (158).
"A meal, for instance, rather than being a declaration of another's concern and love for you, now signifies as a package of calories or a unit of fuel that reflects someone else's business interest in you" (160).
"In every sacrifice there are two offerings: the offering of what is given to God, and the offering of oneself in the act of giving. Of the two, the latter is the most important because the cultivation of a self-offering mode of life prepares a person to live more gently and generously in the world" (170).
Ch. 9, Learning to Hope
"The cultivation of hope depends on inspiring the commitment and developing the practices that can position people to live *now* in ways that affirm, nurture, and heal life, ways that draw people more sympathetically into relationship with others and their shared places" (177).
"I believe that a desire for forgiveness is vital to the cultivation of hope because practices like confession and repentance communicate an earnest desire to be in right, or at least agreeable, relationship with each other" (180).
"There is no hope in being alone in a mute, commodified world. There is no hope in an unsympathetic existence. A hopeful life is founded upon resonant relationships in which confession and care, and repentance and a commitment to healing are primary practices" (194).
August 2, 2022
A new book by Norman Wirzba has redefined “agrarian” for me. He says that it shouldn’t be reduced to a “farmer” but instead include all people who work to promote the health and vitality of creatures in their places, understanding that “a human life cannot flourish apart from good food, clean water, amiable company, good work, excellent tools, fertile soil, pollinating bees, helpful neighbors, protein-producing herbivores, and strong traditions of memory that pass on essential insights and skills to following generations. Insofar as persons work to improve the lives of people and land at the same time, they are agrarians.”
Wirzba extends this definition with a convincing argument that Jesus was an agrarian because his ministries only make sense focused on birds of the air and lilies of the field as well as taking care of the most marginalized of humans. We can’t separate out good works; Jesus focused his love on the well-being of all creatures and the good of all creation.
Although the first section on the background of an agrarian spirit is important, I enjoyed even more the six chapters in Part II which are spiritual exercises centered around the concept of the agrarian spirit with each chapter concentrating on practical aspects of how we change our daily way of being through prayer, seeing, descent, humility, generosity, and hope.
As a contemplative, the chapter on prayer particularly struck home to me where Wirzba weaves the story of how praying without ceasing doesn’t just take on well-known forms like petition, adoration and confession, but instead prayer works on our own demeanor, reorienting us so that we can live in our world in a more compassionate manner coming to a fresh understanding of where we are, whom we are with, and how we should behave.
The last chapter, Learning to Hope is the perfect summary for the book. Wirzba writes, “Put another way, when people ask me about the grounds for hope, I often ask them to think about the grounds for love. What do you love, why do you love it, and what do you need to sustain your love?” He gives one example that if you love your family or community, it requires you to work for the flourishing of each of its members by making sure their varying needs are met.
In this anxious age, Wirzba’s words are comforting: “Hopeful people do not have it all figured out. What they have is the (sometimes unclear) desire and (sometimes unsteady) commitment to join their love with the divine loving going on around them. The ways of hope come down to people learning to participate in the sacred power that creates, nourishes, heals, and reconciles life.”
I highly recommend this book as nourishment for parched souls. It provides a roadmap to a better way of seeing ourselves so that we find joy in our role in this world as an agrarian spirit.
(Note: I was provided a pdf copy of the final draft in return for this unpaid, unbiased review).
Wirzba extends this definition with a convincing argument that Jesus was an agrarian because his ministries only make sense focused on birds of the air and lilies of the field as well as taking care of the most marginalized of humans. We can’t separate out good works; Jesus focused his love on the well-being of all creatures and the good of all creation.
Although the first section on the background of an agrarian spirit is important, I enjoyed even more the six chapters in Part II which are spiritual exercises centered around the concept of the agrarian spirit with each chapter concentrating on practical aspects of how we change our daily way of being through prayer, seeing, descent, humility, generosity, and hope.
As a contemplative, the chapter on prayer particularly struck home to me where Wirzba weaves the story of how praying without ceasing doesn’t just take on well-known forms like petition, adoration and confession, but instead prayer works on our own demeanor, reorienting us so that we can live in our world in a more compassionate manner coming to a fresh understanding of where we are, whom we are with, and how we should behave.
The last chapter, Learning to Hope is the perfect summary for the book. Wirzba writes, “Put another way, when people ask me about the grounds for hope, I often ask them to think about the grounds for love. What do you love, why do you love it, and what do you need to sustain your love?” He gives one example that if you love your family or community, it requires you to work for the flourishing of each of its members by making sure their varying needs are met.
In this anxious age, Wirzba’s words are comforting: “Hopeful people do not have it all figured out. What they have is the (sometimes unclear) desire and (sometimes unsteady) commitment to join their love with the divine loving going on around them. The ways of hope come down to people learning to participate in the sacred power that creates, nourishes, heals, and reconciles life.”
I highly recommend this book as nourishment for parched souls. It provides a roadmap to a better way of seeing ourselves so that we find joy in our role in this world as an agrarian spirit.
(Note: I was provided a pdf copy of the final draft in return for this unpaid, unbiased review).
March 19, 2025
I read a couple of qualified reviews of this book before I really started in on it, and my impressions of its first chapters--a series of reflections on the meaning of "agrarian," and arguments about how to think about human beings as psychologically, as well as physically, constituted through a "meshwork" of inputs both environmental and spiritual--were positive but not ecstatic. But then I got into the book's second part, a series of "agrarian spiritual exercises," which were really a thoughtfully interlocked set of intellectual reframings which, in Wirzba's reading, can help bring the agrarian sensibilities of Christianity not only to the forefront of a believer's religious life, but also to help construct more agrarian, and more holy, practices which believers could follow. And those chapters--on prayer, seeing, submission, humility, generosity, and hope--are really all quite fantastic. Wirzba uses a marvelous range of thinkers and metaphors--from Gadamer to Thoreau, from music-making to bread-baking--to communicate these exercises, and link them together. In thinking about prayer, we come to see the importance of attention; in paying attention, we can see our environments more holistically; in seeing our environments, we recognize the innumerable connections and dependencies that characterize our ecosystems and associations; in recognizing connections, we become humble and less likely to make ourselves the center of our stories; in de-centering ourselves, we open ourselves up to generosity, the giving and receiving of gifts; in recovering an understanding of gifts to and from others, and to and from the land we are part of, we become hopeful--not a science-denying, self-centered hope, but a realistic, humble one, which trusts in a loving God that is panentheistically (though Wirzba never uses that term) present in all of creation and all that creation, including ourselves, can be. By the end of the book, I had to admit: this is a great, moving work of pastoral thought, one that I am likely to go back to again and again.
September 30, 2025
This is an excellent introduction to various ideas and thinkers who connect agrarian sentiments and practices with their theological beliefs. This book is not a biblical theology, but rather draws upon ancient and modern thinkers who are primarily Christian, along with some reflections on Scripture. Along with the many strengths already mentioned in other reviews, there are a few areas that could have had stronger development. While Wirzba points out the failures of modern industrial agriculture as it tends to commodify land and production, and highlight the strengths of small scale, multi crop, organic farms; he doesn't perhaps as critically engage organic agriculture (which can also be just as profit oriented and at times harmful to the soil through massive plastic use or excessive cultivation), as well as explore if there are ways that there could be less excessive forms of industrial agriculture that might also possess agrarian tendencies. Many industrial farmers have deep attachment to their land and desire to preserve it and steward it, is there a way for them to still farm with agrarian tendencies? Instead of things being black and white I would have appreciated a more nuanced way of pursuing a "both and" approach. Similarly, I find it strange that there is so little spoken about the theology of the body when it comes to human reproduction and gender alterations despite this being a central argument of the book, namely our status as creatures and embodiment in God's creation. While Wirzba might critique the horticultural poisons we use to control fecundity in the dirt, it is strange that there is essentially no discussion of modern poisons we use on our bodies to alter their natural purposes. I believe his theology would lead naturally to engage many aspects of the theology of the body, but these are avoided. Besides these quibbles, this is an excellent addition to the discussion.
January 27, 2023
This is a sneaky book, because it doesn't read as very political, but I think that Wirzba's "built ecologies" idea is powerful. It seems more expansive than any kind of leftism, rooting radical thought in actual ecology and the actual people who are apart of it. It comes across as humble and American, rather than sensationalist, condemning, or even counterculture. This is a book I could give to a moderate, hoping they might be open to it, without feeling like I'm actually softening or sacrificing the urgency and depth of transformation I believe we need to survive.
November 25, 2022
This book is simply amazing. I cannot express enough the abundance of wisdom flowing through Norman Wirzba to remind us of our design as creatures and our embodied relationships with God, creature and creation. This is a must read for anyone wanting to participate as best as they can in their world, neighborhoods, families and communities.
February 21, 2023
Excellent book - will refer back to/reread. He provides many points to ponder for living in a "different way" in the modern world.
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