Table of Contents

Series Preface
Foreword by Bill McKibben
Prologue: For God So Loved the Soil . . .
1. Reconciliation with the Land
2. Learning to See
3. Reconciliation Through Christ
4. Field, Table, Communion: The Abundant Kingdom Versus the Abundant Mirage
5. Reconciliation Through Eating
6. Bread for the Whole Body of Christ
Epilogue: . . . So We Can Eat from the Tree of Life
Acknowledgments
Recommendations for Further Reading
Study Guide
Notes
About the Duke Divinity School Center for Reconciliation
About Resources for Reconciliation

About the Author

McKibben is a former staff writer for The New Yorker and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. His books include The End of Nature (Random House), The Age of Missing Information (Random House), The Comforting Whirlwind (Eerdmans) and, most recently, Hope, Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on the Earth (Little, Brown).

Fred Bahnson is a permaculture gardener, a pioneer in church-supported agriculture, and an award-winning poet and essayist. He was a Kellogg Food Society policy fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the cofounder and former director of Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove, North Carolina. He is the author of Soil and Sacrament (forthcoming, Free Press).

Norman Wirzba is Research Professor of Theology, Ecology and Rural Life at Duke Divinity School. He is the author of Food and Faith, Living the Sabbath and The Paradise of God.

Reviews

"Weaving personal stories with pertinent data, the authors call attention to biblical and theological mandates to care for all of God's creation, including the land. Written with a broad audience in mind and with a study guide for each chapter, this book is an excellent resource for churches, communities, and individuals committed to caring for, and reconciling themselves with, the land."
*Narola Ao McFayden, Interpretation, 67(4)*

"Books like this usually threaten us with scarcity. Bahnson and Wirzba beckon us with God's creative, 'abundant kingdom homesteading,' correcting our 'reconciliation deficit disorder' by helping us to see that the full scope of divine healing includes all creatures and the whole creation--soil and sea and air, and everything contained and sustained by them."
*D. Brent Laytham, The Christian Century, May 1, 2013*

"This book was written to equip all of God's people to be more faithful ambassadors of reconciliation in regard to the land. . . . Many Christians need to learn again how to live sacramentally in 'God's garden.' This book provides the biblical vision along with down-to-earth examples that can help make this happen."
*J. David Holland, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Volume 65, Number 1, March 2013*

"Fred Bahson and Norman Wirzba are competent guides to this complicated, urgent subject. Too often, readers are hammered with statistics that, while true, tend to confuse and overwhelm. In this case, however, statistics are absolutely necessary and are used judiciously--in no small measure because of the high level of expertise of both authors."
*John Nyquist, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 36, No. 4*

Bahnson and Wirzba have written a book that is thoroughly Christian, offering inspiration to many of us who seek to understand what on earth (literally) God would have us do. But the book's apologetic value cannot be underestimated. It unfolds the riches of Christian teaching, tradition, experience, and reflection that makes it accessible to those outside the faith. They drive all of us to consider the actual ancient stumbling blocks of Jesus' humanity and his bodily resurrection, and they offer hope."
*Rusty Pritchard, PRISM Magazine, September/October 2012*

"In Genesis, God entrusts the care of his good creation to humanity, commanding us to rule it as his vice-regents--which means careful stewardship, not consumeristic exploitation. Determining the difference between the two is sometimes difficult. But with the guidance of prayer, Scripture, and books life Making Peace with the Land, we might find the search for wisdom less difficult than we first thought."
*Jake Meador, Christianity Today, June 2012*

"Without a doubt, our most anticipated book of the next few months. . . . This new collaborative effort promises to be an accessible introduction to both writers' work in defense of land, food and agriculture as essential to God's reconcilation, and should not be missed."
*Chris Smith, Englewood Review of Books, Lent 2012*