Norman Wirzba
Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology
Norman Wirzba pursues research and teaching interests at the intersections of theology, philosophy, ecology, and agrarian and environmental studies. He lectures frequently in Canada and the United States. His work focuses on understanding and promoting practices that can equip both rural and urban church communities to be more faithful and responsible members of creation. Current research is centered on a recovery of the doctrine of creation and a restatement of humanity in terms of its creaturely life.
Professor Wirzba has published The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age and Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight. His most recent books are Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating and (with Fred Bahnson) Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation. He also has edited several books, including The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land and The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry.
Professor Wirzba serves as general editor for the book series Culture of the Land: A Series in the New Agrarianism, published by the University Press of Kentucky, and is co-founder and executive committee member of the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology, Divinity School, Duke University 2018
- Professor of Theology, Ecology, and Agrarian Studies, Divinity School, Duke University 2013
Contact Information
- 407 Chapel Drive, 211B Gray Building, Durham, NC 27708
- Duke Box 90967, Durham, NC 27708
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norman.wirzba@duke.edu
(919) 660-3496
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Loyola University, Chicago 1994
- M.A., Loyola University, Chicago 1991
- M.A., Yale University 1988
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Senior Associate Dean for Institutional and Faculty Advancement, Divinity School, Duke University 2018 - 2020
- Professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2014 - 2019
- Research Professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University 2011 - 2014
- Research Professor of Theology, Ecology and Rural Life, Divinity School, Duke University 2008 - 2013
- Recognition
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In the News
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MAR 14, 2023 Divinity School -
MAR 25, 2022 -
NOV 6, 2020 World Food Policy Center -
MAY 7, 2019 -
NOV 13, 2018 World Food Policy Center -
JUN 29, 2018 -
JAN 5, 2017 -
JUN 3, 2016 WUNC -
APR 14, 2016 The Huffington Post -
MAR 1, 2016 Duke Today -
JAN 29, 2016 Publisher’s Weekly -
OCT 25, 2015 -
SEP 22, 2015 NPR News -
SEP 2, 2015 The Deseret News -
JUL 10, 2015 The Christian Century -
MAY 26, 2015 USA Today -
APR 29, 2015 -
OCT 16, 2014
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- Research
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Selected Grants
- Considering Hope in an Anthropocene World awarded by Issachar Fund 2021 - 2022
- Rethinking Humanity's Place in an Anthropocene World awarded by Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. 2016 - 2022
- A Human Place in the World: A Human Place in the World awarded by Association of Theological Schools 2014 - 2016
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External Relationships
- Harvard Memorial Church
- Henry Luce Foundation
- Issachar Fund
- University of Notre Dame
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Wirzba, Norman. Agrarian Spirit Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land. University of Notre Dame Pess, 2022.
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Wirzba, Norman. This Sacred Life Humanity's Place in a Wounded World. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
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Wirzba, Norman. Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
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Wirzba, Norman. Way of Love Recovering the Heart of Christianity. HarperOne, 2016.
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Wirzba, Norman. From Nature to Creation A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World. Baker Academic, 2015.
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Treanor, B., B. E. Benson, and N. Wirzba. Being-in-Creation: Human Responsibility in an Endangered World, 2015.
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Treanor, B., B. E. Benson, and N. Wirzba. Being-in-Creation: Human Responsibility in an Endangered World, 2015.
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Wirzba, N. Sustainable Agriculture and the World’s Religious Traditions. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
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Bahnson, F., and N. Wirzba. Making peace with the land : God's call to reconcile with creation: God's call to reconcile with creation. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2012.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. Food and faith: a theology of eating. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. Food and faith : a theology of eating: a theology of eating. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.Link to Item
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Benson, B. E., and N. Wirzba. Words of life new theological turns in French phenomenology: new theological turns in French phenomenology. New York: Fordham University Press, 2010.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. The Gift of Creation: Images from Scripture and Earth. Morley, MO: Acclaim Press, 2009.
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Wirzba, N., and B. E. Benson. Transforming philosophy and religion: love's wisdom. Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana Univ Pr, 2008.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N., and B. E. Benson. Transforming philosophy and religion : love's wisdom: love's wisdom. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. Living the sabbath: discovering the rhythms of rest and delight. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006.Link to Item
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Benson, B. E., and N. Wirzba. The phenomenology of prayer. Vol. 46. New York: Fordham Univ Pr, 2005.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. The essential agrarian reader : the future of culture, community, and the land / edited by Norman Wirzba. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. The paradise of God renewing religion in an ecological age: renewing religion in an ecological age. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2003.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. The Art of the Commonplace: Wendell Berry’s Agrarian Essays. Edited by N. Wirzba. Washington, D.C: Counterpoint Press, 2002.
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Academic Articles
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Wirzba, Norman. “The Trouble with Sustainability.” Sustainability 15, no. 2 (January 11, 2023): 1388–1388. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021388.Full Text Open Access Copy
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Wirzba, Norman. “Baptized with the Soil: Christian Agrarians and the Crusade for Rural America, written by Kevin M. Lowe.” Journal of Reformed Theology 11, no. 1–2 (2017): 171–72. https://doi.org/10.1163/15697312-01101012.Full Text
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Wirzba, N. “Christian Theoria Physike: On learning to see creation.” Modern Theology 32, no. 2 (April 1, 2016): 211–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12239.Full Text
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Wirzba, N. “Food for theologians.” Interpretation (United Kingdom) 67, no. 4 (October 1, 2013): 374–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020964313495518.Full Text
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Wirzba, N. “Agrarian ecotheology.” Theology 116, no. 1 (2013): 36–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040571X12461228.Full Text Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Thinking Theologically About Food.” The Bible in Transmission, no. summer (2013).
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Wirzba, N. “Eating in ignorance: do we know where our food comes from?” Christian Century 129, no. 11 (May 30, 2012): 24–27.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “The Future of Food.” Renewing Minds: A Journal of Christian Thought, 2012.
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Wirzba, N. “A Priestly Approach to Environmental Theology: Learning to Receive and Give Again the Gifts of Creation.” Dialog 50, no. 4 (December 1, 2011): 354–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6385.2011.00636.x.Full Text
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Wirzba, N. “The grace of good food and the call to good farming.” Review & Expositor 108, no. 1 (December 1, 2011): 61–71.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Eucharistic table manners: learning how to eat.” Perspectives 26, no. 2 (February 1, 2011): 13–16.Link to Item
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Norman Wirzba, N. “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE DIRT.” Sojourners Magazine 40, no. 4 (2011): 16.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Letter to a Young Farmer.” Comment, 2011.
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Wirzba, N. “Saying grace: transforming people, transforming the world.” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 3, no. 2 (June 1, 2009): 195–212.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Sunshine-powered: the next agrarian revolution.” Christian Century 126, no. 10 (May 19, 2009): 28–31.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “The Meaning of Creation.” The Gift of Creation, 2009.
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Wirzba, N. “The Art of Being a Creature.” The Gift of Creation, 2009.
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Wirzba, N. “Agrarianism for Christians.” The Christian Citizen, 2009.
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Wirzba, N. “The touch of humility: an invitation to creatureliness.” Modern Theology 24, no. 2 (April 1, 2008): 225–44.Link to Item
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Norman Wirzba, N. “Soil, Food, and Faith: A Primer in Environmental Theology.” The Presbyterian Record 132, no. 4 (2008): 18.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “The dark night of the soil: an agrarian approach to mystical life.” Christianity and Literature 56, no. 2 (December 1, 2007): 253–74.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Barnyard dance: farming that honors animals.” Christian Century 124, no. 2 (January 23, 2007): 8–9.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Throwaway People, Throwaway Land.” Books & Culture, no. November/December (2007).
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Wirzba, N. “Humility.” The Cresset, 2007.
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Wirzba, N. “Time out: a Sabbath sensibility.” Christian Century 122, no. 14 (July 12, 2005): 24–28.Link to Item
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Norman Wirzba, N. “Time out.” The Christian Century 122, no. 14 (2005): 24.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Vocatio in Pianissimo: The Loss and Recovery of Vocation in Contemporary Life.” The Cresset, 2005.
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Wirzba, N. “Sabbath Farming.” Farming Magazine 5, no. 4 (2005): 32–36.
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Wirzba, N. “Sabbath Environmentalism.” Orion, 2005.
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Wirzba, N. “The Idea of a Sabbath Economy: A Theological Framework for Economists.” The New Pantagruel 1, no. 1 (2004).Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “The Culture of Food.” Christian Reflection, no. 13 (2004): 84–88.
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Wirzba, N. “Lawns in the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Christian Century, 2004.
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Wirzba, N. “Review of Peter Scott’s A Political Theology of Nature.” Pro Ecclesia 13, no. 4 (2004).
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Wirzba, N. “The Feast of Creation.” The Cresset, no. Advent/Christmas (2003).
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Wirzba, N. “Curing Our Affluenza: A Review Essay on Consumerism.” Christian Reflection, 2003.
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Wirzba, N. “Job and the Divine Scale of Creation.” Christian Reflection, 2002.
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Wirzba, N. “Everyday Delight.” Christian Reflection, 2002.
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Wirzba, N. “A Plea for Wild Religion.” A Global Witness, 2001.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Noah and the Ark : Becoming Creation.” Living Pulpit 9, no. 2 (April 1, 2000): 28–29.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Soil-Cultivating Citizens: An Agrarian Contribution to Political Life.” The Land Report, 2000.
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Wirzba, N. “Caring and working : An agrarian perspective.” Christian Century 116, no. 25 (September 22, 1999): 898–901.Link to Item
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Norman Wirzba, Norman. “Grace at Work: A Review of Wendell Berry’s A Timbered Choir.” The Christian Century 115, no. 32 (1998): 1090–91.Link to Item
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Wirzba, Norman. “The Needs of Thought and the Affirmation of Life.” International Philosophical Quarterly 37, no. 4 (1997): 385–401. https://doi.org/10.5840/ipq199737448.Full Text
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Wirzba, N. “Teaching as propaedeutic to religion: The contribution of Levinas and Kierkegaard.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 39, no. 2 (January 1, 1996): 77–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00143687.Full Text
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Wirzba, N. “From maieutics to metanoia: Levinas's understanding of the philosophical task.” Man and World 28, no. 2 (April 1, 1995): 129–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01278941.Full Text
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Wirzba, N. “To feed the world : the contribution of Emmanuel Levinas.” Christian Century 108, no. 19 (June 12, 1991): 623–25.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Thinking with the Stomach in Mind: Agrarianism and the Future of Philosophy.” Contemporary Philosophy Xxi, no. 1&2 (n.d.): 42–47.
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Wirzba, N. “Food for Theologians.” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology, n.d., October-2013.
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Wirzba, N. “Preparing for Joy.” Christian Reflection: Lent, n.d.
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Wirzba, N. “Review of Thomas Berry’s The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-First Century (Columbia University Press).” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, n.d., August-2011.
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Wirzba, N. “Review of Barry McDonald’s Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred.” Temenos Academy Review 7 (n.d.).
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Book Sections
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Wirzba, N. “The Witness of Praise-The Hope of Dwelling.” In Theology, Music, and Modernity: Struggles for Freedom, 336–57, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198846550.003.0016.Full Text
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Wirzba, Norman. “Eating Our Way into the Care of Our Common Home.” In THEOLOGY AND ECOLOGY ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES: ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME, 197–209, 2018.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “The art of creaturely life: A question of human propriety.” In Being-in-Creation: Human Responsibility in an Endangered World, 51–73, 2015.
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Wirzba, N. “North American Agrarian Theology.” In In Creation and Salvation: A Companion on Recent Theological Movements, edited by E. Conradie. LIT Verlag, 2012.
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Wirzba, N. “In God’s Garden: Living the Good News in a Changing Climate.” In Sacred Acts: The Hopeful Work of Churches to Protect God’s Climate, edited by M. McDuf. New Society Publishers, 2012.
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Wirzba, N. “Thanks for the Dirt: Gratitude as the Basis for Environmental Ethics.” In Diversity and Dominion: Dialogues in Ecology, Ethics, and Theology, edited by K. S. Van Houten and M. Northcott. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2010.
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Wirzba, N. “Agrarianism.” In Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability: The Spirit of Sustainability, edited by W. Jenkins. Berkshire Publishing, 2010.
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Wirzba, N. “Emmanuel Levinas.” In World Philosophers and Their Works. Salem Press, 2010.
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Wirzba, N. “The dark night of the soil: An agrarian approach to mystical life.” In Wendell Berry and Religion: Heaven’s Earthly Life, 148–69, 2009.
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Wirzba, N. “Farms.” In The Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, edited by J. B. Callicott and R. Frodeman. Macmillan Reference, 2009.
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Wirzba, N. “Agrarianism after modernity: an opening for grace.” In After Modernity?, 241–58. Waco, Tex: Baylor University Press, 2008.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “The primacy of love.” In Transforming Philosophy and Religion, 15–27. Bloomington: Indiana Univ Pr, 2008.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “An Economy of Gratitude.” In Wendell Berry: Life and Work, 142–55. University Press of Kentucky, 2007.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Attention and responsibility: the work of prayer.” In Phenomenology of Prayer, 88–100. New York: Fordham Univ Pr, 2005.Link to Item
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Wirzba, N. “Caring for Creation.” In Schools for Conversion: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism, edited by R. House. Cascade Books, 2005.
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Wirzba, N. “Introduction: Why Agrarianism Matters, Even to Urbanites.” In The Essential Agrarian Reader, edited by N. Wirzba. University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
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Wirzba, N. “Placing the Soul: An Agrarian Philosophical Principle.” In The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land, edited by N. Wirzba. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
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Wirzba, N. “The Enjoyment of God and Creation.” In In Food and Faith: Justice, Joy and Daily Bread, edited by M. Schut. Living the Good News Press, 2002.
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Wirzba, N. “The Challenge of Berry’s Agrarian Vision.” In The Art of the Commonplace. Washington, D.C: Counterpoint Press, 2002.
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Wirzba, N. “Love's reason : from Heideggerian care to Christian charity.” In Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought, 246–67. Bloomington: Indiana Univ Pr, 1999.Link to Item
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Other Articles
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Wirzba, N. “Dirt, Bodies, and Food: Our Reconciliation with Creation,” 2012.
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Wirzba, N. “Gardening with God.” Huffington Post, July 12, 2010.
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Norman Wirzba, Christine E. “Down to Earth: A Review of Eric Freyfogle’s The New Agrarianism.” The Christian Century. Chicago: Christian Century Foundation, 2001.Link to Item
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Conference Papers
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Wirzba, N. “Love's reason.” In Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought, edited by M. Westphal, 246–67. INDIANA UNIV PRESS, 1999.Link to Item
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- UNIV 102: Let's Talk About Climate Change 2023
- XTIANTHE 812: The Doctrine of Creation and Theological Anthropology 2023
- XTIANTHE 990: Topics in Theology 2023
- ENVIRON 593: Independent Studies and Projects 2022
- ENVIRON 899: Master's Project 2022
- PARISH 999: Directed Study 2022
- UNIV 102: Let's Talk About Climate Change 2022
- XTIANETH 999: DIRECTED STUDY 2022
- XTIANTHE 999: Directed Study 2022
- ENVIRON 593: Independent Studies and Projects 2021
- ENVIRON 899: Master's Project 2021
- PARISH 890: Seminar in Contemporary Ministries (TOP) 2021
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
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