# Norman Wirzba **Summary.** American theologian working at the intersection of Christian theology, creation care, agrarian ethics, and moral philosophy. Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology at Duke Divinity School. Stub entry — created because *Love's Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis* is the current Monday Afternoon Book Study text at [[St. John's UCC Chambersburg]] (chapter 8 on 2026-04-20). ## Tradition Mainline Protestant / ecumenical. Writes from within a broadly Reformed agrarian tradition with substantial engagement with Eastern Orthodox sacramental theology and the Wendell Berry school of agrarian thought. ## Works Relevant to This Wiki - ***Love's Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis*** (Broadleaf Books, 2025) — the current St. John's UCC Monday book study. Hope framed as participation in God's love, not as optimism; ecological crisis read theologically. Stub pending full ingest. - ***Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land*** (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022). - ***This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World*** (Cambridge, 2021). - ***Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating*** (Cambridge, 2011; 2nd ed. 2019). - ***The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Age of Ecology*** (Oxford, 2003). ## Themes to Track - **Hope as practice, not disposition.** A theological alternative to both triumphalism and despair. Likely resonant with the "resurrection as rebellion" framing already in this wiki (see [[Resurrection as Rebellion]]). - **Creation care as discipleship**, not as optional activism. - **Agrarian imagination** — land, food, bodies, and seasons as theological categories, not merely metaphors. ## Relationship to Wiki's Existing Concerns Wirzba is adjacent to **progressive mainline theology** but not part of the **NAR critique line** that currently dominates this wiki. He expands the wiki's frame from *what are we leaving* to *what are we walking toward*. Priority to develop as a dedicated entity page once the book study progresses or a Readwise highlight set exists. ## Sources - [[2026-04-19 St Johns UCC Pauls Conversion]] — bulletin announcement of the Monday book study (chapter 8, 2026-04-20). ## Status **Stub.** Dedicated ingest pending.