Non-human Natural World

Epiphany’s Choice and the Environment: In Reverence to Honor, or in Fear to Destroy

Bible, Bible and ecology, Blog, Ecology, Holidays, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, Politics / By

Hang on, you there, packing up the Christmas lights, dismantling the tree, boxing up the crèche with its cast of characters and that long-tailed star. Christmas is not over. Sure, come December 26th, it may have been all over for the “Little Drummer Boy,” Bing Crosby, and the Nutcracker; but not quite for Christmas. The …

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We Are Animals, Environment and Election 2016

Animals, Bible and ecology, Ecology, Non-human Natural World / By

We are animals. I don’t mean that figuratively (though given the mud-fest incivility of this election, a case could be made). I mean it literally and to consider in the context of this election. We are blood, bone, brain, and balls, composed of material stuff and animated by love, fear, and the pursuit of happiness. …

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A Good Thing about That Emoji Bible

ancient Near East, Bible, Bible and ecology, Bible translation, Blog, Ecology, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, Sex, Writing Process / By

One of my favorite questions as a Bible-scholar-lady is “So, what’s the best translation?” I love this question not only because it opens the door to substantive discussion that can last for the better part of a class period… no matter how long the meeting. But I also love it because we get to talk …

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Millet’s Calf, a Newborn Jesus, and God of Earth

Animals, Blog, Church, Jesus, Non-human Natural World, religious holidays / By

Maybe it’s the way the light falls, illuminating the bed of straw like some upside-down and disheveled halo, all gold and shimmery, on which the baby lies – a baby cow, in this case. Or maybe it’s the calf’s beatific face, alert and looking straight out at us from the center of the canvas. I …

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A Walkabout Psalm

Bible, Blog, Creativity, Life, Non-human Natural World, Work, Writing, Writing Process / By

What if I took a psalm a day, read it, took a walk, and returned to my desk with jot-able thoughts? There are the year-of-living-some-way books, the applications-of-a-classic books, the travel-across-somewhere or enduring-peculiar-deprivations books,… Why not a scholar’s-nonscholarship-of-a-biblical-book book? Turns out, there are several reasons not, not for me, anyway, not now. The house where …

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Elemental

Non-human Natural World, Uncategorized / By

The old silver maple between kitchen and pond is slowly giving up its branches to others’ uses — woodpeckers and rodents inclined to hibernate, the complex dust of compost. And to us. Storms lop limbs like tantrum-ing spirits winging through the yard. A few hours without power, but a whole heap of firewood remains. As …

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