07 14 11 Why This Blog?

There is a method to my writing, although I don’t follow it with great discipline. My writing tries to combine the passion and experience of living in a bioshelter home with the principles of permaculture and the theology of the Christian faith tradition. My Christian reflections are certainly biblical, but have also been heavily influenced by German theologian Jürgen Moltmann’s writing, especially in his book God in Creation (God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God. Harper and Row, 1985). Reading his book was life-giving to me.

Unfortunately, Moltmann’s writings are largely impenetrable to the average reader, filled with philosophical and theological jargon that is difficult for the lay-person to unpack. Although I read and understood much in his writing, allowing the new thought to take form in my life—that is an integrating sense of living and understanding—has proven to be hard work. It would be easy to read his book and walk away unchanged.

So one purpose in writing this blog is to reflect on my efforts to put his writing into practice in the hopes that the combination of effort and reflection will result in meaningful growth. Indeed, the practical theology discipline assumes that our best living and learning comes by combining our best faith understandings (theology) with our best socio-behavioral understandings and our ongoing efforts to put those understandings into practice in real life. In this case, permaculture provides the socio-behavioral learning and the bioshelter home and land, plus the human communities around us, provide the context for living this out.

A secondary purpose in writing this blog is to invite others to read about our experiences, reflect on their own experiences and to enter into dialogue with us about it. Dialogue has the advantage of bringing the experience and perspective of other people into the conversation, expanding my learning and other people’s learning by creating a virtual learning community. So far this has not happened much; there have been very few comments and, quite frankly, very few readers. So I continue to blog to reap the benefits of personal reflection—the first goal. It is my hope that some will join the conversation at some point to help with the other.

One of the limits to this kind of blogging is that I have a job that requires much study, time and energy spent in other subjects and projects. This means I cannot read as much as I would like. However, I am now beginning reading a more contemporary book by Denis Edwards (Ecology at the Heart of Faith: The Change of Heart That Leads to A New Way of Living on Earth. Orbis Books, 2010). Where Moltmann centers his ecological reflection on the work of the Holy Spirit on, in and for creation, as part of the Christian Trinitarian understanding, Edwards focuses on the impact of the Christ as a particularly Christian perspective of understanding ecological ethics. I am hopeful that reading both will be stimulating and useful in my life and reflections.

Quite honestly my wife, Cindee, is the expert on permaculture. She has spent the past two years studying it at length, including becoming certified in permaculture design. For my part, I have done a bit of reading on the subject, but rely on her expertise to a large extent. I will likely read more on the subject in the future, which will certainly show itself more clearly in this blog.

The photos (except for yesterday's post) have all come from our almost two acres of property. For today, I hope you enjoy two photos representing the different moods that present themselves to us each day through our front windows.