LEXINGTON, Ky.—Norman Wirzba, research professor of theology, ecology and rural life at the Duke Divinity School, will deliver the opening convocation to the Transylvania community on Sunday, September 13, at 7 p.m. in Haggin Auditorium.
His topic, “The Grace of Good Food,” continues the theme of this year’s First Engagements Community Book Project pick, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. Wirzba pursues research and teaching interests at the intersections of theology, philosophy, ecology, and agrarian and environmental studies. In particular, he focuses on understanding and promoting practices that will equip both rural and urban communities to be more faithful and responsible members of creation. Current projects focus on eating as a spiritual discipline, theological reflection as informed by place and agrarianism as a viable and comprehensive cultural force.
Wirzba has published The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age and Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight. He has edited The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land and The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry. He serves as editor for the book series Culture of the Land: A Series in the New Agrarianism, published by the University Press of Kentucky.