Join us for a discussion of Norman Wirzba's book This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World.

On April 24 we’ll be discussing Chapter 7. Questions for thought and discussion are:

1. Summarize Wirzba’s challenge to the notion of individual identity, as articulated by the philosophers Judith Butler and Emmanuel Levinas. (181-83) How is this challenge connected to the scientific theory of symbiogenesis, discussed previously in Chapter 3? In what ways might it be connected to your individual identity as a member of a Christian faith community?

2. What did Dietrich Bonhoeffer believe was the most important message of the Adam and Eve story, in the second chapter of Genesis? Why did this message resonate so deeply for his German students in 1932? What parallels – political, sociological, or ecological – might we find between their historical moment, and ours? (185-94)

3. What is neoliberalism, as both a philosophy and an economic program? In what ways does Wirzba see the neoliberal worldview in tension with our creaturely humanity, particularly the “crucifixion of self” that Paul describes in the sixth chapter of Romans? (194-211)

Join us for the conversation led by Steve Knight and Father Beddingfield. Join us in person or through Zoom at at https://zoom.us/j/8753617165 (for the password, type the numerals for eighteen ninety-nine, two thousand nineteen. No comma or space.)

Books can be bought from your favorite vender or downloaded online. The church has ordered some copies which also may be purchased.