With her gray hair tied neatly in a bun and her wire-rimmed glasses perched thoughtfully on her nose, Ellen Davis looks the part of a distinguished Bible scholar.
Her resume certainly reads like one — a Ph.D. from Yale University and teaching appointments at Union Theological Seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, Yale and now Duke Divinity School.
Yet despite the traditional cast, Davis is leading a quiet revolution. For the past 20 years, she has been at the vanguard of theologians studying the biblical understanding of care for the land.
Her groundbreaking book, “Scripture, Culture and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible,” is considered a classic, and she travels widely to speak at churches and conferences about the role of agriculture and the ethics of land use in the Bible.
Her work makes the case that Christian theologians have for too long focused narrowly on the spiritual component of Scripture and in the process have overlooked the Bible’s material concerns.
Speaking to some 30 church members as part of a Sunday morning Creation Care series at the Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in nearby Chapel Hill, she focused on Genesis 1. She read aloud from the Bible and pointed out that God blesses nonhuman creatures first.
“It is not all about us,” said Davis, 63. “God is establishing a genuine relationship with creatures of sea and sky.”
This point — that the Bible does not separate human life from nonhuman life and that God cares for all creation — is consistent throughout her writings.
Read the entire article here.
Links for more information:
RNS article, via the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/ellen-davis-unearths-an-agrarian-view-of-the-bible/2013/10/29/26b5e90e-40ca-11e3-b028-de922d7a3f47_story.html?utm_term=.80cc70557af1
An excellent review of the book posted at Patheos: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slowchurch/2011/11/13/sunday-afternoon-book-review-scripture-culture-agriculture-by-ellen-davis/
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