Re-placing Theological Knowledge Production

Keywords: Food and faith, land use, soil care, religion and geography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 4

Abstract

The Farminary at Princeton Theological Seminary is one of several farm-based programs housed at theological institutions, seminaries or divinity schools, and among a growing number of religious, or faith-based, organic and/or regenerative farms emerging from diverse faith traditions and within what is sometimes called the “food and faith” movement (Treyz & Lietz Bilecky 2021). As a “living lab,” the Farminary is a site of theological and agricultural knowledge production, where agricultural space, wisdom and praxis are shaped and informed by scriptural texts and ecumenical traditions. Additionally, the program seeks to train and equip students to implement similar projects focused on food production on under-utilized land owned by religious organizations, a vast asset for supporting many kinds of community-based initiatives, revitalization, or to meet land access needs for under-resourced growers. While the Farminary has demonstrated commitment to building local, regional and institutional partnerships within the food and faith landscape and developed novel ways of thinking and caring with damaged and degraded soils (Puig de la Bellacasa 2014, Krzywosynska 2020), as both a form of and resource for chaplaincy (ministerial work at the nexus of life and death), I discuss limitations in pedagogy and scalability traceable to its disciplinary identity. I ask what questions and futures theological inquiry makes possible in and through food production. I suggest resources and practices that might guide these living labs in land use decision-making, as they seek to repair both physical landscapes and the theological language that has shaped them.