Abstract

In recent years many theologies of nature have been written that have been rather abstract and removed from a day-to-day relationship with the natural world. Building on the work of Wes Jackson, a plant geneticist and founder of the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, this dissertation reflects on the peculiar gestalt that takes place, or should take place, when cultus meets agros, when people and land live in relationship with each other. More specifically, it attempts to establish a theological foundation upon which humans can attribute meaning to their experience of place. It is argued that the traditional doctrine of imago dei only gives humans the impression that they are separate from the world, and thus not obligated to it morally. An alternative doctrine is proposed: humans as imago mundi et dei. Consideration of the most popular metaphysics for recent theologies of nature---Whitehead's process philosophy---reveals that process thought is deficient on two points: it cannot ground our understanding of the contemporaneity of all entities , and it cannot affirm the Judeo-Christian understanding of a personal God. The philosophical reflections of Martin Buber, on the other hand, seem to be more appropriate to our task. Buber recognizes a world replete with the possibility of encounter between I and Thou in which empathy, "being with," can truly take place. In the final chapter I offer a constructive proposal for a new theological understanding of Christ as community. Building on the work of Mark Kline Taylor, I suggest that we begin thinking about Christ as neither individual nor universal, but as a "natural-historical dynamic of reconciliatory emancipation." This should be present whenever Christians attempt to live faithfully in a place, whenever, cultus meets agros