ABSTRACT
“The agricultural Eucharist” provides the basis for sustainable design theory and praxis. In Christian theology, Eucharist is the point of participation between human being and God, understood as the Incarnated Christ. This Christ, in turn, “fills all things” (Ephesians 4.10). Here, this Biblical view conjoins with the horticultural writings of thinker-doers like Wendell Berry and Aldo Leopold to envision a participatory sustainable design, resulting in the agricultural Eucharist as a way of life more than as an instance of design. This approach eschews “swat team” approaches to sustainable practice, which largely depend on meeting numerical criteria while leaving the life of the practitioner (read: his or her moral lineaments embodied in life practices) outside the equation. This chapter refutes well-established critiques from Ian McHarg and Lynn White, to wit that our ecological crisis results from Christian Scripture. Their points might be salient; but they are actually critiquing Francis Bacon’s triumphalism over nature. In answer, the life of the Christ on earth provides a more accurate template for living sustainability in an analogical cosmos.
