Calvin University
EN-12: Continuing Education

1) Earthkeeping and Character, Spring 2022

What kind of people do we need to properly care for our home planet? What character traits can we proactively cultivate in our homes and schools, churches and workplaces, neighborhoods and cities? What habitual dispositions are most needed today? In this class we will explore the nuts and bolts of a Christian ecological virtue ethic: wonder and humility, self-control and wisdom, justice and love, courage, and hope.

Suggested reading: Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic by Steve Bouma-Prediger, ISBN 978-0801098840; Baker Academic, will be available at the Calvin University Campus Store.

Subject: nature, ethics

Steve Bouma-Prediger, leader, teaches environmental history and philosophy and Christian theology and ethics at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He also teaches in New Zealand for the Creation Care Study Program and in the Hope College/Western Seminary prison education program in Muskegon, Michigan. His most recent book is Earthkeeping and Character: Exploring a Christian Ecological Virtue Ethic.

2) Refugia Faith: A Way Forward on Climate Change for People of Faith, Spring 2022

In her new book, Debra Rienstra explores how Christian spirituality and practice must adapt to prepare for life on a climate-altered planet. Refugia (reh-FU-jee-ah) is a biological term describing places of shelter where life endures in times of crisis or extreme disturbance. Ideally, these refugia persist, expand, and connect so that new life emerges. Rienstra applies this concept to human culture and faith, asking: In this era of ecological devastation, how can Christians become people of refugia? How can we find and nurture these refugia, not only in the biomes of the earth, but in our human cultural systems and in our spiritual lives? How can we apply all our love and creativity to this task as never before?

By weaving nature writing, personal narrative, and theological reflection, Rienstra grapples honestly with her own fears and longings and outlines a way to transform Christian spirituality and practice, become a healer on a damaged earth, and inspire others to do the same.

Required Text: Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, ISBN 978-1506473796, by Debra Rienstra, is available beginning mid-February in the Calvin University Campus Store.

Subject: literature, theology

Debra Rienstra, leader, is professor of English at Calvin University, where she has taught since 1996, specializing in early British literature and creative writing. She is the author of four books—on motherhood, spirituality, worship, and ecotheology—and numerous essays and poems. She writes bi-weekly for The Twelve, an online magazine connected with The Reformed Journal, writing about spirituality, pop culture, the church, the arts, higher ed, and more.

3) The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry, Fall 2021

For those who have been charmed and challenged by the imaginative vision of the Kentucky farmer and writer Wendell Berry in his fiction and his poetry from the past 60 years, his long witness of cultural commentary embodied in his essays provides a more deliberate and straight-forward defense of local communities and the healing practices of living within meaningful boundaries. Berry’s tone, often lyrical and compelling, points to the constant damage and error of late modern society not just to lament, but also to seek out hopeful solutions--often with the past informing the future, not by nostalgia, but by wisdom.

Required text: The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry, from Counterpoint Press, ISBN 978-1593760076, is available in the Calvin University Campus Store, or both new and used from multiple sources online.

Subject: literature, environment

Michael R. Stevens, leader, is a professor of American literature at Cornerstone University since 1997. Professor Stevens has written extensively, often with his friend and colleague Professor Matt Bonzo, on the work of the Kentucky poet-novelist essayist- farmer Wendell Berry, especially Berry’s notions of sustainable communities and active peace-making. He is currently writing a year-long devotional on how to become rooted in faith, aimed at young adults.

2021-2022 reports put together by Eleanor Ludwig with course descriptions from Sonja DeJong, Program Manager for CALL, Calvin Academy for Lifelong Learning.