Join us for a discussion of Norman Wirzba's book This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World. The book helps us ask what is means for us to see the world, and life on Earth, as sacred. Questions for our discussion of Chapter 3 on March 20 are:

1.  Wirzba says in the Preface that his book is about three fundamental questions: Where are you? Who are you? How should you live?  Do you think that any one of these questions is most important to understanding Chapter 3, “Rooted Life”?  If so, which one did you choose, and why?

2.  In what ways does the Creation story in the second chapter of Genesis show that “rootedness” is our essential condition? How is this rootedness a key to our sacred life, in the view of the Genesis author?  (64-68)

3.  Write a brief (one- or two-sentence) definition of “symbiogenesis,” a concept in evolutionary biology proposed by Lynn Margulis.  Why is symbiogenesis helpful to understanding Wirzba’s notion of “life together” as spiritual practice?  (73-75)

4. “Today’s Anthropocene context compels us to reassess rootlessness,” Wirzba writes on pg. 79.  For what reasons is rootlessness probably a more important issue than it was for our ancestors, for example, 500 years ago?  Can you think of a time in your own life when you felt especially rooted, or rootless?  How did this experience contribute to your feelings of connection to, or disconnection from, a sense of the sacred in your life?

Join us for the conversation led by Steve Knight and Father Beddingfield. Join us in (March 20 online only) through Zoom at at https://zoom.us/j/8753617165 (for the password, type the numerals for eighteen ninety-nine, two thousand nineteen. No comma or space.)

Books can be bought from your favorite vender or downloaded online. The church has ordered some copies which also may be purchased.