Norman Wirzba
Key Details
Norman Wirzba, LSRI Senior Visiting Fellow (2022), is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Raised on a farm in Southern Alberta, Norman went on to study history at the University of Lethbridge, theology at Yale University Divinity School, and philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. His current work focuses on understanding and promoting practices that can equip both rural and urban church communities to be more faithful and responsible members of creation. Norman lectures frequently in Canada, the United States, and Europe. He serves as general editor for the book series Culture of the Land: A Series in the New Agrarianism, published by the University Press of Kentucky, and is co-founder and executive committee member of the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology. He is the father of four children and is married to Gretchen Ziegenhals.
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Research Interests
Norman pursues research and teaching interests at the intersections of theology, philosophy, ecology, and agrarian and environmental studies. In particular, his research is centred on a recovery of the doctrine of creation and a restatement of humanity in terms of its creaturely life. He is currently the director of a multi-year, Henry Luce-Foundation-funded projected entitled “Facing the Anthropocene.” In this project, housed at Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics, he is working with an international team of scholars to rethink several academic disciplines in light of challenges like climate change, food insecurity, biotechnology and genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, species extinction, and the built environment.
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Education
PhD in Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago.
M.A. in Philosophy, Loyola University at Chicago
M.A. in Religion, Yale University
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Selected Publications
This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating. 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Way of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianity. HarperOne, 2016.
From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World. Baker Academic, 2015.
Being-in-Creation: Human Responsibility in an Endangered World. Brian Treanor, Bruce Ellis Benson, and Norman Wirzba. Fordham University Press, 2015.
Sustainable Agriculture and the World’s Religious Traditions. The University Press of Kentucky, 2014.
Making Peace with the Land: God's Call to Reconcile with Creation. Fred Bahnson and Norman Wirzba. InterVarsity Press, 2012.
Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Words of Life: New Theological Turns in French Phenomenology. Bruce Ellis Benson and Norman Wirzba. Fordham University Press, 2010.
The Gift of Creation: Images from Scripture and Earth. Acclaim Press, 2009.
Transforming Philosophy and Religion: Love's Wisdom. Bruce Ellis Benson and Norman Wirzba. Indiana University Press, 2008.
Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight. Brazos, 2006.
The Phenomenology of Prayer. Bruce Ellis Benson and Norman Wirzba. Fordham Univ Pr, 2005.
Edited books, including:
The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land. University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
The Art of the Commonplace: Wendell Berry’s Agrarian Essays. Counterpoint Press, 2002.
