A College for Christian Scientists
Interested in sustainable living? Are there sacred reasons for doing so—for living responsibly in relationship with our physical world? Looking for a team to explore and research what that looks like? Join us for a transformative learning experience that tackles one of the most pressing ecological and social concerns of modern life.
Discover, in Environmental and Social Change with Jackie Burns, the three pillars of sustainability: ecological, economic, and social. Learn about permaculture and deep ecology, group dynamics and ecological building, social enterprise and ecological restoration. Partner these sustainability models with the Bible’s spiritual, moral, and ethical messages in Women of the Bible with Helen Mathis, focusing particularly on the stories of women. Bring to bear on the public conversation about the ecological crisis such biblical themes and qualities as re-creation, nurture, redemption, resurrection, healing, balance, interdependence, reverence, humility, grace, justice, wholeness, and love.
You and your team members, as “planet managers,” will employ these social and spiritual resources to arrive at an objective assessment of the state of the planet, followed by regional, community, and place-based solutions. With the help of field trips investigating different alternative or “intentional” communities, this course seeks to inform, enable, and re-sanctify community-based visions of a sustainable civilization, explore the means and qualities necessary to turn such visions into a reality for the 21st century, and then team-design an ideal community.
