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OIKOS God’s Big Word for a Small Planet
A Theology of Economy, Ecology, and Ecumeny
Andrew Francis
Oikos
God’s Big Word for a Small Planet
Copyright © 2017 Andrew Francis. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Cascade Books
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-3517-4
hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-3519-8
ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-3518-1
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Names: Francis, Andrew.
Title: Oikos : God’s big word for a small planet / Andrew Francis.
Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017 | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: isbn 978-1-4982-3517-4 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-4982-3519-8 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-4982-3518-1 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: 1. Environmental economics. | 2. Sustainable development. I. Title.
Classification: HC79.E5 F696 2017 (print) | HC79 (ebook)
Manufactured in the U.S.A. February 27, 2018
This is book is dedicated to three sets of folks, who ensure my vision and thinking takes account of the world in which we live.
First, for my “brothers in alms”, whose generosity of heart, mind, and pocket have enriched my life:
Allan Armstrong
Stuart Hodby
David Nash
Jeremy Thomson
and second their wives, respectively: Gloria, Stephanie, Sally, and Kathy.
Finally, for the next generation of my family, as they set out in the world:
Caroline Heath
Nicholas Hodby
Philip Hodby
Sophie Hodby
Angharad Nash
“Every part of the earth is sacred to my people . . . our God is also your God: the earth is precious to him and to harm the world is to heap contempt upon its creator . . . this we know; the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth”.
– Chief Seattle
“I have come that they may have life—life in all its fullness”.
– Jesus of Nazareth
“The roots of ecology, economics and ecumenism are all in oikos: with the right management of the [global] household—respect for the integrity of nature and equitable sharing of resources—all can be included at the dinner table”.
– Sallie McFague
Acknowledgements
This book owes its genesis to my life’s journey through so many countries and communities, and with good compañeros—I have been blessed by God in every one of them.
Without our family’s ophthalmologist, Peter Rocket, and my gifted cataract surgeon, Thamir Yasen, I would have lost so much of my sight while this book was being written, and would have given my library away, and you would have had only a tiny bibliography. But without my high school wrestling with E. F. Schumacher and Peter Kropotkin, and the biblical prophets and the Gospels about Jesus of Nazareth, I would not have begun to see the world as I have come to understand it.
Without my mother’s and father’s encouragement, I would not have traveled or learned to make multidisciplinary connections about life, the universe, and everything that impacts the communities in which we live.
But my “brothers in alms” and their wives keep me challenging my own lifestyle and learning, asking the big and detailed questions which develop the “currency of ideas.” It is also the hope and conversation of my close family’s next generation, now wrestling with their university studies and first jobs, that inspire me to dedicate this book to them, too.
So it is thanks to both James Stock and Robin Parry, at Wipf and Stock, who recognized the potential for and supported the publication of this book. Thanks to Rodney Clapp, my wise and patient editor there, all the backroom team, Mike Surber for the great cover, and their publicity crew for ensuring you hold this book in your hands. Thank you to you for (buying and) reading it.
Without the support and critique of many friends, this book would not have made it this far. My thanks go to Allan Armstrong, Ollie Henshall, Sarah Lane Cawte, Poppy Leeder, Annie J. Peters, Paul Sunners, and Jeremy Thomson, who all read extracts or discussed the trajectories of the text as it was being brought together. I owe many thanks to Trisha Dale for pulling the text into Chicago style shape. Thank you also to Alastair McIntosh and Stuart Masters for the back cover commendations.
Finally, I can never give nor show enough gratitude to my loving partner, Janice Hodby. She shares my “take” on the world, our home, and mutual joy in hospitality, as we welcome friend and stranger. Whether in that welcoming, or cultivating our garden, or just watching the sunset, Janice patiently inspires me to write day after day.
About the writer
Andrew Francis is a UK-based community theologian as well as a published writer and poet. He now focuses much of his other public ministry as a conference speaker, seminar leader, and Christian preacher.
After early studies in law and theology, he went on to gain an MTh for his thesis on radical Christian communities, resulting in Anabaptism: Radical Christianity (2011). Later, he studied for his doctorate at Princeton Theological Seminary. His dissertation there explored the Christian use of hospitality and shared food; this was published in a UK popular version: Hospitality and Community After Christendom (2012). Until cardiac illness intervened, he served for nearly thirty years as a congregationally based United Reformed Church pastor, in the UK and France.
He has also served the wider church as an adult educator and group accompanier as well as working for the BBC as a broadcaster and religious programs editor. He oversaw the building and early development of a French retreat house. He was the UK’s first Anabaptist Network development worker and formerly was vice-chair of the UK’s Mennonite Trust.
His social policy writing includes his previous Cascade book, What in God’s Name Are You Eating? (2014), about food ethics, and the multi-authored Foxes Have Holes: Reflections upon Britain’s Housing Need (2016), which he edited. A biographical study of a theologian, Dorothee Soelle: Life and Work (2015), is to be followed by one of English writer Lawrence Durrell in 2019. His other theological work includes Shalom: The Jesus Manifesto (2016), an in-production theology of mission for 2018, and a future liturgical/pastoral theology volume.
A former potter and artist, he is a joyful cook and jam-maker, enjoying growing food in his community garden. He lives in southwest England. His personal website is www.anmchara.com; anmchara is Gaelic for “soul friend.”
Introduction
I begin with two stories from the opposite poles of planet Earth. First, the Nenet caribou1 herders