What is Land for? The Food, Fuel and Climate Change Debate Edited by Michael Winter and Matt Lobley Earthscan 2009
ISBN 978-18440-77205 (£49.95, hardback only)
In addressing the title question, this book maps out the purpose and potential uses of land in 21st century Britain. Most chapters are from academics based on their areas of expertise, but not all read like academic papers (though some are quite technical). There is little debate within each chapter, as different contributors highlight competing land use priorities. The debate follows on from all the contributions together; the editors’ concluding chapter drawing out the issues for that debate.
The essays cover topics such as energy crops, ecosystems, carbon capture, the UK uplands, biodiversity, government policy, the changing public engagement with land, agricultural stewardship, and ethical decision-making in land use. However, a weakness is the lack of a single chapter bringing together the major concerns relating land with food production, which the authors themselves acknowledge.
The chapter on ethical decision-making is important; identifying and summarising the key ethical approaches to land and environment, then focusing on agricultural ethics. Three key areas of concern are briefly described, followed by an outline of four real-life models adopted for addressing these concerns. It ends by highlighting ethical themes flowing through the preceding chapters. It is no accident that this chapter is underpinned by a Biblical worldview.
If you want informed reflection on today’s crucial debates, policy-making and planning about land use, this book is well worth a read.
Simon Martin
The Seasons of the Spirit Teresa Morgan, BRF, 2010, ISBN 978 184 101710 5 £6.99
Described in the subtitle as One community’s journey through the Christian year this short book is a rich collection of reflections and poems that arise out of the ordinary parish ministry of this pastorally minded and theologically acute priest.
The Anglican tradition has been characterised as possessing a ‘poetic imagination’ rather than a systematic theology of its own, and Teresa Morgan admits that ‘fragments of people’s lives prise open my imagination like a tin’. Her insights, expressed in simple but memorable words and phrases, take us with her on a journey about faith and everyday life. She sees in the emerging snowdrops of early spring as a sign of a universe where everything is connected. In the Collect for Ash Wednesday, a note of confidence with a reminder that we are not asked to transform ourselves but only to believe that we can be transformed and to ask for help.
Her appreciation and enjoyment of the quirkiness of parishioners is evident and a source for her insights and questions about faith. There is Clive, whose bewildering conversation about ‘Transylvanian missionaries’ gives rise to new questions about the work of the Spirit; and a funeral visit, involving 20 relatives and a number of large dogs, which fills her with appreciative wonder at the depth and variety of human lives. These are things that many parish clergy will recognise, and will find themselves encouraged by her ability to catch glimpses of
God in these everyday events. We gain from these insights an appreciation of the value of attending to a place, its people and its seasons, which is at the heart of good parish ministry. This is the fruit of ministry that gives itself to a place and which takes time to attend to and learn from ordinary things and unspectacular lives. We can see through Teresa Morgan’s reflections parish ministry as the arena in which the Kingdom of God discloses itself to those with time and imagination.
Leslie Morley , Rural Officer, Diocese of Ripon and Leeds
www.countyway.org.uk
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