Elegy for a lost world

Abstract

How are we to suffer with-and amidst-the loss of our earthly habitat and its despoilment through ecocidal economic and political policies? This essay engages biblical texts in order to claim that Earth is an inherently valuable organism with the capacity to feel and suffer. Turning to Jesus’ mudpie ritual in John 9, I recover it as a story of palpable holiness in which the sacred elements of dirt and spit-like bread and wine in traditional Christian liturgy-are God’s holy means of grace and healing. I conclude that cultivating an attitudinal disposition toward Earth, as holy ground, is the basis for healing the suffering among ourselves and the wider community of living beings.