Paperback – September 19, 2023

 
As temperatures rise, natural disasters wreak devastation, and precious species die off one by one, we know we must change how we live in the world. But how? What would it look like if we took seriously the biblical charge to live more peacefully and gently on our fragile planet if we understood ourselves as neighbors in a community of creation? Rooted Faith explores the future of the church called to live differently—one of reinhabiting our particular landscapes and confronting the assumptions of consumer culture head-on through our lives and actions.

Drawing on Scripture, Christian history, and practical theology, author Sarah Renee Werner invites readers into a new way of seeing ourselves in relationship with the rest of creation. She offers tangible practices for opening up our hearts to both the beauty and tragedy around us and guides us toward meaningful action to restore creation. There has never been a more crucial moment to reclaim this overlooked aspect of our faith as we seek to live differently—live well—on this fragile planet.

Not only is Sarah a former Gilmont Staffer, She also has a great bio since then. 

Sarah Renee Werner is the communications coordinator for the Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA and pastor of Olentangy Wild Church. She is also a professor of eco-theology with PATHWAYS, an online theological education program affiliated with the United Church of Christ, and lead course reviewer for the Environmental Justice Certificate Program, helping to develop a series of courses to help pastors, laypeople, and theology students confront environmental injustice in their local communities. She has served as guest editor for an environment-themed issue of Anabaptist Witness, and has written several articles for the journal, a publication of the Mennonite Mission Network, as well as for the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, and others.

"Rooted Faith is a timely field guide for getting to know God by getting outdoors. With passion and practical know-how, Sarah Renee Werner helps reconnect Christians who love the Creator with his glorious creation. We don't need more wonders in the world--just a greater sense of wonderment!"
--MATTHEW SLEETH, MD, executive director of Blessed Earth and author of Reforesting Faith and 24/6

"'Christianity in its biblical roots is grounded in the earth, ' argues Sarah Renee Werner in this refreshing and readable introduction to Christian creation care/earth spirituality/ecotheology. Churches must recover an interrelationship with a living biosphere, healing our de-formation by the objectification, dualism, and placelessness of settler colonialism by returning to the animist cosmology, poetic imagination, and incarnational geocentricism that are--surprise!--intrinsic to our scriptural narratives. She commends spiritual practices of reembodiment throughout to deepen personal and political wholeness and hope. An ideal book group resource!"
--CHED MYERS, coauthor of Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization

"Sarah Renee Werner has written a book that reaches us right where we live. Teaching us to live differently is our only path to healing. I highly recommend you make reading Rooted Faith a priority, and soon."--RANDY WOODLEY, author of Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth

"Sarah Renee Werner's Rooted Faith is a call for Christians to embrace the reality that Jesus and the tradition that was formed from his radical life and message is fully rooted in a sentient, alive world of interconnected beings. Learning how to be the heart of Christ in a climate-changing world is precisely where the church is needed today and in the challenging days to come. I'm grateful for this book. Selah and amen."
--VICTORIA LOORZ, author, wild church pastor, and founder of the Center for Wild Spirituality

"This book is a winsome, accessible meditation on creation as the environmental crisis looms over us. It lives at the intersection of gospel faith, Indigenous religion, and the earthly reality of belonging to and with and for the earth. The concrete focus on lived reality is evident as we learn that the 'dove' at the baptism of Jesus was a 'Palestinian pigeon, ' and as we practice 'earthing'--that is, walking in bare feet to let our bodies feel the life-giving surges of the earth. A bonus of the book is an introduction to a wide literature on the subject, which is new to me. This is a fine, generative, suggestive read that remains focused on the reality of our earthly placement."
--WALTER BRUEGGEMANN, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary

"Winsome and wise, Rooted Faith provides a friendly entry point for Christians seeking to understand better and go deeper into Christian faithfulness at a time of planetary crisis. Sarah Renee Werner's emphasis on simple practices will be especially appealing for those who are ready to begin, but don't know how. For such readers, Werner offers a gracious invitation: it's okay--begin here."
--DEBRA RIENSTRA, author of Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth