Please note: Due to low registration, this class has been cancelled for fall of 2008. It will next be offered in the fall of 2009.

This is a web page of resources intended to augment the work of EL3530: Religious Education in Relation to Creation, a course that is taught at Luther Seminary.

During the fall of 2008, the course will meet on two weekends. The first of those weekends will be September 19-21. We will begin with dinner at Shalom Hill Farm in southwestern Minnesota, so you will need to plan for the three hour drive down there, and staying there for the entire weekend (housing provided). Then we will meet all of Saturday, and conclude with worship and lunch on Sunday. You will be free to drive home from 1 pm on Sunday.

The second weekend of the class will be held October 10 -12 here in the Twin Cities. That weekend we will meet on Friday evening from 6 to 8 pm, on Saturday from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, and on Sunday morning for worship. Some of that time we will be meeting at Luther, some of that time will be taken up by a local field trip. On Sunday we will worship with a local congregation.

Additional course resources can be found here.

We will be reading three books together, and one additional book that you can make a choice about. The books are:

Earth in Mind, by David Orr

Living Downstream, by Sandra Steingraber

Simpler Living, Compassionate Life, ed. by Schut

and your choice of either:

Evocations of Grace, by Joseph Sittler

God and the World in the OT, by Terry Fretheim

Here are some pictures from the 2003 class trip to Shalom Hill Farm. They'll give you a brief glimpse of what we're likely to experience in our October retreat. Please note: these pages will take a long time to download if you're coming at low speed, because there are lots of pictures. Also, if you click on an individual picture, it will take you to a larger version of that picture.

Pictures of animals (and yes, I should have labelled them "cattle" not "cows")

Pictures of people

Glimpses of natural beauty