Public Lecture with Winn Collier on Wendell Berry

Holy Ground: The Sacramental Ecclesiology of Wendell Berry’s Port William

How are we to understand Wendell Berry’s withering critique of the Church’s uncritical cooperation with economic and cultural forces conspiring to “murder creation”? And why, in Berry’s fiction, does the Church so often sit at the periphery of communal life, a religious society disengaged and irrelevant to the truest work and vibrant life happening among “the membership” of Port William?

Does Berry reject the Church in favor of a vague, individual “spirituality,” and if so, how does this mesh with Berry’s unflinching insistence on visible, communal, concrete presence?

Touring Berry’s fiction, we discover Berry leveling a prophetic rebuke, as the narratives point toward a sacramental ecclesiology where God’s visible community, wedded to the place and the land, exists as holy ground for the wholeness and healing of creature and creation.

You are warmly invited to a public lecture and Q&A by pastor and author Winn Collier on Tuesday, March 10 at 3:00pm in Mulder Chapel.

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About Winn Collier

Winn Collier is the author of multiple books, including Restless Faith, Holy Curiosity and the forthcoming authorized biography of Eugene Peterson. Winn is pastor of All Souls Charlottesville and directs The Genesis Project, a collective of pastors and writers committed to shared work and friendship. He has written for the Washington Post, Christian Century, Leadership Journal, Christianity Today and numerous other outlets. Winn holds a PhD in theology, ethics and culture from the University of Virginia, with an emphasis on the intersection of religion and literary fiction. Winn, his wife Miska, and their two sons live in Charlottesville, Virginia.