The Sabbath of the Earth

Introducing the Ecology of Fabrice Hadjadj

Thursday, November 7, 6:30-8:00 p.m., Winants Auditorium, Graves Hall

Lecture by Dr. Joshua Kraut, Hope College Associate Professor of French, Department of World Languages and Cultures

Event Sponsored by the Hope College Green Team, the Religion Department, and the Saint Benedict Institute

Many thinkers have seen the environmental crisis as a symptom of a deeper spiritual crisis, one whose solution is not simply technical. Dr. Joshua Kraut's talk will bring two such figures into dialogue: the well-known American agrarian writer Wendell Berry and the contemporary French philosopher, Fabrice Hadjadj, with a particular focus on the latter.  While Hadjadj writes about a broad variety of topics, including ecology, a central theme in his work is the severing of the material and spiritual worlds typical of the modern age. In developing themes from Hadjadj's essay, "The Sabbath of the Earth," Dr. Kraut will aim to help us reflect as a community on the spiritual underpinnings of ecological destruction—and renewal.

Two-time winner of the prestigious European Religious Literature Award, member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and a convert from a Jewish atheistic background, Fabrice Hadjadj is considered one of the most brilliant Catholic thinkers of our time.