"more than a little strange": Imagination and Ecology in Jayber Crow

In view of Wendell Berry's engagement with marriage as a metaphor for our relationship with the land, this paper considers how Jayber Crow's "strange marriage" draws attention to the imagination's role in relational and ecological healing. Berry's novel, Jayber Crow, de...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lambert, Christina J. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Christianity & literature
Year: 2025, Volume: 74, Issue: 2, Pages: 270-288
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
CD Christianity and Culture
KBQ North America
NBD Doctrine of Creation
NCF Sexual ethics
NCG Environmental ethics; Creation ethics
Further subjects:B Imagination
B Wendell Berry
B Ecology
B Ecotheology
B Fiction
B Environmental Humanities
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:In view of Wendell Berry's engagement with marriage as a metaphor for our relationship with the land, this paper considers how Jayber Crow's "strange marriage" draws attention to the imagination's role in relational and ecological healing. Berry's novel, Jayber Crow, demonstrates the transformation of Jayber's imagination from a self-fulfilling, objectifying gaze to a vision that fosters faithfulness in the world, resulting in his imagined marriage vow. Jayber's transformed imagination models the fruits of a whole imagination that encompasses grief, imagines a creational covenant, and, as the Mad Farmer says, practices resurrection.
ISSN:2056-5666
Contains:Enthalten in: Christianity & literature
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1353/chy.2025.a967579