bring about final peace . There is a Jewish parable of the cooking pot illustrating peace making . The bottom of the pot combines two elements , those of fire and water . It separates them but brings about culinary goods , it moves these elements to constructive and peaceful cooperation . Not an easy thing to do at all times of human history . When the prophet Isaiah ( 2,4 ) predicted that ‘ they will beat their swords into ploughshares ’ he expected it to be do-able . : At his times farmers fitted a piece of iron to their wooden ploughs , while at times of war they would retrieve it and set on a piece of wood as a weapon . Thus Jesus believes that his vision is do-able and calls on the disciples to be his helpers . And – in contrast to that vision - Jesus starts his protest against the inhumanity of man against man with comment on the most serious of sins against the will of the creator : murder .
BW ( using Pinkas Lapide : Die Bergpredigt , 1982 ).
Food and Faith : An emerging narrative linking science and spirituality
T he origins of the World ’ s different faith traditions and the emergence of settled food production by agriculture and horticulture are intrinsically linked . As our knowledge and understanding of genetics and the ancient topography of the earth continues to develop , it has become clear that there were at least eight “ Edens ” or fertile locations of biological diversity where the domestication of staple food crops originated and their cultivation began in earnest and started to spread . " To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves ." - Mahatma Gandhi "
In addition to the large relic features of early ritual such as the Pyramids and Stonehenge , more subtle signs of early settled civilisations are now beginning to emerge from satellite images underneath dense forest canopies and off shore in areas affected by previous large scale post ice age sea level rise . Genesis 9:20 After the flood , Noah began to cultivate the ground , and he planted a vineyard .
Many of these early features have been linked to early astronomical observations and the need to maintain a precise calendar not only for our varied religious calendars but also to support and plan farming and cultivation events , which survive in our traditions to this day . We for example still observe harvest festivals and spring rituals , relating to the equinoxes , in my own tradition a benevolent eye is turned onto erecting Maypoles and Morris dancing .
Our new scientific narratives are also casting light on how our ancestors used fire selectively to farm forests and our inter-dependence on trees came about . The use of fruit and nut producing trees appears to have pre-dated settled agriculture based on cereals . The long artistic and symbolic religious
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