Agriculture and Theology project

The Agricultural Theology Project (ATP) is a joint venture between the Agricultural Christian Fellowship (ACF), the Church Mission Society (CMS) and the John Ray Initiative (JRI). The project aims to reach a clear understanding of trends in farming worldwide and of the factors and forces behind them, alongside a Biblical understanding of the human relationship with Creation, of poverty and justice, and of food, family and culture – Theology and reality in juxta position.
The project seeks to investigate, illuminate and analyse, and to use the findings to inform and challenge thought and action at all levels, witnessing to the existence and nature of Christian perspectives.
Background (or Context)

i) A large proportion of the worlds’ people are rural and live from farming and in a culture largely framed around it. Many urban dwellers in the “global South” are rural people attracted or coerced into towns.
ii) The majority of this majority are poor and powerless and subject to injustices global and local.
iii) Many farming people in the “North” feel marginalized and misunderstood, their lives constrained by many of the same forces bearing down on their southern colleagues, though often they do not recognise this.
iv) Many young people in the “North” are acutely aware of environmental issues. It is often where they are closest to a God’s eye view.
v) Food is a necessity for all – a necessity with familial, social, cultural and religious resonance. Agriculture controls much of the Earth’s surface and with it landscape, wild life habitats, water catchments and future food availability. It is a principal expression of the human relationship with the rest of Creation.
vi) Mission requires understanding of and incarnation among the people it would woo. In addition a clear view is needed of injustices and of the idols enticing the strong, coercing the weak and damaging the Creation.