The Virginia Seminar:
Gospel of the Trees Summary
Trees dominate any landscape in which they are present; for many of us they are the most consistently visible and noteworthy element of our environment. Even in landscapes where they are rare, they are deeply meaningful, for they mark the presence of water or people. They are also almost coterminous with human society: think of the olive tree in Mediterranean cultures. But it is not often understood how absolutely fundamental trees are to the Christian narrative. The first crisis of Scripture, and therefore of humanity, centers on two trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; and the (quite literally) crucial event of the whole story is the death of a man who hangs on a tree. And the last book of the Bible presents to us a vision of the Tree of Life again, finding its proper place in the midst of the City of God — an urban tree now, no longer part of a country garden — bearing twelve kinds of fruit; "and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Trees, then, provide us with the most powerful images of a perfect creation at the outset of history, of the tragedy of a creation broken by sin, and of a creation redeemed and perfected in the New Jerusalem. The Gospel of the Trees is the story of how one person came better to know, and better to know, these curious and beautiful bearers of the Christian story.
Alan Jacobs is Professor of English and Director of the Faith and Learning Program at Wheaton College in Illinois.