The Jesuit Value of Magis and Its Relationship to Landscapes

Credit: forest wanderer, http://www.forestwander.com/?p=1337

I would like to introduce you to the Good Land Project through the idea of the magis of landscapes. Magis means “more” or “better.” It is a term often connected with the Catholic religious order the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the Jesuits. Understanding the magis of the landscape involves understanding what our landscapes can do for us and our world. How can we use landscapes to address pressing social and environmental justice issues—and how can we use them, to refer back to Jesuit jargon, ad majorem Dei gloriam, or “for the greater glory of God”?

Before the release of Laudato Si’ and the development of this project, when I was an undergraduate, I found myself in a monastery trying to discern my vocation. One of the compelling things about the monastic life to me is the sustainability of communal living, the value of and simplicity behind conservation through respectful sharing. It was not long before my first visit to a monastery that I began to explore the field of permaculture. Only a few years before that, during my independent studies, I was exposed to systems theory through the work of biologist Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy. These things were moving thoughts about the land in new ways in my mind, and I found those thoughts came to life when I looked out from the dining room at this monastery. The sustainability of the community’s lifestyle was evident, but I looked out past my dinner plate, over acres of mowed grass toward woods, wondering, “What could this be?” How could the monastery get more from the land, or, returning to the Jesuit terminology, I began to wonder, “What is the magis of the landscape?”

Contemplation about the land is one of my favorite activities, and it seems to resonate well with environmental and social concerns of the times. Contemplating the land can open the mind to a fruitful world of academic and meditative explorations about cocreation, biology, patterns, beauty, and God. The magis of the landscape—how our lands can be turned into spaces that serve our needs while glorifying God—is a topic that will be explored in this blog regularly. I greatly appreciate the time you have taken to read this first post, and I hope and pray that we can work together to make the land do more—to make the land good.


Molly Burhans
goodlandproject.org