The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

"There are no unsacred places," the poet Wendell Berry has written. "There are only sacred places and desecrated places." What might it mean to behold the world with such depth and feeling that it is no longer possible to imagine it as something separate from ourselves, or to live without regard for its well-being? To understand the work of seeing things as an utterly involving moral and spiritual act? Such questions have long occupied the center of contemplative spiritual traditions. In The Blue Sapphire of the Mind, Douglas E. Christie proposes a distinctively contemplative approach to ecological thought and practice that can help restore our sense of the earth as a sacred place. Drawing on the insights of the early Christian monastics as well as the ecological writings of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, and many others, Christie argues that, at the most basic level, it is the quality of our attention to the natural world that must change if we are to learn how to live in a sustainable relationship with other living organisms and with one another. He notes that in this uniquely challenging historical moment, there is a deep and pervasive hunger for a less fragmented and more integrated way of apprehending and inhabiting the living world--and for a way of responding to the ecological crisis that expresses our deepest moral and spiritual values. Christie explores how the wisdom of ancient and modern contemplative traditions can inspire both an honest reckoning with the destructive patterns of thought and behavior that have contributed so much to our current crisis, and a greater sense of care and responsibility for all living beings. These traditions can help us cultivate the simple, spacious awareness of the enduring beauty and wholeness of the natural world that will be necessary if we are to live with greater purpose and meaning, and with less harm, to our planet.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Immersion in the Larger Whole: Toward a Contemplative Ecology 2. Contact, or the Blue Sapphire of the Mind 3. Penthos: The Gift of Tears 4. Topos: At Home, Always a Stranger 5. Prosoche: The Art of Attention 6. Logos: The Song of the World 7. Eros: Exchange, Intimacy, Reciprocity 8. Kenosis: Empty, Emptied 9. Telos: Practicing Paradise Notes Selected Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Douglas E. Christie is Professor of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University, and the author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism.

Review :
This beautifully written book will be of great value to scholars and is suitable for graduate courses on contemplative traditions and on religion and ecology. At once a personal journey, a scholarly treatise and a heartfelt plea, Douglas E. Christie draws on personal vignettes, his command of early Christian resources and his wide ranging study of contemporary nature to compose a dense yet beautifully crafted scholarly treatise that manages at the same time to be intensely personal. . . He wants to lift up the significance of spirituality in helping us to think about the meaning and significance of the natural world in our own lives and to formulate a meaningful response to the growing erosion of the natural world. Much will depend on our willingness to risk the kind of relinquishment that the contemplative traditions claim is essential for real and lasting personal and social transformation. This book is a remarkable and profound effort to bring into conversation and correlation the modern ecological consciousness together with the wisdom and practice embodied in the Christian contemplative tradition. An excellent guide for those wishing to carry forward their Advent and Christmas reflections on the relationship between the Logos&R and our material world. It presents a helpful collection of ancient and modern contemplative thought that can help bring us to an integrated view of nature and ourselves. The book is a veritable feast of wisdom... With consummate intelligence and probing imagination Christie lures us into seeing the beauty that lies at the heart of our broken world... The Blue Sapphire of the Mind is a beautiful and important book, evocative and alluring, creative and often subtle as it leads us to encounter theological themes in fresh ways. Christie has written a book that is at once beautiful and scholarly, both lyrical in its prose and impressive in its erudition...The Blue Sapphire of the Mind is a book to savor, a book full of surprising connections and beautiful images, and absolutely a book that leaves the reader with newfound hope about the future of our broken, beloved Earth. Christie has created an important work, well worth the effort of reading...Christie has produced a welcome addition to an underdeveloped but sorely needed topic. [A] profound and profoundly important book...Those who desire to live in touch with and to participate in the restoration of this luminous and possibly numinous earth will deeply appreciate The Blue Sapphire of the Mind. Those in search of relevant and in-depth bibliography for thinking about the past, present, and future of the human spiritual relationship to the natural world will be turning to this book for many years to come...Libraries should have this book. General readers will be fascinated by its timely topic, spiritual depth, and engaging style, while researchers will be attracted by its intellectual breadth and extensive bibliography. While its use as a main class text may be limited to courses with ecospirituality as their primary theme, it could easily appear as a recommended text in a wide range of courses in theology, ethics, and spirituality. In this remarkable book, Douglas Christie, a theologian and academic, sets out to explore the concept of contemplative ecology ... The writing is sparse and deep, clear and beckoning. With this book Douglas E. Christie joins the ranks of Annie Dillard and Wendell Berry in their explorations of the challenge of spirituality to awaken and us to attend to the environment. Yet with Christie there is something quite unique in his contribution. He brings to bear his intimate and scholarly knowledge of the Christian contemplative tradition on the most urgent ecological matters on our time. There is no one as qualified as Douglas Christie to write a book such as this. Along with impeccable scholarship, he brings eloquence, passion, depth, and experience to the discussion. Surely we need a contemplative ecology and this is a masterful work that shows us the path. This movingly autobiographical and deeply interdisciplinary book links ancient monastic practices of contemplation to modern environmental ideas, especially as they are reflected in works of modern and contemporary American literature. In emphasizing acts of creative attention and the spiritual necessity of mourning our lost sacred places, Christie gives the humanities a central role in addressing the environmental crisis of our time.