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"We are surrounded by a world that talks, but we don't listen. We are part of a community engaged in a vast conversation, but we deny our role in it."
In the face of climate change, species loss, and vast environmental destruction, the ability to stand in the flow of the great conversation of all creatures and the earth can feel utterly lost to the human race. But Belden C. Lane suggests that it can and must be recovered, not only for the sake of endangered species and the well-being of at-risk communities, but for the survival of the world itself.
The Great Conversation is Lane's multi-faceted treatise on a spiritually centered environmentalism. At the core is a belief in the power of the natural world to act as teacher. In a series of personal anecdotes, Lane pairs his own experiences in the wild with the writings of saints and sages from a wide range of religious traditions. A night in a Missourian cave brings to mind the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola; the canyons of southern Utah elicit a response from the Chinese philosopher Laozi; 500,000 migrating sandhill cranes rest in Nebraska and evoke the Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar. With each chapter, the humility of spiritual masters through the ages melds with the author's encounters with natural teachers to offer guidance for entering once more into a conversation with the world.
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Introduction: Wilderness and Soul Work
- Part I: Beginning to Listen
- Chapter 1: Restoring the Great Conversation
- Chapter 2: Falling in Love with a Tree
- Part II: Nature Teachers and the Spiritual Life
- AIR: The Child
- Chapter 3. Birds: Sandhill Cranes, the Platte River, and Farid ud-Din Attar
- Chapter 4. Wind: Buford Mountain and The Way of a Pilgrim
- Chapter 5: Trees: A Cottonwood Tree in a City Park and Hildegard of Bingen
- FIRE: The Adolescent
- Chapter 6. Wildfire: North Laramie River Trail and Catherine of Siena
- Chapter 7. Stars: Cahokia Mounds and Origen of Alexandria
- Chapter 8. Deserts: The Western Australian Bush and Gregory of Nyssa
- WATER: The Adult
- Chapter 9. Rivers: Colorado's Lost Creek Wilderness and Teresa of Avila
- Chapter 10. Canyons: Grand Staircase-Escalante Wilderness and Laozi
- Chapter 11. Islands: Monhegan Island and Nikos Kazantzakis
- EARTH: The Elder
- Chapter 12. Mountains: Hemmed-In-Hollow and the Baal Shem Tov
- Chapter 13. Caves: Lewis Cave and Ignatius of Loyola
- Chapter 14. Wolves: Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and Francis of Assisi
- Conclusion: Taking the Great Conversation Seriously
- Afterword
- Notes
- Index
About the author
Belden C. Lane is Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies, American Religion, and History of Spirituality at Saint Louis University. He is the author of Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality, and Ravished by Beauty: The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality.
Summary
"We are surrounded by a world that talks, but we don't listen. We are part of a community engaged in a vast conversation, but we deny our role in it."
In the face of climate change, species loss, and vast environmental destruction, the ability to stand in the flow of the great conversation of all creatures and the earth can feel utterly lost to the human race. But Belden C. Lane suggests that it can and must be recovered, not only for the sake of endangered species and the well-being of at-risk communities, but for the survival of the world itself.
The Great Conversation is Lane's multi-faceted treatise on a spiritually centered environmentalism. At the core is a belief in the power of the natural world to act as teacher. In a series of personal anecdotes, Lane pairs his own experiences in the wild with the writings of saints and sages from a wide range of religious traditions. A night in a Missourian cave brings to mind the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola; the canyons of southern Utah elicit a response from the Chinese philosopher Laozi; 500,000 migrating sandhill cranes rest in Nebraska and evoke the Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar. With each chapter, the humility of spiritual masters through the ages melds with the author's encounters with natural teachers to offer guidance for entering once more into a conversation with the world.
Additional text
In this extraordinary book, Lane explores our human need for deep and meaningful connections with nature ... This is a precious book for all nature lovers and also for those who after reading it, will be.
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In this extraordinary book, Lane explores our human need for deep and meaningful connections with nature ... This is a precious book for all nature lovers and also for those who after reading it, will be. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
