Rooting in Relationality
Recent publications on plant consciousness invite us to rethink our entanglements with plant life and our understanding of ourselves among other species. By Natalia Schwien Scott
Category: Spirituality
Ecotheology
A selected reading list from Dan McKanan’s course.
Climate Grief and the Secular Spirituality of Earth-Mourning
We need to approach earth-mourning as a necessary spiritual practice that reckons with the disorienting power of grief and the potential for meaningful change. By Dorothy Dean
The Trouble with Oneness
Three recent books offer helpful frameworks for considering temperament and conversion in experiences of “oneness with nature.” By Shane Baker
On Waiting and Wanting
Reading Simone Weil, Fanny Howe, and Mark Jordan helped demonstrate how we can be transformed through the process of waiting. By Nancy Yuen-Fang Chu
What Can Ancient Spiritual Poetry Teach Us about Living?
A working definition of sacred poetry rises directly out of this poet’s experience as a child praying in Arabic: earnest, musical language meant to thin the partition between a person and a divine. By Kaveh Akbar
A Year of Being With
Paintings, poetry, and reflections on entering a state of being “fully aware of the presence of another being and our shared environment” while making art. By Maisie Luo
Citizens of Two Realms
During her year as a monk, a millennial discovers reverential awe in the midst of chaos. By Eloise Skinner
On Chanting and Consciousness
Memories of her Jain grandmother’s chanting lead the author to reflect on “how deliriously inside out moments can be.” By Diane Mehta
Making Spirituality Safe for Evangelicals
D. Bruce Hindmarsh’s The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World. By Brett Malcolm Grainger
Paths to Abstraction: Spirituality in the Work of Three Women Artists
Exploring the link between spiritual liberation and abstract artistic expression in paintings of Hilma af Klint, Hilla Rebay, and Vicci Sperry. By Ann Braude
‘Every Little Pine Needle’
Thoreau had a deeply religious cast of mind, but he experienced revelation in nature, and trees were his guides. By Richard Higgins
‘Peace, Peace to Him Who is Far Off, and to Him Who is Near’
Conversations with a World War II conscientious objector and a soldier who served in Iraq deepen the author’s understanding of pacifism. By Sarah Sentilles
On Habit
The habit of playing music for church turns out to be the most important healing practice during a difficult year. By Michelle C. Sanchez
Paying Attention to Pain
Leslie Jamison’s The Empahy Exams: Essays. By Sejal H. Patel
Devotion in the Study of Religion
Featured Devotion in the Study of Religion Illustration by Gracia Lam Vocation Summer/Autumn 2014...
Visiting the Void
Many recovery workers periodically return to Ground Zero as a way of reconnecting with the values they experienced there. By Kate Yanina DeConinck
Exotic Ordinary
Action and passion coexist in this portrait of one spirit medium in Madagascar, evoking complex philosophical questions. By Michael Lambek
The Meaning of a Saint
Vrajaprana’s Interpreting Ramakrishna: Kali’s Child Revisited. By Francis X. Clooney, S.J.
Why Study Religion in the Twenty-first Century?
There is a constantly growing need for religious studies to contribute to the public world of contemporary life and practice. By William A. Graham
