Book Review: Before Nature: A Christian Spirituality

Abstract

Before Nature: A Christian Spirituality. By H. Paul Santmire. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2014. xxvii + 253 pp. $39.00 (paper).When the environmental movement burst on the scene in the late 1960s, Paul Santmire wrote a pioneering work on ecological theology, Brother Earth: Nature, God, and Ecology in a Time of Crisis (Thomas Nelson, 1970). Since that time, Santmire has written several other related books, including The Travail of Nature: The Ambiguous Ecological Promise of Christian Theology (Fortress Press, 1985), and outlined his own theology of nature in Nature Reborn: The Ecological and Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology (Fortress Press, 2000). In these works, Santmire strongly challenges those who claim that the Christian traditions have little to offer in dealing with ecological issues. Later he recovered the importance of Christian liturgical symbols in Ritualizing Nature: Renewing Christian Liturgy in a Time of Crisis (Fortress Press, 2008). For over forty years, Santmire has been a leading voice in and advocate for ecological theology, or a theology of nature.Santmire now has written a book on Christian spirituality as it relates to our understanding of the natural order. In Before Nature, Santmire moves toward a Trinitarian spirituality of nature. He takes us on a journey beginning where the divine is experienced in the ordinary, on to a contemplative engagement with the Triune God. In this book the author stands before nature, contemplating its integrity, its beauties, its terrors, and its mysteries, including the delights and the frailties of my own body (p. xvii).This book reflects the Franciscan tradition and on its cover one will find the famous painting of Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in Ecstasy. Santmire addresses this book to spiritual seekers (both in and out of religious institutions), as well as to teachers and pastors.Before Nature builds on Santmire's previous works. Therefore, when I picked up the book, I wondered if it would stand alone without the reader knowing Santmire's other works. It certainly does, because Santmire cleverly and smoothly refers the reader to endnotes (sometimes detailed), linking this book with previous works. In the books epigraph and again in chapter 2, he introduces the reader to the Trinity Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, Come and Reign. The book is largely a commentary on the meaning and significance of this prayer. …