The Blue Saphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology by Douglas E. Christie (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Blue Saphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology by Douglas E. Christie Elizabeth Liebert SNJM (bio) The Blue Saphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology By Douglas E. Christie. New York: Oxford, 2013. 464 pp. $29.95. 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. Christie skillfully weaves these resources together to create what he speaks of as a “contemplative ecology.” By “contemplative ecology” Christie means “an understanding of spiritual practice that places the natural world at the center of its concerns and an approach to ecology that understands the work of cultivating contemplative awareness as critical and necessary to its full meaning” (xi). Christie calls to our attention “affinities of content” (a phrase he attributes to a 1991 essay by Denise Levertov) and what I shall call, borrowing from Christie, “affinities of practice” between these two apparently completely discrete discourses. He proceeds by way of critical correlation between ancient texts and the practices they illumine and contemporary writings and the practices that undergird them. He does not assume that ecology must forsake its basis in scientific method, or that it must necessarily use religious language when responding to the dense networks of living and non-living beings that is its subject matter. But he does assert that a full understanding of ecology requires the integration of spiritual insight and practice (4). The challenges move in both directions. Christie also insists that the Christian contemplative tradition must entail a “fierce commitment to paying attention, an encompassing, transformative work oriented toward remaking the self and community, a healing work inclusive of everything and everyone” (x). The practice he envisions, then, is wider and deeper than what passes for much of contemporary spiritual practice; it must push for social and political transformation. The question that organizes this book is both straightforward and immensely significant: Can the Christian contemplative tradition provide any resources for addressing our increasingly critical ecological issues? Christie concludes, in short, that there are surprising resources in the long and varied spiritual tradition, would [End Page 270] we but turn to them and practice them with open eyes and hearts. As we engage in these practices with discipline, love and patience, we may come to experience the social and political implications that will be crucial if we are to reverse ecological destruction. Christie’s penultimate goal is equally immense: to reclaim an authentic place at the ecological table for Christian contemplative tradition through respectful dialogue and authentic practice. 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. The bulk of the volume is given to a series of seven essays, each of which is organized around a virtue/ quality prominent in contemplative practice: penthos, topos, prosoche, logos, eros, kenosis and telos. Each of these chapters is organized along a similar pattern. Early in the chapter, Christie relates an experience, often his own, but sometimes one of the Christian monastics or one of the contemporary nature mystics. He seems to be saying without saying, “you too can have experiences such as these; they are not reserved for the holy ones.” Next, he creates a statement of the problematic that he is trying to address by asking a series of rhetorical questions. The questions, based as they are on our underlying and often unconscious way of interacting with our world, are huge and stubborn. So Christie rightly does not necessarily attempt to answer them—doing so would result in simplistic and surface answers—but instead, he insinuates a wedge into our ordinary ways of seeing and practicing. Ultimately, he insists, we will...