Helps bridge the gap between love of God and love of nature.
Many people experience God most strongly in nature but do not know how to incorporate this experience into their spiritual life. Others question whether Christianity has room for nature at all and seek alternatives elsewhere, often leaving Christianity entirely. This book addresses this crucial issue by providing a resource for fostering a closer relationship with God and creation. With a step-by-step approach, this book provides a framework integrating asceticism with the contemplation of nature. Each chapter contains a “take it home” section for applying the lessons learned outdoors to everyday life, connecting God and nature as seamless components of spirituality. Topics include gratitude, delight, appreciation, wonder, discernment, reverence, mortality, love, beauty, humility, silence, and hope.
Innehållsförteckning
Introduction
Journey One: Waking Up
Chapter 1 Reorientation
Chapter 2 Noticing
Note: Being Embodied
Chapter 3 Delight, Surprise and Wonder
Chapter 4 Appreciation and Respect
Chapter 5 Concentration: Getting in Touch
Note: On Expectations: Letting Go
Chapter 6 Thanksgiving
Note: Discernment and Diamonds
Journey Two: The Road to Kinship
Chapter 7 Facing Our Mortality
Chapter 8 Reverence
Chapter 9 Hospitality
Note: Prying Open the Door of Our Heart
Chapter 10 Humility: Turning Outward
Chapter 11 Sharing Creation’s Pain
Chapter 12 Settling into Silence
Journey Three: Encountering the Burning Bush
The Love Exercises
Chapter 13 Giving in Love
Chapter 14 Responding in Love
Note: Dancing with David: Prayer Revisited
Chapter 15 Returning God’s Love
Chapter 16 Beauty
Note: Healing Prayer
Chapter 17 Radiating Beauty
Chapter 18 Revealing the Children of God
Chapter 19 Faith, Vision, and Hope
Chapter 20 Who is My Neighbor?
Appendix
Initial Reflections
Thinking about Prayer and Water
Prayer and Water Management: Creating a Life Framework
Resources on Prayer
Om författaren
FREDERICK W. KRUEGER is the executive director for the Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration, and a committee member of the National Religious Campaign for Creation Care, guiding organizations and religious leaders toward a more just and sustainable world. He co-founded the ’Opening the Book of Nature’ program and directs trips through ’Christ in the Wilderness.’ He lives in Santa Rosa, California.