RELIGION

摘要

In recent years we've seen a growing interest in the relationship between nature and spirituality, with many books discussing the role of nature in spirituality and its divine aspects. This book goes beyond that. Chase (resident scholar, Collegeville Inst. of Ecumenical & Cultural Research) offers insight into the spiritual side of nature along with exercises (called practices) that the reader can do to experience this relationship firsthand. The fairly easy practices can be done alone or in a group in a retreat setting. They include contemplative prayer, discernment, occasional scripture reading, and meditation on your relationship with nature. Most compelling is the concluding chapter, "The Green Beatitudes," where Chase goes through the beatitudes one by one and offers an interpretation of each that relates it to nature. After each interpretation is a section that presents a way for the reader to relate with nature through that beatitude.