"To my mind, a contemporary naturalist is a person who studies deeply, richly, seriously, and over a respectable swath of time, the life and ecology of a chosen place or places ... I believe strongly that effective and lasting conservation efforts … [Read more...]

This brutalizing rootlessness of the life of an increasing number of our citizenry produces a creeping symbolic starvation; the very matrix of small meaningfulness in life which can become the womb of profounder and vaster structures of meaning is … [Read more...]

Catering to the desire to acquire may bring short-term gratification, but in the long run it brings destruction, and we are left "holding one end of a love," as [Annie] Dillard put it so well, facing the naked truths of the "spirit bare" and "grief … [Read more...]

  Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage.... Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul. Henry David Thoreau … [Read more...]

Lord: it is time. The Summer was so immense. Lay your shadow on the sundials, and let loose the wind in the fields. Bid the last fruits to be full, give them another two more southerly days, press them to ripeness, and chase the last … [Read more...]

The simplest and oldest way  ... in which God manifests Himself is ... through and in the earth itself. And He still speaks to us through the earth and sea, the birds of the air, and the little living creatures upon the earth, if we can but quiet … [Read more...]

I find you, Lord, in all things and in all my fellow creatures, pulsing with your life; as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small and in the vast you vastly yield yourself. The wondrous game that power plays with things is to move in such … [Read more...]

God's function as the sovereign ruler is to find his image in these created human beings [Adam and Eve], for they have been put in charge of the rest of the created order—not to rape it or exploit it or to become economically selfish with it, but … [Read more...]

“Part of learning to live as a creature is to know that we live continually from what is given, not created by us, and therefore to know that we must use it humbly and with care for its renewal. “ Fritz Oehlschlaeger. The Achievement of … [Read more...]

Perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be … [Read more...]

  "For in the nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver." -Martin Luther … [Read more...]

  To attempt to arrange an outward life-style of simplicity without the inward reality leads to deadly legalism. Richard Foster. Celebration of Discipline … [Read more...]

Have Christians a distinctive contribution to make to the ecological debate? Yes, we believe both that God created the earth, entrusting its care to us, and that he will one day re-create it, when he makes 'the new heaven and the new earth.' For 'the … [Read more...]

I think eco-judgmentalism is a real danger. This is not a matter of finding another five quick rules to keep you on the right side of God. This is not about what we do; this is a change or a development in the depth of our relationship with God … [Read more...]