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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Joy Of Feeling Close To God: The Practice Of Prayer And The Work Of Accompaniment, Douglas E. Christie
The Joy Of Feeling Close To God: The Practice Of Prayer And The Work Of Accompaniment, Douglas E. Christie
Theological Studies Faculty Works
What does it mean to pray in response to the most acute challenges of everyday historical existence? When prayer is conceived of primarily as a personal, deeply interiorized expression of the soul’s longing to communicate with a transcendent God, it can be difficult to imagine what it might mean to incorporate the embodied, communal, historically mediated dimensions of human experience into the broader understanding about what it means to pray. The challenge is to find a way of understanding and articulating how the powerful and supple language of prayer comes to expression in and through the concrete, historically mediated forms …
Practicing Paradise: Contemplative Awareness And Ecological Renewal, Douglas E. Christie
Practicing Paradise: Contemplative Awareness And Ecological Renewal, Douglas E. Christie
Theological Studies Faculty Works
What would it mean for Christians to take seriously the idea that we are called to practice paradise, to inhabit the world as if “everything is in fact paradise”? In the Christian contemplative tradition, one finds recurring attention to the notion that paradise is somehow knowable, graspable, and inhabitable in this present reality, and that this experience of paradise can be incorporated into a meaningful spiritual practice. This essay asks whether, in a moment of deepening ecological degradation, the contemplative practice of paradise might help us learn again how to imagine the world as whole, inhabit it with tenderness and …
Evagrius On Sadness, Douglas E. Christie
Evagrius On Sadness, Douglas E. Christie
Theological Studies Faculty Works
The article discusses the role of sadness in the spiritual life of Christian. It focuses on the moral and spiritual importance of sadness within the Christian spirituality, centering on the impact of sadness to the life of monks. It also accounts how Christians tend to accept the challenge to morally and spiritually struggle and understand the presence of sadness. In addition, it accounts the work of fourth-century monastic writer Evagrius of Pontus on the function of sadness among Christian.
Simplicity, Or The Terror Of Belief: The Making And Unmaking Of The Self In Early Christian Monasticism, Douglas E. Christie
Simplicity, Or The Terror Of Belief: The Making And Unmaking Of The Self In Early Christian Monasticism, Douglas E. Christie
Theological Studies Faculty Works
The article focuses on ancient Christian monasticism. The simplicity admired and practiced by the early Christian monks, so often construed as a first order naiveté or credulity devoid of depth or subtlety, in fact contained and expressed a complex range of thought and feeling. More than this, it was, at least in its most mature expressions, a hard won achievement, realized only through a costly and demanding process of relinquishment. Ancient Christian monks actually did realize on occasion a simplicity that embodied a beautiful freedom and transparency. But such simplicity rarely came to expression in a life except through intense …
Into The Body Of Another: Eros, Embodiment And Intimacy With The Natural World, Douglas E. Christie
Into The Body Of Another: Eros, Embodiment And Intimacy With The Natural World, Douglas E. Christie
Theological Studies Faculty Works
Discusses individuals' inhabitation of spaces between the human and more-than-human worlds as a way to enrich one's spirituality. Charged liminal space; Mental habit of dualism; Rehabilitation of imagination and language; Recovery of the language of eros; Deeper sense of relationship with the living world.
The Call Of The Desert: Purity Of Heart And Power In Early Christian Monasticism, Douglas E. Christie
The Call Of The Desert: Purity Of Heart And Power In Early Christian Monasticism, Douglas E. Christie
Theological Studies Faculty Works
No abstract provided.