The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

Douglas Christie is among many scholars who attempt to make the “ecological turn” to the recent growing interest in ecology. While acknowledging contemporary conversations across various disciplines, Christie approaches this issue differently through a contemplative lens. More specifically, as indicated in the title of the book, Christie draws from the well of early Christian monasticism—something which he is already worked through in his book, The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness In Early Christian Monasticism (1993). In this book, Christie aims to reimagine the nexus of the self and the natural world through a retrieval of the spiritual sense of wholeness amidst a fragmented world (4). Christie’s method and style in writing this book are worth noting. He was inspired by David Tracy’s “critical correlation” method, that is, a “meaningful religious reflection ... [that] involves an effort to correlate classic spiritual texts and common human experience” (16). He does this by arranging his book chapters based on classic themes that include tears (penthos), place (topos), attention (prosoche), word (logos), desire (eros), self-emptying (kenosis), and paradise (telos) in the early monastic tradition and reinterprets them in conversation with various sources such as his personal testimonies, classic poet and writings, and even Charles Darwin.