Kindling the Examined Life
“I have been pursuing the love ‘born of and nurtured by darkness’ all of my life. In The Insurmountable Darkness of Love, Douglas Christie invites readers to embark on a journey of ‘silent attention’ awakening, shedding, and finally the embrace of what cannot be known. So, how do you write about something that cannot be captured in words? Christie uses vulnerability, life stories and memories as well as excellent scholarship. The end result is breathtaking!”
— Barbara A. Holmes, author of Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church
Douglas E. Christie, Ph.D., is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Early Christian Monasticism; The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology; and The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss and the Common Life. He is the founding editor of the journal Spiritus and served as co-director of the Casa de la Mateada Program in Córdoba, Argentina from 2013-2015. Doug and I talk about why the poetic and apophatic theology of Hadejwich of Antwerp and Jan Van Ruusbroec might be important for our times, incarnational risk and AI, kindness as a spiritual practice and much more.
Visit Douglas at douglasechristie.wordpress.com
Episode Show Notes
Works by Douglas E. Christie
- The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss, and the Common Life
- Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology
- The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism
Resources & People Mentioned
- Redwoods Monastery
- Hadewijch of Antwerp
- Jon Ruusbroec
- Edmond Jabès
- Henry David Thoreau
- Gary Paul Nabhan
- Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau by Branka Arsić
Drink Recommended
- Mezcal from Gary Paul Nabhan’s stash
photo pulled from douglasechristie.wordpress.com