Apprentice to the Slow Immediacy of Daily Life with Douglas E. Christie

by Swanson

“We exist because we exchange.”
– Susan Griffin

Apprentice to the Slow Immediacy of Daily Life with Douglas E. Christie

It took me months to read Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology by Douglas E. Christie. I found it a joy to read slowly, soaking in the poetics married with scholarship on the Christian contemplative tradition which I so dearly love. It read like a love letter, albeit in academic one, to a tradition that is still bursting with so much fruit waiting to be tasted by the many. I think it will wet your contemplative whistle, disarm any judgements, and welcome you to be a part of the great contemplative conversation. Our conversation highlights a few arrows from Blue Sapphire of the Mind that struck my heart. We talk about contemplation and parenting, memento mori (remembering death), a painting by George Inness, apprenticeships, contemplative practices and so much more.

Douglas E. Christie, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Early Christian Monasticism (Oxford) and The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology (Oxford). He is the founding editor of the journal Spiritus.

Episode Show Notes

Resources & People Mentioned

Drink Recommendation

  • Old Fashioned

Questions

  • Where I am finding you today, what is the context of your setting?
  • Tell me about the intersection between contemplation and parenting?
  • What are the practices that are built into the day or rhythm of your week?
  • There is a phrase that I heard you use recently “apprenticing yourself” to another…be it an artist, ecologist, whatever…what have been graced events by taking the posture of an apprentice to another?
  • What does memento mori (Remembering Death) have to do with contemplation?
  • Can you unpack this sentiment that stems from your book – A contemplative removes themselves from society, a contemplative stays puts in the place they find themselves?
  • What does the painting “The Home of the Heron” by George Inness mean to you?
  • Susan Griffin’s quote,“We exist because we exchange”, how does that relate to the contemplative experience?
  • What projects do you have on the horizon?
  • What drink would pair with this conversation?

Photo by Contemplify