Douglas E. Christie on Depth Without Resolution

“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. …

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Lisa Wells on Holding a Fierce and Loving Gaze

“We are living in an extreme moment, and one where it’s very hard to know what effective action looks like against crises of a scale we’ve not before encountered. These accounts of people trying to grapple with that reality are sometimes inspiring and often cautionary, and always a spur to thinking about how the rest of us might accomplish the most we can.” – Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Lisa Wells is an author, poet, and co-founder of a small, nonprofit press based in Seattle, Washington called Letter Machine Editions. Her …

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Scott Avett on Being Here for the Feast

“When you look out his [Scott’s] window he’s painting for you.” – Eric Fischl Scott Avett is a visual artist, musician, and songwriter. No amount of descriptors quite do him justice. Scott’s work was met by my ears before my eyes. His songs slip into the ear stream, reverberate off the rib cage and remind the heart it was born free. Scott’s paintings hold your gaze in absorption, jostle you awake, and drop you off a block later. In our conversation today Scott and I talk about creativity and contemplation, mysterious inputs that need to be absence of the thought …

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