“A meditative blend of history and travelogue . . . brings the soundscape of the desert to life.” ― New Yorker Dr. Kim Haines-Eitzen is a Professor of Religious Studies with specialties in Early Christianity, Early Judaism, and other ancient Mediterranean Religions at Cornell University. Her book Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us explores the dynamic relationships between ambient environmental landscapes and the religious imagination, especially in the case of desert monasticism. Dr. Haines-Eitzen was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Nazareth. Exploring the Negev and Sinai deserts in her formative years …
Tag: Thomas Merton
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 …
James Finley on the Healing Path
“The beauty and illumination of Jim’s language, whether he is writing about trauma or God’s presence, open the heart. To read this book is to be changed forever.” — Bonnie Badenoch(Author of The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships) I was overly giddy, strangely nervous, but above all grateful to be in conversation with Jim about his breathtaking new book, The Healing Path: A Memoir and an Invitation. Each page is a thousand pages deep, that is how Jim walks about the world, drawing from the depths and teaching with winsome grace, poetics, and …