Reviews:
“This book brings
forth a luminous animism for all to see, previously hidden in the scriptures
and traditions of Christianity yet embedded in the body of the Earth itself. We
are all indebted to Mark Wallace, who has given us a masterpiece of ecotheology
rendered in the most elegant and accessible poetic language. A gift for years
to come!”
—Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale
Forum on Religion and Ecology
“Seldom do I read a
book with such verve and audacity as When God Was a Bird. Mark Wallace
has given us a treasure, almost in the form of a parable, because if God is
manifest in a bird—the Holy Spirit as dove—where else might God be found? And
what might that radical, even creation-wide incarnation of God mean for us
today? Highly recommended.”
—Brian D. McLaren, author
of The Great Spiritual Migration
“Mark Wallace argues
that ‘Christian animism’ is not a contradiction in terms. In doing so, he opens
new lines of exploration and insight that have the potential to spark
fundamental changes in the ways animists and Christians think of each other and
themselves. An important contribution.”
—Norman Wirzba, Duke
Divinity School
Description:
In
a time of rapid climate change and species extinction, what role have the
world’s religions played in ameliorating—or causing—the crisis we now face? One
can point to Christianity’s otherworldly theologies, which privilege our
spiritual aspirations over our natural origins, as bearing a disproportionate
burden for creating humankind’s exploitative attitudes toward nature.
And
yet, buried deep within the Christian tradition are startling portrayals of God
as the beaked and feathered Holy Spirit—the “animal God” of historic Christian
witness. Through biblical readings, historical theology, continental
philosophy, and personal stories of sacred nature, this book recovers the
Christian God as a creaturely, avian being promiscuously incarnated within all
things.
This
beautifully and accessibly written book shows that “Christian animism” is not a
contradiction in terms but Christianity’s natural habitat. Challenging
traditional Christianity’s self-definition as an otherworldly religion, Wallace
paves the way for a new Earth-loving spirituality grounded in the ancient image
of an animal God who signals the presence of spirit in everything, human and
more-than-human alike.
Contents:
Preface
Introduction: Crossing the Species Divide
The
Animal God • Animism • Feral Religion • God of Beak and Feathers
Chapter 1. Song of the Wood Thrush
The
Singing Monk of the Crum Woods • Nature
Religion • The Pigeon God • Sacred
Animals • Christian Animism • Divine Subscendence • Avian Spirit Possession • Return to the Crum Woods
Chapter 2. The Delaware River Basin
Toxic
Tour • Heidgger’s Root Metaphors • Calling Spirit from the Deep • Sacrament of Dirt and Spit • Girard’s Fear
of Monstrous Couplings • Green Mimesis •
The Pileated Woodpecker
Chapter 3. Worshipping the Green God
Crum
Creek Visitation • Christian History • Jesus and Sacred Land • Augustine and
Natalist Wonder • Hildegard’s Viriditas Pneumatology • Rewilding
Christian Worship
Chapter 4. “Come Suck Sequoia and Be Saved”
John
Muir’s Christianimism • Indian Removal in Yosemite • The Great Code • The Water
Ouzel • The Two Books • Sequoia Religion • “Christianity and Mountainanity Are
Streams from Same Fountain”
Chapter 5. On the Wings of a Dove
Sagebrush
Requiem • Is Earth a Living Being? • Suffering Earth • Refreshment and
Fragrance in the Hills • A Tramp for God • The Death of God • God on the Wing
Acknowlegdments
Notes
Index
About the Author:
Mark I. Wallace is Professor of Religion
and Environmental Studies at Swarthmore College and core faculty for the U.S.
State Department’s Institutes on Religious Pluralism at Temple University. His
books include Green Christianity: Five Ways to a Sustainable Future (Fortress,
2010) and Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature (Fortress,
2005).
Target Audience:
People
interested in historical theology and philosophy.