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Clare VanderWeele's avatar

I love your summary of Macfarlane's Is a River Alive. I've always loved his writing too, and I'm a third of the way through this one and feeling the same longing you are - for that faith-based sacramental view of creation. That said, I've been searching for years for a Christian nature writer who addresses Creation as an alive being and have yet to find one (though my search is far from comprehensive). You say, "I also wonder if Christianity needs to be more articulate about the real character of creation" - and I say, yes! Look at all the Psalms where the wind, the ocean, the trees, etc. are so very animate. Isaiah has similar imagery, and so does St. Paul. When Jesus calms the storm, he speaks to it, and it *listens* - it is not some cosmic Alexa; it is animate.

Anyway, I share your hope that Macfarlane one day comes to faith - I ache to read a book from him that is witness to nature as God's Creation.

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Anne Oft Musing's avatar

Always delighted to read anything you write.

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