“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. He is author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Early Christian Monasticism; The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology; and The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss and the Common Life. He is the founding editor of the journal Spiritus and served as co-director of the Casa de la Mateada Program in Córdoba, Argentina from 2013-2015. Doug and I talk about why the poetic and apophatic theology of Hadejwich of Antwerp and Jan Van Ruusbroec might be important for our times, incarnational risk and AI, kindness as a spiritual practice and much more.



Listent to Doug’s first appearance on Contemplify in 2020, Apprentice to the Slow Immediacy of Daily Life with Douglas E. Christie.



Visit Douglas at douglasechristie.wordpress.com















Episode Show Notes



Works by Douglas E. Christie




The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss, and the Common Life



Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology



The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism








Resources & People Mentioned




Redwoods Monastery



Hadewijch of Antwerp



Jon Ruusbroec



Edmond Jabès



Henry David Thoreau



Gary Paul Nabhan



Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau by Branka Arsić








Drink Recommended




Mezcal from Gary Paul Nabhan’s stash
















photo pulled from douglasechristie.wordpress.com

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