Episode 95 - Nature and the Care of the Soul with Belden Lane, Part 1
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This season is all about Complex Conversations and how these conversations can help us buffet the fierce winds that are blowing in our lives.
SHOW NOTES
Warning: this podcast is not for the faint of heart!
It is not for those who attend church and equate that with the pilgrimage of the 4th century, when those who did not want to be swallowed by culture fled to the desert to not survive, but thrive!
It might undo you as it has undone me.
I talk with Belden Lane about the difference in being a spiritual pilgrim and a spiritual tourist. A tourist is one who sees enough to take a photo proving that they had been there. A pilgrim is one who pays the price of entering the wilderness, only to find themselves and God.
We speak of the dangers of social media where soul care is watered down by selling things, being merely consumers of the spiritual life rather than embracing wilderness. Emptying our self to live empty, broken, and void of ego. We spoke of “the greening of our faith.” Honoring nature as a portal to God the Creator.
It was like sitting with a prophet who was speaking out about the church, who has lost its soul.
Join us in today's conversation!
Special Guest Belden C. Lane
Belden and his dog Joey
Belden C. Lane is a Presbyterian theologian who teaches on a Jesuit faculty at Saint Louis University. His interests include the relationship between geography and faith, wilderness backpacking in the Ozarks, the magic of storytelling, desert spirituality, exposing students to urban poverty through the Catholic Worker community, and the poetry of Rumi. He also works with men, helping to lead initiation rites through Richard Rohr's program for Men as Learners and Elders in Albuquerque.
He lives with his wife Patricia, a spiritual director and retired school teacher, in Saint Louis. Drawn to sacred places around the world, his travels have involved camping in Egypt, Ireland and the Virgin Islands; hiking in Greece, Hawaii, and Australia; and study in England, Israel and Mexico. For six years I served in the pastorate, from a village parish in western New York State to the historic First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Some time ago he found himself delightfully introduced as a Presbyterian minister teaching at a Roman Catholic university telling Jewish stories at the Vedanta Society.
Belden’s Books:
The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality
Ravished by Beauty: The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality
Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice
Mentioned in podcast
Richard Rohr quote “from disorder to reorder to new order” - from his book The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder.
Thomas Berry book on the Great Conversation - Befriending the Earth: A Theology of Reconciliation Between Humans and the Earth
SNEAK PEAK: 30 Days with the Potter Devotional reading - Foundational Love of God (Text)
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INTERESTED IN MORE SOUL CARE RESOURCES?
Check out our recommended reading, books on spiritual growth, and our soul care blog. Want to experience soul care in person? Learn more about our soul care intensives and retreats.