Steven Chase

NCLA Review - “The whole universe is God’s tongue speaking,” says Steven Chase in the opening chapter of this book, which aims to help the reader develop a deeper reverence for and companionship with nature, and generate a greater commitment to creation care. Chase offers “practices” to assist the reader in getting closer to nature and to develop contemplation and spiritual disciplines; the Field Guide, meant to be taken outdoors, contains a larger number of fully detailed practices. Still, this is devotion, not science; when Chase makes the statement “Still pulsing through the lifeblood of this human/creation connection are common genes—common genes whose function seems to be the nurturing of mindful attention, wonder, and shared longings to return to their Creator,” it is spirituality speaking, not biology. That being said, this is a unique book with a valuable point of view and a well-laid-out guide to achieving greater connection with God through nature. Rating: 4 —KLF… (meer)

I feel like this book is caught between the scholarly world and the popular world. The author tries to build a metaphor of prayer and the tree of life, and that part of the book is in the popular tradition of Richard Foster. On the other hand, Chase is incredibly learned and he has a deep knowledge of ancient prayer sources. As a result, his book is full of discussions and notes on subjects that are typically beyond a popular work. Unfortunately, this means the book is not fully successful in either endeavor. To me, the best and most useful parts of the book were the scholarly discussions and notes. It pointed to numerous primary sources that I look forward to investigating in the years to come.… (meer)