Riven: A Mysticism of Place in Times of Grief
Journal of Contemplative Studies July 23, 2025 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.57010/xhvk1858 via DOAJ
Summary
This essay argues that lamentation amid ecocide requires moving beyond metaphor into material engagement with place. Drawing on Christian mystics Julian of Norwich, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and John of the Cross, alongside contemporary authors Robert Macfarlane and Annie Dillard, it rejects either/or solutions as romantic optimism or escapism enabling capitalist exploitation. Instead, it proposes spiritual practices that hold paradoxical truths in real bodies and time, awakening us to apocatastasis, apophatic energy, and integrated epistemologies.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Lamentation amid ecocide requires moving beyond metaphor into material engagement with place, drawing on Christian mystics and contemporary authors to develop spiritual practices that hold paradoxical truths. |
Abstract
What does a particular place and its unique yet integrated life-force do for our lamentation amid ecocide? Do we suppose that nature mourns for us? Restores us to full resurrection? I avoid either/or solutions as at best a misplaced romantic optimism and at worst escapism enabling capitalist exploitation. Rather, I draw upon Christian mystics Julian of Norwich, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and John of the Cross alongside contemporary nonfiction authors Robert Macfarlane and Annie Dillard to move us beyond metaphor into the material. Masters of holding complicated paradoxical truths in real bodies and time, they wake the dying and entice us into spiritual practices as poets of apocatastasis, postulants of apophatic energy, and epistemologies of integration.