by Christine Sine

This is my favourite Earth Day prayer and one I like to reuse each year.

I also have a few books I love to revisit at this time to remind myself of why I need to take my call to care for creation seriously.

It is impossible for me to list all the books that make good reading for Earth day or for our concern for creation from a faith perspective. Here are a few that I have read in the last couple of years that I recommend:

Creation Care, Ecology and Climate Change

• Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth by Debra Rienstra explores how Christine spirituality and practice must adapt to life on a climate-altered planet.
• Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World by Lisa Wells. Her book “introducing trailblazers and outliers from across the globe who have found radically new ways to live and reconnect to the Earth in the face of climate change.”
• Worshipping in Season: Ecology and Christ Through the Liturgical Year by Joseph E. Bush Jr. “Following the liturgical calendar and maintaining a Christocentric emphasis, Jospeh E. Bush Jr. aligns earthly seasons with the liturgy and suggest readings, songs, and other acts of worship to amplify an ecologically informed Christology.”
• Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a collection of essays on our relationship to the environment and the sacred nature of creation.

Creativity, Contemplation and Gardening

• Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening by Vigen Guroian. A delightful collection of garden meditations from an Orthodox Christian perspective.
• Gardens for the Soul by Pamela Woods. A beautifully illustrated book that provides great insights on designing outdoor spaces using ancient symbols, healing plants and Feng shui.
• Rooted in the Spirit: Exploring Inspirational Gardens by Maureen Gilmer. This is another beautifully illustrated and very practical book that helps you link your gardening to spirituality.
• Cultivating Sacred Space – Gardening for the Soul by Elizabeth Murray. This book invites us into sacred gardens at every season giving inspiration and ideas for our own sacred spaces.
• Everyday Sanctuary A Workbook for Designing a Sacred Garden Space by Jessi Bloom. This is an informative workbook that helps you design sacred space in the garden.
• Landscapes of Prayer by Margaret Silf. A beautiful book of prayer reflections exploring 9 different natural landscapes
• Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for A Modern World by John O’Donohue. A treasure that celebrates the beauty and mystery of everyday things.
• Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness by Mary Reynolds Thompson. A journey into five great landscapes of our world that reconnects us to a rich source of wisdom, healing and wholeness.
• All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss. Twenty five meditations reflecting on how wild animals adapt when darkness descends.
• Morning Altars by Day Schildkret. The best process I have found for contemplative practice with nature.
• Earth Our Original Monastery by Christine Valters Painter.
• Farming While Black by Leah Penniman. Not explicitly Christian, but makes connections between racial and environmental justice/reconciliation.

Food, Faith and the Spirituality of Gardening

• Food and Faith A Theology Of Eating by Norman Wirzba. This is my favorite go to resource about creation, food and eating.
• Making Peace With the Land: God’s Call To Reconcile With Creation by Fred Bahnson and Norman Wirzba. A great introduction to our responsibility for the earth God has given us.
• Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology by Daniel Brunner, Jennifer Butler and A.J. Swoboda. A great resource that is biblically rooted and historically informed. It enables us to deepen our witness on behalf of creation.
• A Climate of Hope: Church and Mission in a warming world by Claire Dawson and Dr Mick Pope. A well thought out Australian perspective on climate change and our Christian responsibility. Lots of good stories from Australia and abroad.
• Planted: A Story of Creation, Calling and Community by Leah Kostamo. I love this little book. Easy to read with lots of delightful stories. Leah works with A Rocha Canada.
• Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. Broad collection of essays from many faith traditions.
• Keeping God’s Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical Perspective edited by Noah J Toly and Daniel I. Block.
• Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith by Fred Bahnson.
• God’s Good Earth: Praise and Prayer for Creation by Anne and Jeffrey Rowthorn. A great collection of liturgies and prayers for creation.
• Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine S White. This is a timeless classic. Written in 1958, it is a refreshing collection of essays about gardening, writing and the inspiration we receive.
• Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food by Wendell Berry. Another classic from one of my favourite authors challenging us to become more conscious of the lives of those who produce our food and the world from which our food comes.
• Wendell Berry and the Given Life by Ragan Sutterfield. A collection of essays that provides a beautiful look into Wendell Berry’s life that illustrate the vision, path and practice of this wonderful man.
• The Green Good News: Christ’s Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life by T. Wilson Dickinson. A fresh look at the gospels which shows how Christ incarnates and teaches a vision for sustainable life.
• The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture by Christopher Shein. A great beginners guide to permaculture.
• To Garden with God by Christine Sine. A collection of reflections on faith and gardening. I am amazed at the ways that people have used this book to help them connect their faith and their time in the garden.

~Special thank you to Leah Schade for providing many of the links above in her Lenten Devotional book, For the Beauty of the Earth. The Mustard Seed House read it together as a community during  Lent a few years ago and really enjoyed researching the environmental stewardship groups that are highlighted in this book.~

Don’t see a book that you recommend? Comment below to share with us!

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