The Joyful Mystery: Field Notes Toward a Green Thomism

Book excerpt: “The gift of this beautiful earth is not to be ignored or regretted; instead, this world is the central setting in which the Christian life is to be attentively lived and faithfully pursued.” Regard for creation and its creatures has been a perennial part of Christian spirituality for centuries. In more recent decades it has been the special concern of Catholic social teaching. Yet many Catholics today are unfamiliar with this aspect of Church thought. And until the splendor of creation is recovered, the path to a vibrant Catholic culture seems cut off. The Joyful Mystery seeks to revive the Church’s practice of integral ecology and encourages a deeper awareness of the presence of God, the Creator and Lord of the universe. In it, author Christopher Thompson draws from the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas and the “Green Thomism” he inspires in contemporary life. Readers will come away moved by the presence of God manifest in his glorious cosmos and be drawn to integral ecology as a spiritual response.