The Earth as God's Body: Incarnation as Communion in the Poetry of Mary Oliver

Davis, Todd F.

doi:10.1177/014833310905800408

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 3 publications

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“…To put it differently, whereas Emerson privileges the view of nature as spirit, body matters to Oliver in her relationship with nature and God. As Todd Davis (2009) keenly points out, Oliver's poetry reveals her belief in "God's immanence and incarnation in the creation," (p. 607) which aligns with theologian Sallie McFague's "contention that 'as the body of God, the world is a sacrament, the sacrament, the incarnation of God'" (as cited in Davis, p. 607). 9 Davis quotes from "On Thy Wondrous Works I will Meditate" to substantiate his point: "So it is not hard to understand / where God's body is, it is / everywhere and everything; shore and the vast / fields of water, the accidental and the intended / over here, over there.…”

Section: The Earth As God's Body: Mary Oliver's Christian Ecological ...mentioning

confidence: 91%

Interreligious dialogue for the earth: Ecological spirituality in the poetry of Mary Oliver and Thich Nhat Hanh

Pradittatsanee

2024

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This paper examines the poetry of two contemporary writers from divergent religious backgrounds: American poet Mary Oliver (1935–2019) and Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022). Taking a comparative approach to examine the writers’ ecological spirituality, it attempts to examine how Oliver and Nhat Hanh envision self, nature, God, and spirituality in Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (2017) and Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh (1999) respectively. It demonstrates striking affinities of the two poets’ visions, arguing that they are kindred spirits despite their different religious backgrounds. It examines how each writer’s perception of self and nature is founded upon their religious ideas and how their spirituality is, in turn, enhanced by this ecological vision. While Oliver’s spirituality is based upon her belief in God’s immanence in nature and thus her view of nature as God’s body, the Buddhist notion of interbeing is the bedrock of Nhat Hanh’s perception of self in relation to other things. Both similarly emphasize the significance of contemplative practice in nature as a means to achieve an insight into divinity or interbeing. Furthermore, this paper shows how the reading of the two writers in juxtaposition with each other invites an interreligious dialogue of the Buddhist and Christian poets. It employs its comparative analysis of the two writers as a case study to reflect upon possibilities for a fruitful interfaith dialogue in our attempt to nurture our spiritual lives and foster our bonds with nature.

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Section: The Earth As God's Body: Mary Oliver's Christian Ecological ...mentioning

confidence: 91%

Interreligious dialogue for the earth: Ecological spirituality in the poetry of Mary Oliver and Thich Nhat Hanh

Pradittatsanee

2024

HASSS

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Pollywogs and Polylogues: Material Spirituality in the Writings of Mary Oliver

Murphy¹

2019

ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews

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The field is ripe: Christian literary scholarship, postcolonial ecocriticism, and environmentalism

Mabie

2016

Christianity & Literature

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Christian literary scholars and ecocritics have generally not engaged each other in sustained and productive conversation. This article therefore updates and extends Timothy J. Burbery's 2012 call for a Christian ecocriticism by showing that ecocriticism's recent postcolonial turn has opened new opportunities for Christian literary scholars. Ecocriticism's heightened attention to ways that environmental problems threaten the lives and livelihoods of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people provides an opportunity for Christians to become involved in both the scholarly project of ecocriticism and in the work of advancing global environmental justice. The author holds out hope that a rigorous Christian ecocriticism could pave the way for a potent new Christian environmentalism.

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The Earth as God's Body: Incarnation as Communion in the Poetry of Mary Oliver

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Interreligious dialogue for the earth: Ecological spirituality in the poetry of Mary Oliver and Thich Nhat Hanh

Interreligious dialogue for the earth: Ecological spirituality in the poetry of Mary Oliver and Thich Nhat Hanh

Pollywogs and Polylogues: Material Spirituality in the Writings of Mary Oliver

The field is ripe: Christian literary scholarship, postcolonial ecocriticism, and environmentalism

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