JOHN PHILIP NEWELL is a former clergyman in the Church of Scotland (he "let go" of his ordination a while ago, as he says in his introduction), and the search named in his title is for a spiritual movement that can provide the wisdom, energy, and inspiration needed to act on climate change.
As he mentions at points throughout the book, a lot of traditional Christian teaching will not be helpful toward this end: the doctrine of original sin and fussing about the ontological status of Jesus of Nazareth, for instance. Insisting on the duality of spirit and matter will cause problems as well; one of his chief recurring ideas is that he need to think of the Earth and the natural world as being as ensouled as we are. The Golden Rule should extend not just to our human neighbors, but to our animal and plant neighbors as well, the whole of the environment.
Most of the book is devoted to discussions of nine figures from several traditions whose ideas could contribute to the Earth-focused spiritual movement: Thomas Berry, Nan Shepherd, Martin Buber, Carl Jung, Julian of Norwich, Jalaluddin Rumi, Rabindranath Tagore, Etty Hillesum, and Edwin Muir. The friend who lent me this book likely had in mind my attachment to Julian, and what Newell says about her resonated with me. All nine chapters were illuminating, especially those devoted to people I knew little about (Hillesum, Muir, Berry, Shepherd).
One surprise: American indigeneous spirituality seems obviously well-suited to Newell's search, but he does not mention it. As much as he gets around--he mentions being at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico--he surely knows about it...but not a word. I hope someone hands him a copy of Jerome Rothenberg;'s anthology Technicians of the Sacred soon, and that he writes about it.
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