Take No Bag For The Road. Nature, the Climate Crisis & Christianity. A talk with Peter Owen Jones

Peter Owen Jones is a writer, broadcaster and priest. His new book is Conversations With Nature.
We discuss falling in love with the natural world once again, what difference this might make to the climate crisis, how Christianity has failed to respond in any significant way to environmental collapse, though also has an answer, if we are prepared to give no thought for the morrow, value the falling sparrow, and follow the way.
William Blake's sense of participation, imagination and divine return are also in the mix.
For more on Peter's book, Conversations With Nature, see www.clairviewbooks.com/viewbo...
For more on Mark Vernon, see www.markvernon.com

[@mrickenbacherwest]

If there were more people who revered Nature, opened their hearts to a life of grace filled stewardship like Peter we would be on a healthier path and truly honoring the Love that was the most important gift of the divine teachings of Jesus and this should be our constant goal if we are to evolve.

[@oarsquare5154]

It seems to me that Peter Owen Jones is an authentic embodiment of “spiritual intelligence”, your latest book. It seems you are writing about this type of perception but when faced with a person who embodies it you intellectualize his experience. I say this with deep respect, Mark.

[@hexxan007]

Thanks to both of you. So much recognition that i ordered the book. To my amazement, the publisher does not deliver to any European countries?! This might be a tax issue though, i have not asked. Had to order from Amazon and that sucks!
Also YT gave me a hard time to find the video again after i had to interrupt my first time viewing. These insights and knowledge are clearly not meant to spread far and wide...

[@adrianthomas1473]

There is a wisdom in the past that we have lost. The Victorians loved gardens - they would build a hospital with a garden, houses had gardens, they set up allotments. All life has soul - this is in Thomas Aquinas. We need balance. It’s difficult to forget the grinding poverty that was present before the Industrial Revolution. However our current life is out of balance. And I agree - we are all priests as Luther showed and Jesus is the High Priest. And as you say - Christianity has lost interest in interiority. The church has become an NGO and has become more like a political party than a spiritual quest. I love the idea of rewilding of Christianity - of reading the Scriptures with fresh eyes.

[@theutopia777]

A very beautiful position from POJ. The importance of this outlook is that benevolent powers must incentivise the cultivation of natural beauty and goodness, rather than coercing it. All good and beautiful things grow from the root up, falling from the top down.

[@laurahigdon5353]

I am unfamiliar with this man being interviewed, but this first impression I felt from him is just pure ego. Not engaging in a conversation with you Mark, but talking at you in a very righteous way that felt discussing to me. I do not feel like his words are authentic, they are just ego spilling out. Yuck.
Mark, I really appreciated how you kept going back in with genuine curiosity and kindness to draw him out for clarification. It must have been exhausting for you.

[@christopherjordan9707]

Haha yes. I was going to write something similar but you said it better.

[@timjohanson5319]

Oh yes Laura - you're spot on! Well done for seeing right through this fake confidence trickster xx

[@hexxan007]

Amazing. I had a totally different impression. As well about the man as about the way the communication went. I wonder what it was that triggered you?