Table of Contents

Prologue: Ring Lake Ranch, Wyoming
Chapter One: The Double Irony of Reformed Spirituality: Nature, Desire and the Easily-Diverted Quest for God's Beauty
Landscapes of Desire: The Whole World Singing: A Journey to Iona and Taizé
Chapter Two: John Calvin on the World as a Theater of God's Glory
Landscapes of Desire: Can We Chant Psalms with All God's Creatures?
Chapter Three: Nature and Desire in Seventeenth-Century Puritanism
Landscapes of Desire: Open the Kingdom for a Cottonwood Tree
Chapter Four: The Schooling of Desire: Nature's Purifying Role in Affliction
Landscapes of Desire: Biodiversity and the Holy Trinity
Chapter Five: Jonathan Edwards on Beauty, Desire, and the Sensory World
Landscapes of Desire: On Pilgrimage with Jonathan Edwards
Chapter Six: Transformed by Beauty: Environmental Ethics and the Wildness of God
Epilogue: Dead Creek, East Saint Louis

About the Author

Belden C. Lane is Professor of Theological Studies, American Religion, and History of Spirituality at Saint Louis University and the author of The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality.

Reviews

"Lane scores on every shot . . . In addition to rich quotes from others, Lane offers his own memorable thoughts, his words elegant as brocade in color and texture, scholarly but never stultifying."--Publishers Weekly
"I love this book--a serious work of theology whose language celebrates and mediates the ravishing beauty of a world shot through with the glory of God."--Marcus Borg, author of The Heart of Christianity and Speaking Christian
"Belden Lane has provided a contemporary spiritual theology perfectly suited to the restless longings of our consumer culture. Rereading Calvin and Edwards, he finds neglected (and surprising) resources in the Reformed tradition for seeing creation as a rich and wild theater of fulfilled desires. In the process he teaches the reader to share creation's passionate and conflicted yearning for God, and to join its praise of God's loveliness."--William Dyrness,
Professor of Theology and Culture, Fuller Theological Seminary
"Exemplary! Christianity's ecological phase requires Earth-honoring retrieval and recasting of its deep traditions. Lane brings to the task a good historian's unflinching honesty as well as the pilgrim's personal passion. The result is Reformed spirituality transformed by its own strong sense of God's presence amid streams of earthly beauty across 'landscapes of desire.' A timely ecumenical gift."--Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social
Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York
"[A]n informative and thought-provoking work about how we treat nature." --Library Journal
"In this splendid book Belden Lane has made a double contribution-to the reordering of our perspectives on creation and to our understanding of the Reformed tradition as a contributor to this reordering. A nature lover, hiker and camper as well as a first-rate scholar, he combines a passion for sensitive stewardship of creation with profound insight into the nature perspectives of Reformed spirituality and into the interconnections between Reformed spirituality
and the broader stream of world spirituality as they both relate to creation." --hristian Century
"In this splendid book Belden Lane has made a double contribution - to the reordering of our perspectives on creation and to our understanding of the Reformed tradition as a contributor to this reordering. A nature lover, hiker and camper as well as a first-rate scholar, he combines a passion for sensitive stewardship of creation with profound insight into the nature perspectives of Reformed spirituality and into the interconnections between Reformed
spirituality and the broader stream of world spirituality as they both relate to creation."--The Christian Century
"Among a spate of similar books, Ravished by Beauty is easily among the most rewarding. Extensively researched and elegantly written, it asks important questions and refuses easy answers."--Modern Theology
"Lane's volume is a much-needed foray into Reformed spirituality, the theological development of desire, and a robust Reformed aesthetic. It will prove incredibly useful for anyone interested in these issues and/or questions concerning ecology, a theology of nature, or a spirituality of desire."--Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care