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Douglas Christie

Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies

Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES

Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts

Media

Publications

Image for publication on The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative EcologyImage for publication on The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism

Documents

Photos

Audio/Podcasts

Video

Biography

Douglas E. Christie received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his M.A. from Oxford University and his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He has been awarded fellowships from the Luce Foundation, the Lilly Foundation and the NEH. From 2013-2015 he served as Co-director of the Casa de la Mateada study abroad program in Córdoba, Argentina. His primary research interests focus on contemplative thought and practice in ancient and medieval Christianity and on spirituality and ecology. He is the author of The Word in The Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (Oxford), The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Note for a Contemplative Ecology (Oxford), and is the founding editor of Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality (Johns Hopkins). His work has appeared in The Blackwell Companion to Christian Spirituality, The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism, Horizons, Cross Currents, The Anglican Theological Review, Weavings, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, Studia Patristica, The Best Spiritual Writing, and Orion. His current work is focused on the idea of mystical darkness and the contemporary sense of exile, loss and emptiness.

Education

Graduate Theological Union

Ph.D., Christian Spirituality

1988

Oxford University

M.A., Theology

1980

University of California, Santa Cruz

B.A., Religious Studies/Psychology

1977

Areas of Expertise

Christian SpiritualityEarly Christian MonasticismSpirituality and Ecology

Courses

The Practice of Everyday Life

THST 3251

Into the Desert

THST 3750

Contemplatives in Action

THST 398

Sacred Place

THST 3751

Articles

The Night Office: Loss, Darkness and the Practice of Solidarity

Anglican Theological Review

Anglican Theological Review 99:2 (Spring 2017): 211-232.

Becoming Painfully Aware: Spirituality and Solidarity in Laudato Si’

The Theological and Ecological Vision of Laudato Si’: Everything is Connected

Ed. Vincent Miller (London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2017): 109-126.

Nature Writing and Nature Mysticism

Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology

Ed. Willis J. Jenkins, Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim (London, Routledge, 2017): 227-234.

‘The Joy of Feeling Close to God’: The Practice of Prayer and the Work of Accompaniment

Anglican Theological Review

Anglican Theological Review 95:4 (Fall, 2013): 585-606.

The Eternal Present: Slow Knowledge and the Renewal of Time

Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies

Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies 33 (2013): 13-21