Reading Both Books
In recent days I have been reading John Philip Newell’s newest book, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul. In this excellent work Newell seeks to share “Celtic wisdom for reawakening to what our souls know and healing the world.” As in a number of his previous books, he focuses on several key figures in Celtic Spirituality. One of the recurring themes found among many of these figures is the idea that God has given us “two books” of revelation. I have written numerous times about these two books but would like to share some of Newell’s insights with you from Sacred Earth Sacred Soul.
In his chapter of John Scotus Eriugena Newell points out that “Eriugena said that the whole of the natural world is like a sacred text—and that includes the creatures and our creatureliness. ‘All creatures,’ he says, ‘are in humanity as if melted down in a crucible.’ Eriugena teaches that there are two books through which God is speaking. The first is the small book; physically little, this is the book of Holy Scripture. The second is the big book, the living text of the universe, which includes the great luminaries of the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars; the earth, sea, and sky; the creatures of all these realms; and the multiplicity of life-forms that grow from the ground. We need to read both books, he says, the sacred text of scripture and the sacred text of the universe. If we read only the little book, we will miss the vastness and wildness of the utterance, everything vibrating with the sound of the divine. If we read only the big book, we are in danger of missing the intimacy of the voice, for the book of scripture calls us to faithfulness in relationship, including faithfulness to strangers, refugees, widows, and the poorest among us.”
Newell also has a chapter on Alexander John Scott’s contribution to Celtic Spirituality. Like Eriugena, Scott points us to God’s two books. “A person with the Bible in one hand, he said, is not released from the study of God in that other book, the sacred text of the earth and of everything that has being. We need both. The awareness of the sacred that we access in nature is not a doctrinal or propositional knowing, said Scott. It belongs ‘to some deeper part of the human being.’ It is the way lovers know each other, with their whole beings, heart and mind, body and soul, knowing the spiritual in the physical. ‘Forms, colors, motions, sounds’—it is through these that we encounter the presence of the divine, says Scott. ‘This is the value of the sun, moon and stars, of earth and sea, of trees and flowers, of the bodies of men and women, the looks of human countenances, the tones of human voices.’ It is through these that the divine is made known to us.”
The testimony of Eriugena and Scott, as well as other figures Newell covers in his new book, makes it clear that not only has God given us two books of revelation but that we must be careful to utilize both books. A similar case can be made from Scripture. Psalm 19 refers to the two books of revelation and shows that both are important and necessary. Unfortunately, this teaching is not widely known. You seldom hear this message preached from pulpits today. Nonetheless, we must recognize that there are these two book and do our very best to read and study both of them. Sad to say, some read only the Bible and ignore the other book God has given us. Just as sad, some read only the book of nature and ignore the Holy Scriptures. If we are wise we will give careful attention to both of God’s books. If we truly want to know and experience God, we will do just that. Are you reading both books?
–Chuck