Author Roger S. Gottlieb
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Books and More. I'm your host William Cooper and delighted to have author Roger Gottlieb with us today. Roger, how are you?
I'm okay. I'm okay. Thank you for having me on.
Yeah, great to be here. And you have a wonderful Book, uh, Nature Spirituality, why don't you tell us what inspired you to pick it up? Pick up the pen and write it.
Well Yeah, I've been thinking for a long time about spirituality, written books about it. Um And my own particular version of spirituality involves a great deal Your relationship with the natural world as humanity has for thousands of years. derive what we might call spiritual inspiration from the natural world, which is to say That encounters with nature can help make us a little bit more grateful, a little less greedy, a little more accepting, a more sense of uh connection to something much larger than ourselves. the essential features of spiritual life, whether that sense of spirituality is derived from traditional religious teachings or from the people who are spiritual but not religious.
What inspired Roger Gottlieb to write *Nature Spirituality*?
So what happens then when for years you've gone to a particular forest or a beach or a river? And found that you go there feeling kind of crummy, a little disappointed in life, a little angry at your partner, a little scared. And you walk away feeling better. Now, not better the way three drinks or half a chocolate cake might make you feel, because there's no shame or hangover. But you have become more spiritual, very simple, nothing fancy kind of idea that you might more able to manifest spiritual virtues, for instance, gratitude and acceptance. What happens when you go to that forest and it's been clear cut? Well, you see that these orange patches are on all the leaves because the trees are more susceptible to a kind of blight.
Because they've been weakened by the drought of climate change. We go to the river and you notice this huge cargo of uh used plastic water bottles have washed up on shore. The way, for instance, Costa Rica, often thought of as this sort of refuge of nature escapism, they have huge quantities of plastic waste rolling up on their beaches. So the question then is, what's left of nature spirituality in an age of environmental crisis? And that's the title of the book. Nature, spirituality, and environmental crisis and the subtitle is Embracing that's what spiritual nature spirituality is embracing a Sacred. Wounded Earth. The Earth is wounded by human activity. We've always had troubles in the past, but nothing like the scope or degree to which our damage of our natural environment has now.
We never could have changed the pH of the ocean, made it a lot more acidic. We never could have made mother's milk. illegal because they're so filled with pollutants because Of the surrounding environment that mothers are taken in. So, what then is possible for us? So that is The question that I raise in the book.
That's fantastic. And and how do you answer that question?
Well, I I answered first by, you know, reciting at greater length the kind of depressing statistics and facts that I just offered. It's not hard to see why I don't get invited to cocktail parties, right? I'm just a credible source of depressing information. Uh and I also add an a few other features as well. I just mentioned two of them quickly and then get on to how do we what what's left. Um, one of the most important spiritual relations, if it can be spiritual relations we have in our lives is with our children. Of course we might wanna make them into symbols of our adequacy and be able to brag about them and all that kind of thing. But hopefully we able to manage a kind of disinterested deep love for them.
And one of the things we can give them that's most precious, I believe, is the relationship with nature. You can say to your kid, look. Here's some place you can go when you're tired of the social pressures, that you're too fat, you're too thin, you're too you're not good enough at sports, you're not popular, all these kinds of crushing weights. that rest on children these days, even children who are eating plenty and have good medical care.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–1:13
2
What inspired Roger Gottlieb to write *Nature Spirituality*?
1:13–5:09
3
How does the environmental crisis change our relationship with nature?
5:09–10:21
4
What spiritual virtues can survive in a wounded Earth?
10:21–14:20
5
How can gratitude be practiced when nature is degraded?
14:20–16:07
6
What does Roger’s writing process look like for this book?
16:07–20:00
7
How can individuals turn nature‑spirituality into collective action?
20:00–20:42