Deepening Community: Eco-Book Group Returns This Fall!
This past spring, Quaker Earthcare Witness hosted a vibrant and deeply engaging book group focused on Jennie Ratcliffe’s transformative book, Nothing Lowly in the Universe. From February through May 2024, participants gathered every other Monday to delve into the intricate weave of ecological, spiritual, and moral issues Ratcliffe explores in her work. Led by the dedicated and passionate facilitators Ethan Smith and Nathan Kleban, the group offered a space for rich reflection and meaningful conversation about our relationship with the environment and the crises we face.
The book group not only read and discussed the book but also had the honor of Jennie Ratcliffe joining for the opening and closing sessions, enriching the discussions with her insights.
Building on the success of the spring series, the QEW book group will reconvene this fall with a new book selection. We are inviting suggestions for our next read and encourage everyone to contribute their ideas. Some of the books suggested so far include:
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliviera
- All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
- Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
- Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
- The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
- The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
- Floating Coast by Bathsheba Demuth
- The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh
We invite everyone to join us this fall for another series of in-depth discussions. Whether you are a returning participant or new to the group, we look forward to your presence and contributions. Together, we can continue to explore the crucial intersections of ecology, spirituality, and morality, and seek paths toward a sustainable and just future. Keep an eye out for more details soon!
We cannot so easily destroy that which we come to love, to see as kin, as an integral part of us and the commonwealth of life. – Jennie M. Ratcliffe
Nothing Lowly in the Universe: An Integral Approach to the Ecological Crisis
Jennie Ratcliffe’s Nothing Lowly in the Universe is a compelling exploration of the interconnected scientific, technological, economic, religious, and psychological causes of our ecological predicament. Ratcliffe, a Quaker herself, presents the ecological crisis as fundamentally a spiritual and moral crisis, proposing transformative paths to the long-term sustainability of a more just and peaceable world through an Interfaith/Quaker lens for the commonwealth of life and the emergence of a new Ecozoic era.
Order online at Pendle Hill or at BookShop.org.
