Listening to the “Book of Nature”

By Katie Hirschboeck, PhD

For those who have attentive ears and open eyes, creation is like a first revelation that has its own eloquent language: it is almost another sacred book whose letters are represented by the multitude of created things present in the universe.
- Pope Saint John Paul II 

God has written a precious book, “whose letters are the multitude of created things present in the universe”. 
- Pope Francis 

I was blessed to grow up in a household surrounded by books and avid book-readers. Over the years, as a student, a scientist, and a teacher, it’s been through books, articles, and personal experience that I have been able to explore the wonders of nature and share these insights with my students. At the same time, as a Catholic, I have treasured a truly unique “textbook,” the Bible, as the most meaningful guide for my life and my faith. However, across the centuries, there has not always been a harmony between these two types of texts or “ways of knowing.” While many see an incompatibility between some of the truths proclaimed in the (scientific) “Book of Nature” and the (religious) "Book of Scripture,” a chorus of different voices -- from scientists, to saints, to former popes -- would readily agree with Pope Francis when he claims in his Laudato Si’ Encyclical that “science and religion, with their distinctive approaches to understanding reality, can enter into an intense dialogue fruitful for both.” [LS 62]

Just as the Book of Scripture employs different forms of writing for different purposes, e.g.,  letters, laws, history, parables, poetry, prophecy, etc. ... the scientific Book of Nature provides varying forms of information for readers exploring the physical world via field observations, laboratory analysis, experiments, models, or other scientific approaches.   

But there are other ways the Book of Nature speaks to us beyond traditional science. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk of the 12th century, wrote: “Believe me, you will find more lessons in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from masters.” In other words, the experience of Nature itself imparts a different kind of knowledge, and often this experiential aspect of the Book of Nature is described in terms of “speaking to us.” See, for example, the following quotes shared by Pope Francis in Laudato Si’: 

The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. [LS 84]    

To sense each creature singing the hymn of its existence is to live joyfully in God’s love and hope. This contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us, since “for the believer, to contemplate creation is to hear a message, to listen to a paradoxical and silent voice”. [LS 85] 

But also  . . 

Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. These situations have caused sister earth, along with all the abandoned of our world, to cry out, pleading that we take another course.  [LS 53] 

When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected. [LS 117] 

The poor and the earth are crying out. [LS 246] 

So how does one “read” or listen to these voices and cries of the Book of Nature. Are we being asked to “read” the Book of Nature as an audiobook?! (“Heaven forbid” some might say!)  Studies have shown that listening to audiobooks takes in knowledge in a different way than reading them, but one Psychology Today article concluded, “Perhaps the most crucial difference between an audiobook and a written text is the presence of the narrator.” 

The theme of this year’s Season of Creation (Sep 1 – Oct 4) is “Listen to the Voice of Creation”  and as people of faith we have a “Divine Narrator!” Why not commit to spending some time listening to the Book of Nature this season? Let's open our ears -- and our hearts -- to what our loving Narrator is saying to us!

The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the works of his hands. Day unto day pours forth speech; night unto night whispers knowledge.    Ps 19:2-3 

Optional addendum? 

To learn more about what St. Bernard‘s trees may have been saying, consider attending: 
Listen to the Voice of Creation: "There Is Always Hope for A Tree" Mini-Retreat+ Tree-Ring Lab Tour on Sunday afternoon Sept 11th.
Learn more!