Trees and the Life of Prayer: An Interspecies Sharing of Praise and Lament

Abstract:Trees play a significant role in the history of prayer. The folklore of faith traditions everywhere make it clear that prayer is more than a human impulse. This essay examines the history of trees and prayer in Christian spirituality—from the early Dendrites (monks living in trees) to Thomas Merton’s life among the pines near his hermitage. It argues for an expansion of consciousness in “communicating” with trees, shows how they share in the biblical practice of praise and lament, recounts the cultural and mythic appropriation of specific trees, and surveys the new tree science with its emphasis on community.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality

• Publication date

  2025-03-01

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1353/scs.2025.a956949
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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