Honey from Stone : A Naturalist's Search for God

Organizing his book according to the monastic hours of prayer, Chet Raymo examines the strength of scientific language to encounter the divine in the natural world.

“What is the relevance of traditional religion in the world described by contemporary science? Is scientific knowledge a satisfactory ground for the religious experience? Can the language of traditional religion constitute an appropriately modern language of praise?” —from Honey from Stone Framing his meditations as a Book of Hours, scientist Chet Raymo exercises the languages of theology and science to express the majesty of Ireland’s remote Dingle Peninsula. As he wanders the land year upon year, Raymo gathers the revelations embedded in the geological and cultural history of this wild and ancient place. “When I called out for the Absolute, I was answered by the wind,” Raymo writes. “If it was God’s voice in the wind, then I heard it.” In poetic prose grounded in a mind trained to discover fact, Honey from Stone enters the wonder of the material world in search of our deepest nature.