Trinity Forum Conversations

Heaven & Nature Sing with Hannah Anderson

Advent invites us to enter into the joy of the season through rhythms of remembrance, renewal, and waiting. But often, our very familiarity with the Advent story can leave us dulled to the miracle and joy of the season.

In her book of Advent reflections, Heaven and Nature Sing, author Hannah Anderson invites us all into a fresh reading of the Christmas story by drawing together 25 meditations on the beauty of creation:
“What I believe creation invites us back to is reorienting ourselves, not only to God, but to our environment and perhaps even to our own bodies and to ourselves. And so when we are giving our attention to the patterns and rhythms and cycles of creation it has the potential to be an access point for some deeper truths that maybe we've forgotten or we've overlooked.” - Hannah Anderson
This podcast is an edited version of a conversation recorded in fall of 2022. Learn more about Hannah Anderson.

Episode outline
00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Advent
01:51 Introducing Hannah Anderson and Her Work
02:28 The Inspiration Behind 'Heaven and Nature Sing'
04:39 Attentiveness to Creation and Its Lessons
07:57 The Link Between Caring for Creation and Others
11:58 The Legend of the First Christmas Tree
15:27 Jesus' Birth and the Concept of Habitat
19:11 The Brutality and Honesty of Nature
22:49 Reconnecting with Nature in Modern Times
26:49 Practical Steps to Attune to Nature
29:32 Closing Thoughts and Poem
31:07 Final Farewell and Podcast Information

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:
All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment, by Hannah Anderson
The Turning of Days: Lessons from Nature, Season, and Spirit, by Hannah Anderson
Heaven and Nature Sing, by Hannah Anderson
An Immense World, by Ed Yong

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Bright Evening Star, by Madeleine L’Engle
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
Babette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
The Gift of the Magi and Two Thanksgiving Gentlemen, by O. Henry
God’s Grandeur: the Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Related Conversations:
Waiting on the Word, with Malcolm Guite
Joy to the World: Caroling Christmas and Christian Formation, with Keith Getty
Advent: The Season of Hope, with Tish Harrison Warren

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.

What is Trinity Forum Conversations?

Trinity Forum Conversations is a podcast exploring the big questions in life by looking to the best of the Christian intellectual tradition and elevating the voices, both ancient and modern, who grapple with these questions and direct our hearts to the Author of the answers. We invite you to join us in one of the great joys of life: a conversation among friends on the things that matter most.