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Standing in the Light: My Life As A Pantheist
"Everything is connected, and the web is holy." So wrote Marcus Aurelius, the starting point of Sharman Apt Russell's wise and haunting new memoir about her life as a pantheist. In Standing in the Light, Russell explores the history of this tradition from the Stoic philosophers to the Transcendentalists while reflecting on her own life during a year spent in the mountains and desert of southwestern New Mexico. Nature provides the inspiration for meditations on subjects ranging from Buddhist thought to the death of her father, from global warming to the ineffable loneliness of human experience. With a humane heart, an inquisitive mind, and an astounding fluency of prose, Sharman Apt Russell invites skeptics, scientists, and seekers everywhere to join her in her exploration of the soul of pantheism. "An elegantly written mixture of history, science and memoir... an engaging journey through the full spectrum of hunger, from the familiar stomach rumblings to the global issue of famine... Observer "An elegant meditation... (Sharman Apt Russell) scoops every morsel of interest from her subject. She also writes beautifully. Not surprisingly, this produces a feast." The Economist
270 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 2008
About the author
Sharman Apt Russell
32 books268 followersI am pleased to be considered a nature and science writer and excited that my Diary of a Citizen Scientist was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing. The John Burroughs Medal was first given in 1926, and recipients include Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, John McPhee, and many others. To be in such a list.
My most recent nonfiction is What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs (Columbia University Press, 2024)--part memoir of my tracking experiences, part introduction to the basics of identifying mammal tracks, and part call to reform how we manage wildlife in North America.
My previous Within Our Grasp: Childhood Malnutrition Worldwide and the Revolution Taking Place to End It (Pantheon Books, April, 2021) combines my longtime interest in the environment with my longtime interest in hunger. I began writing about this subject some twenty years ago, believing firmly that the goals of the environmentalist and the humanitarian are aligned. Healthy children require a healthy Earth. A healthy Earth requires healthy children.
Essentially I write about whatever interests me and seems important--living in place, grazing on public land, archaeology, flowers, butterflies, hunger, Cabeza de Vaca, citizen science, global warming, and pantheism.
I like this range of subject matter. I believe, too, in this braid of myth and science, celebration and apocalypse.
A little bit of bio:
Raised in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1981 I settled in southern New Mexico as a "back to the lander" and have stayed there ever since. I am a professor emeritus in the Humanities Department at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, as well as a mentoring faculty at Antioch University in Los Angeles. I received my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and my B.S. in Conservation and Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.
My work has been translated into Korean, Chinese, Swedish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Polish, and Italian. That is really a unique thrill: to see your words in Chinese ideograms.
My most recent nonfiction is What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs (Columbia University Press, 2024)--part memoir of my tracking experiences, part introduction to the basics of identifying mammal tracks, and part call to reform how we manage wildlife in North America.
My previous Within Our Grasp: Childhood Malnutrition Worldwide and the Revolution Taking Place to End It (Pantheon Books, April, 2021) combines my longtime interest in the environment with my longtime interest in hunger. I began writing about this subject some twenty years ago, believing firmly that the goals of the environmentalist and the humanitarian are aligned. Healthy children require a healthy Earth. A healthy Earth requires healthy children.
Essentially I write about whatever interests me and seems important--living in place, grazing on public land, archaeology, flowers, butterflies, hunger, Cabeza de Vaca, citizen science, global warming, and pantheism.
I like this range of subject matter. I believe, too, in this braid of myth and science, celebration and apocalypse.
A little bit of bio:
Raised in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, in 1981 I settled in southern New Mexico as a "back to the lander" and have stayed there ever since. I am a professor emeritus in the Humanities Department at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, as well as a mentoring faculty at Antioch University in Los Angeles. I received my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and my B.S. in Conservation and Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.
My work has been translated into Korean, Chinese, Swedish, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Polish, and Italian. That is really a unique thrill: to see your words in Chinese ideograms.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
September 19, 2008
This book is tough for me to review.
On the one hand, it was a revelation, an epiphany, a waking to the fact that godless people have labels we can hang upon the numinous. It gave me impetus to pick up the new Gregory Hays translation of Marcus Aurelius. In Russell's book I found several soft hollow shocks of recognition and affirmation. And yet, the writing was choppy. The use of 'principle' for 'principal' more than once was grating. The strings of sentence fragments. Annoying in the extreme. The way Russell wove the memoir part of the book with the research and exposition of pantheism's history was, to my eye, awkward.
Three stars tempered with ambivalence. I could have gone as high as four for content and as low as two for style.
On the one hand, it was a revelation, an epiphany, a waking to the fact that godless people have labels we can hang upon the numinous. It gave me impetus to pick up the new Gregory Hays translation of Marcus Aurelius. In Russell's book I found several soft hollow shocks of recognition and affirmation. And yet, the writing was choppy. The use of 'principle' for 'principal' more than once was grating. The strings of sentence fragments. Annoying in the extreme. The way Russell wove the memoir part of the book with the research and exposition of pantheism's history was, to my eye, awkward.
Three stars tempered with ambivalence. I could have gone as high as four for content and as low as two for style.
January 25, 2018
Some books just work, and you excuse all their faults.
That's this book for me. I'm not objective about it, barely impartial. I can acknowledge there were weird crotchets. But I liked it anyway. A lot.
Russell is a fine writer, but not an excellent one. Her prose is sometimes too prosaic. She seems to sometimes get lost in her paragraphs--or I do--and the rhythm is off, emphasizing the wrong words. She tries for parallelism that never gives a lift to either of the narrative lines.
Indeed, there are a lot of ways in which this is a not-as-good imitation of Terry Tempest Williams's spectacular Refuge. And maybe that's what I give Russell so much rope. I recently read a theory that those of us born in the second half of the twentieth century only ever really love ten music albums, and spend the rest of our lives (like junkies) looking for others that recreate the wonder of first hearing any of those ten. I think there's a large amount of truth in that--and I think it applies to books, too. So Russell's "Standing in the Light" excites the same neuronal network that exhilarated me when I first read Williams's book. Fair enough.
I still like this one.
The faults, though I recognize them, don't seem like faults. They're the peccadillos of a friend. The on-the-nose prose can be jolting in its way, as when, early in the book, Russell very matter of factly describes all the things she doesn't like about herself. I nodded--and felt exposed.
The struggle she describes is one I identify with closely: the struggle to find what, for lack of a better word, is an immanent faith, something that sees all of existence as holy, or wonderful. A struggle that admits some mysticism, still hews closely to science, but demands something more, too.
Russell interweaves her own issues--fifty-ish, not as successful as she'd like to be, an empty-nester, hypocritical on even her own core values, recognizing that she is part of a vaster social network that requires all kinds of compromises and leaves no one pure--and search for a way to look at the universe that resolves them with stories of her life in New Mexico's Gila River Valley, and short biographies of thinkers whose path she is following: the Greek Epicureans, the Stoics, Spinoza.
Russell loves nature, and the book has some stretches of what could be called nature writing, especially about the birds of New Mexico. But she also recognizes that she is a white, middle-class woman living in America, who drives cars and eats fast food. This is not a valorization of pure wilderness--and I really liked that. It met me where I was.
In her quest, Russell is searching, too intellectual, and continually backsliding--I identified with those, too. She comes to something approaching a resting spot by the end of the book, but its not clear. Part of that is a fault, I think--the book never has a really insistent (or even obvious) narrative drive, and the last couple of chapters meander before petering out.
Again, though, it makes me think of an intense and wide-ranging conversation with a friend. Those, too, end without obvious resolutions, or even obvious end-points. I was more than willing to forgive the foible for everything that came before.
It stands, for me, with Williams, of course, but also with John Gray's The Silence of Animals.
That's this book for me. I'm not objective about it, barely impartial. I can acknowledge there were weird crotchets. But I liked it anyway. A lot.
Russell is a fine writer, but not an excellent one. Her prose is sometimes too prosaic. She seems to sometimes get lost in her paragraphs--or I do--and the rhythm is off, emphasizing the wrong words. She tries for parallelism that never gives a lift to either of the narrative lines.
Indeed, there are a lot of ways in which this is a not-as-good imitation of Terry Tempest Williams's spectacular Refuge. And maybe that's what I give Russell so much rope. I recently read a theory that those of us born in the second half of the twentieth century only ever really love ten music albums, and spend the rest of our lives (like junkies) looking for others that recreate the wonder of first hearing any of those ten. I think there's a large amount of truth in that--and I think it applies to books, too. So Russell's "Standing in the Light" excites the same neuronal network that exhilarated me when I first read Williams's book. Fair enough.
I still like this one.
The faults, though I recognize them, don't seem like faults. They're the peccadillos of a friend. The on-the-nose prose can be jolting in its way, as when, early in the book, Russell very matter of factly describes all the things she doesn't like about herself. I nodded--and felt exposed.
The struggle she describes is one I identify with closely: the struggle to find what, for lack of a better word, is an immanent faith, something that sees all of existence as holy, or wonderful. A struggle that admits some mysticism, still hews closely to science, but demands something more, too.
Russell interweaves her own issues--fifty-ish, not as successful as she'd like to be, an empty-nester, hypocritical on even her own core values, recognizing that she is part of a vaster social network that requires all kinds of compromises and leaves no one pure--and search for a way to look at the universe that resolves them with stories of her life in New Mexico's Gila River Valley, and short biographies of thinkers whose path she is following: the Greek Epicureans, the Stoics, Spinoza.
Russell loves nature, and the book has some stretches of what could be called nature writing, especially about the birds of New Mexico. But she also recognizes that she is a white, middle-class woman living in America, who drives cars and eats fast food. This is not a valorization of pure wilderness--and I really liked that. It met me where I was.
In her quest, Russell is searching, too intellectual, and continually backsliding--I identified with those, too. She comes to something approaching a resting spot by the end of the book, but its not clear. Part of that is a fault, I think--the book never has a really insistent (or even obvious) narrative drive, and the last couple of chapters meander before petering out.
Again, though, it makes me think of an intense and wide-ranging conversation with a friend. Those, too, end without obvious resolutions, or even obvious end-points. I was more than willing to forgive the foible for everything that came before.
It stands, for me, with Williams, of course, but also with John Gray's The Silence of Animals.
January 1, 2010
Sharman Apt Russell challenges my abstract and lazy pantheism, as I had hoped, with this hard to categorize book. Reading it, I quickly realized how truly ignorant I am about the environment, how much I take for granted. I enjoy my creature comforts too much, am too distracted to ever comprehend Nature the way she does. She can identify the assorted flora and fauna of her native New Mexico with ease and knows rancher neighbors who can quote Cervantes. Contrariwise, I understand that I need to aerate and fertilize my ostentatious lawn on occasion and am lucky if I even know one of my neighbors (although, owing to the housing bust, the distance between occupied homes in my community does give it a very ranch-like feel at times).
Against the backdrop of her amateur ornithology, Russell traces pantheism’s thread through early Greek thought, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, Spinoza, Giordano Bruno, Tibetan Buddhism, Quakerism, Whitman, Hinduism, Taoism and Gaia Theory. She paints in broad strokes when discussing them, so there are gaps. But the gaps aren’t so large that I much cared, instead appreciating her fluid prose and learned insights. My only criticism is that she sometimes clicks off the common names of wildlife with the strained enthusiasm of reciting a liturgy. To me, it’s like reading a phone book. I guess I'm more generalist in my orientation – which is what I’d suspected all along, anyway. I propose the comfort of sharing in a community of believers is more comforting than the belief itself.
Against the backdrop of her amateur ornithology, Russell traces pantheism’s thread through early Greek thought, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, Spinoza, Giordano Bruno, Tibetan Buddhism, Quakerism, Whitman, Hinduism, Taoism and Gaia Theory. She paints in broad strokes when discussing them, so there are gaps. But the gaps aren’t so large that I much cared, instead appreciating her fluid prose and learned insights. My only criticism is that she sometimes clicks off the common names of wildlife with the strained enthusiasm of reciting a liturgy. To me, it’s like reading a phone book. I guess I'm more generalist in my orientation – which is what I’d suspected all along, anyway. I propose the comfort of sharing in a community of believers is more comforting than the belief itself.
August 8, 2013
In a year of reading all kinds of books about spirituality and religion, this is one of my favourites so far by a very large margin. A beautifully written, open and honest account of one woman's struggle to reconcile her everyday life and restless mind with a yearning to find the numinous in the world-as-it-is.
She explores various threads of pantheist thought woven through the history of religion, philosophy and literature, looks for communion in the company of Quakers, Buddhists, scientists and birds, immerses herself (not always wholeheartedly) in the threatened natural environment of New Mexico, and manages to find a very human mixture of solace and disappointment.
There's a lot to think about in here, but what makes the book truly special, for me, is the awkward fragility of Russell's religious engagement; she is painfully candid about the limits of her own ethical, political and spiritual commitment.
Reading this book was like sitting down with a stranger who slowly, quietly opens up her life to you - hopes and fears, doubt and belief - as though she's hesitantly offering a delicate gift that she's really not sure is worth anything at all. But it is; it's precious and it's lovely and I can't thank her enough.
She explores various threads of pantheist thought woven through the history of religion, philosophy and literature, looks for communion in the company of Quakers, Buddhists, scientists and birds, immerses herself (not always wholeheartedly) in the threatened natural environment of New Mexico, and manages to find a very human mixture of solace and disappointment.
There's a lot to think about in here, but what makes the book truly special, for me, is the awkward fragility of Russell's religious engagement; she is painfully candid about the limits of her own ethical, political and spiritual commitment.
Reading this book was like sitting down with a stranger who slowly, quietly opens up her life to you - hopes and fears, doubt and belief - as though she's hesitantly offering a delicate gift that she's really not sure is worth anything at all. But it is; it's precious and it's lovely and I can't thank her enough.
May 16, 2018
The author is a Quaker Pantheist and recounts her own experience interspersed with short summaries of various pantheist traditions and thinkers she has explored (from the early Greeks to Marcus Aurelius to Spinoza as well as Indian and other Eastern traditions; and of course, the Quakers make several appearances). I mostly read those parts, not her own story. Some people will probably enjoy her own reflections more. Either way, an easy read and a good introduction to pantheism (what else is there?)
April 17, 2023
Rating: 4 out of 5
The title for this book, Standing in the Light is based on a Quaker idea that Apt Russell explores throughout the book. If I understand it correctly, the Light is basically the inner stillness that one can find in silence and meditation. This is a book that is filled with thoughtful ruminations from the author’s life. Even if you don’t subscribe to Apt Russell’s worldview or thoughts, or you’re not persuaded by her account, this book is still filled with wisdom and thoughtful perspectives that make it worth reading. At the very least, you will walk away with a better understanding of one person’s view of pantheism. I didn’t find Apt Russell’s view compelling enough to entirely believe her version of pantheism, nevertheless this book exceeded my expectations.
Let me say what this book is not. It is not a systematic review of the philosophy of pantheism, nor of its history. This isn’t a heavily philosophical tome that taxes every last drop of your brainpower to comprehend, rather it contains small pieces of philosophical thought interspersed between the author’s experiences and thoughts. Sometimes the switch from history and philosophy to a personal account was a bit jarring but I found it quite refreshing.
Apt Russell is an avid amateur ornithologist, and being something of a birder myself, I really enjoyed hearing her stories about the birds and her thoughts on them. If you’re not a fan of birding you should still be able to enjoy this book, although perhaps not as much.
The author both documents and explores her beliefs in this book, she is very clear in her lack of dogmatism, and she shares her doubts on pretty much every idea presented. This comes across as real and genuine, a search for truth, rather than mere contradiction. It made the book much more compelling than I would have found it otherwise. From her travels to India in her early adulthood, to being a Quaker secretary, shifting beliefs, priorities and concerns are eloquently and practically expressed. I kept constantly finding myself relating to Apt Russell, her thoughts are short, practical, and concise, without abdicating nuance. A level of intellect that I can connect with.
This book is firmly rooted in the real world, its not high in the clouds, overly idealistic or separated from reality. Apt Russell avoids the excessively romantic traps which are so readily found in life, and in pantheistic thought especially. Speaking on her and her husband’s acquisition of a country house she writes:
This down-to-earth practicality and wisdom flowed through the book, making it compelling and interesting. I didn’t regret reading a single page.
This review was crossposted on my blog
“And we feel a weariness, much like that of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and Stoic who in 170 CE wrote in his diary, later called the Meditations: Evil: the same old thing. No matter what happens, keep this in mind: it’s the same old thing, from one end of the world to the other. It fills the history books, ancient and modern, and the cities, and the houses too. Nothing new at all. Familiar, transient.”
The title for this book, Standing in the Light is based on a Quaker idea that Apt Russell explores throughout the book. If I understand it correctly, the Light is basically the inner stillness that one can find in silence and meditation. This is a book that is filled with thoughtful ruminations from the author’s life. Even if you don’t subscribe to Apt Russell’s worldview or thoughts, or you’re not persuaded by her account, this book is still filled with wisdom and thoughtful perspectives that make it worth reading. At the very least, you will walk away with a better understanding of one person’s view of pantheism. I didn’t find Apt Russell’s view compelling enough to entirely believe her version of pantheism, nevertheless this book exceeded my expectations.
Let me say what this book is not. It is not a systematic review of the philosophy of pantheism, nor of its history. This isn’t a heavily philosophical tome that taxes every last drop of your brainpower to comprehend, rather it contains small pieces of philosophical thought interspersed between the author’s experiences and thoughts. Sometimes the switch from history and philosophy to a personal account was a bit jarring but I found it quite refreshing.
Apt Russell is an avid amateur ornithologist, and being something of a birder myself, I really enjoyed hearing her stories about the birds and her thoughts on them. If you’re not a fan of birding you should still be able to enjoy this book, although perhaps not as much.
The author both documents and explores her beliefs in this book, she is very clear in her lack of dogmatism, and she shares her doubts on pretty much every idea presented. This comes across as real and genuine, a search for truth, rather than mere contradiction. It made the book much more compelling than I would have found it otherwise. From her travels to India in her early adulthood, to being a Quaker secretary, shifting beliefs, priorities and concerns are eloquently and practically expressed. I kept constantly finding myself relating to Apt Russell, her thoughts are short, practical, and concise, without abdicating nuance. A level of intellect that I can connect with.
This book is firmly rooted in the real world, its not high in the clouds, overly idealistic or separated from reality. Apt Russell avoids the excessively romantic traps which are so readily found in life, and in pantheistic thought especially. Speaking on her and her husband’s acquisition of a country house she writes:
We have paid more than we can afford for this and understand better that every country house is satellite to the city. This time we won’t pretend to grow our own food or sustain ourselves on the land. We go to the country for reflection and redemption. We go despite the fact that living in town is more ecological. We go with a new set of illusions. We will live here until we die or die trying.
This down-to-earth practicality and wisdom flowed through the book, making it compelling and interesting. I didn’t regret reading a single page.
This review was crossposted on my blog
January 29, 2015
“Standing in the Light” by Sharman Apt Russell is a mediocre, book-length personal essay. The book is a history of pantheism told through a personal lens.
Using the braided structure popularized by creative nonfiction and personal essayists, Russell weaves back and forth between the story of her own life as a naturalistic, pantheist Quaker, and the story of pantheism and its key thinkers through the ages.
Pantheism, here defined as: “Everything is connected and the web is holy.”
Not a bad summation, I don’t think. I’ll remember that sentence, written by Marcus Aurelius almost 2,000 years ago, long after I’ve forgotten the rest of the book. Which will be soon, as Russell’s prose was forgettable. People won’t be quoting “Standing in the Light” two millennia down the line.
Russell fails to adequately add weight to her personal narratives, and long sections spent on tedious activities like bird-banding fail to evoke the intended interconnectedness of experience, and instead simply feel disconnected. Russell simply does not command the evocative language and imagery to make these nature sections sing. Instead of enjoying the respite from dry history, I spent every personal section wondering how long until the book got back to the subject at hand— pantheism.
Ironically, the philosophy of pantheism would tell you that Russell’s experience is just as worthwhile as that of any famous thinker. This, I suspect, was what she aimed to convey by including such lengthy personal diversions. Ultimately though, I would have preferred a book with a pure focus on the thought and history of pantheism.
Pantheism itself
Pantheism is an interesting concept. It’s essentially nondenominational “spirituality,” a belief that many people will espouse today, without ever really defining its boundaries. Perhaps that fuzziness is why pantheism seems so appealing: it allows for the comfort of a greater force, without the sharp angles and uncomfortable dogma of the more defined belief systems.
Pantheism could appeal to those who don’t want to make a definitive choice.
We see this throughout "Standing in the Light," as Russell continually waffles over her membership in her local Quaker Circle of Friends (yes, Quaker assemblies really are called that), as well as her connection and duty to nature.
Ultimately, this book fails to scratch the spiritual itch which is the reason I read things like this or The Four Agreements. “Standing in the Light” is more a meandering memoir than it is a piece of thought-provoking philosophy.
And that’s OK. In a way, a slow memoir without much punch feels right for pantheism. Pantheism is a quiet, accepting philosophy. It’s comforting, not challenging.
It’s just not what I’m looking for at this moment in my life.
Review also posted at: http://thisisyouth.org/2015/01/30/sta...
Using the braided structure popularized by creative nonfiction and personal essayists, Russell weaves back and forth between the story of her own life as a naturalistic, pantheist Quaker, and the story of pantheism and its key thinkers through the ages.
Pantheism, here defined as: “Everything is connected and the web is holy.”
Not a bad summation, I don’t think. I’ll remember that sentence, written by Marcus Aurelius almost 2,000 years ago, long after I’ve forgotten the rest of the book. Which will be soon, as Russell’s prose was forgettable. People won’t be quoting “Standing in the Light” two millennia down the line.
Russell fails to adequately add weight to her personal narratives, and long sections spent on tedious activities like bird-banding fail to evoke the intended interconnectedness of experience, and instead simply feel disconnected. Russell simply does not command the evocative language and imagery to make these nature sections sing. Instead of enjoying the respite from dry history, I spent every personal section wondering how long until the book got back to the subject at hand— pantheism.
Ironically, the philosophy of pantheism would tell you that Russell’s experience is just as worthwhile as that of any famous thinker. This, I suspect, was what she aimed to convey by including such lengthy personal diversions. Ultimately though, I would have preferred a book with a pure focus on the thought and history of pantheism.
Pantheism itself
Pantheism is an interesting concept. It’s essentially nondenominational “spirituality,” a belief that many people will espouse today, without ever really defining its boundaries. Perhaps that fuzziness is why pantheism seems so appealing: it allows for the comfort of a greater force, without the sharp angles and uncomfortable dogma of the more defined belief systems.
Pantheism could appeal to those who don’t want to make a definitive choice.
We see this throughout "Standing in the Light," as Russell continually waffles over her membership in her local Quaker Circle of Friends (yes, Quaker assemblies really are called that), as well as her connection and duty to nature.
Ultimately, this book fails to scratch the spiritual itch which is the reason I read things like this or The Four Agreements. “Standing in the Light” is more a meandering memoir than it is a piece of thought-provoking philosophy.
And that’s OK. In a way, a slow memoir without much punch feels right for pantheism. Pantheism is a quiet, accepting philosophy. It’s comforting, not challenging.
It’s just not what I’m looking for at this moment in my life.
Review also posted at: http://thisisyouth.org/2015/01/30/sta...
January 9, 2016
This could be considered a book about pantheism, as it is labelled. And in a way, it is. She writes of different forms of pantheism throughout history with what appears to be considerable familiarity. Not being an expert on the subject myself, I can't fairly judge.
But for me, it read more as a memoir than a description.
(Aside: I'm not sure how other reviewers were so confused by this fact. The subtitle says "My Life as a Pantheist." If you didn't know going in that it was going to be mostly about her, maybe check your reading comprehension skills, because you were warned.)
Sharman starts off with a basic problem that is probably very common, though not much discussed:
She wants to have a faith. She wants to belong to a religion. She feels that she would be a better, happier, more connected person, and kinder to others, if she did.
But she can't bring herself to believe in gods. Not truly. The concept doesn't make sense to her.
Where she finds meaning in her life is as a naturalist and environmentalist, and so this is where she locates her spiritual meaning as well. Hiking, bird banding, gardening, trying to save the river.
And so what follows is a few hundred pages of (to my mind) well written prose describing this. What is scientific pantheism? Does it really make sense? Does she really believe it? What does that even mean? If she doesn't--or at least, not always--believe, what then? Does it matter? How to find community? How to deal with evil and ugliness and pain?
What I loved about it was that she proposes no answers, not for others and not even for herself. It's a long series of questions, partial answers that change over time, making do, and finding a way of being in the world that gives her life greater meaning and satisfaction despite all of the doubts, unanswered questions and imperfections.
I loved it. Enough to be sad that I have to give it back to the library. Her honesty, self-reflection and searching were all grand.
But for me, it read more as a memoir than a description.
(Aside: I'm not sure how other reviewers were so confused by this fact. The subtitle says "My Life as a Pantheist." If you didn't know going in that it was going to be mostly about her, maybe check your reading comprehension skills, because you were warned.)
Sharman starts off with a basic problem that is probably very common, though not much discussed:
She wants to have a faith. She wants to belong to a religion. She feels that she would be a better, happier, more connected person, and kinder to others, if she did.
But she can't bring herself to believe in gods. Not truly. The concept doesn't make sense to her.
Where she finds meaning in her life is as a naturalist and environmentalist, and so this is where she locates her spiritual meaning as well. Hiking, bird banding, gardening, trying to save the river.
And so what follows is a few hundred pages of (to my mind) well written prose describing this. What is scientific pantheism? Does it really make sense? Does she really believe it? What does that even mean? If she doesn't--or at least, not always--believe, what then? Does it matter? How to find community? How to deal with evil and ugliness and pain?
What I loved about it was that she proposes no answers, not for others and not even for herself. It's a long series of questions, partial answers that change over time, making do, and finding a way of being in the world that gives her life greater meaning and satisfaction despite all of the doubts, unanswered questions and imperfections.
I loved it. Enough to be sad that I have to give it back to the library. Her honesty, self-reflection and searching were all grand.
January 27, 2009
The author is quite a woman. Kind, bright, a lover of nature and peace. What she is not, is an author. The book only gets 2 stars for weak writing. I do believe, however, that an actual conversation with the author would rate higher.
March 11, 2018
What a lovely book. It was recommended by one of the writers in my current Book Proposal class. And reading it makes me feel smart, which is a way I like to feel. Plus I can now definitively declare my creed as pantheism (perhaps mingled with a bit of animism and paganism).
Sharman Apt Russell reviews theories about the relationship of spirit and the world, beginning with the Greeks and working her way through several influential figures, including the magician Giordano Bruno and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza and the poet Walt Whitman, looking for descriptions of pantheism in their work. These thoughtful historical overviews are mingled with her work banding birds in the Gila Valley of New Mexico, providing interesting models for writers wanting to create braided essays. for the lists of birds banded and recaptured (already banded), are not integrated with the rest of the prose, but they somehow feel right together. Perhaps because if you are a pantheist there is no difference between the careful observation of the world since it is a manifestation of spirit.
Notes I took from this library book which I did not (alas! due dates) get to finish:
She mentions D.H. Lawrence, Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman as pantheists. Also Wordsworth and Tennyson. My early college quote book (begun in 1971) is full of Lawrence quotes. And this from Joseph Campbell:
"An old Apache storyteller reminds us: "The plants, rocks, fire, water, all are alive. They watch us and see our needs. They seek when we have nothing to protect us, and it is then that they reveal themselves and speak to us."”
From Russell's book:
Robinson Jeffers: I believe that the universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy...The whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine.
Frank Lloyd Wright: I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
Russell defines pantheism as a belief that the universe is an interrelated whole that deserves human reverence. But it can be interpreted in different ways. Scientific pantheism believes that the universe if made of one substance: matter/energy that is beautiful and holy but is also impersonal and nonsentient. Human consciousness dies when the body dies.
Other pantheists, like Hindus and Buddhists, believe the universe is made up of mind. Matter is an illusion. Everything is God and God is consciousness.
Other pantheists see a separation between spirit and matter. So spirit can exist outside of the human body. Some pantheists are also animists, they believe that animals, plants and rocks have souls. Or they may be polytheists, believing spirit can manifest as various gods.
Thales: There are gods in everything.
Russell: "We tell ourselves stories about the world and about death because stories are how we think and play, and thinking and playing are who we are, the animal with language."
Russell is a Quaker but a questioning Quaker who finds solace mostly in the sitting in silence, waiting for Light to manifest.
She reads Marcus Aurelius' meditations. He wrote of time "If you've seen the present, then you've seen everything--as it's been since the beginning, as it will be forever. The same substance, the same form. All of it."
Russell marvels at the connections between plants and the body. Yarrow clots blood. Willow blocks pain.
Thoreau: Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature--daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it--rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! The actual world! The common sense!
Hegel; What God creates, he himself is.
Schelling: Nature is visible spirit; Spirit is invisible Nature
Moses Cordovero, a sixteenth century Jewish kabbalist: All existence is God, and a stone is a thing pervaded by divinity.
Thoreau: My happiness is a good deal like that of the woodchucks.
This is definitely a book I will buy and treasure.
Sharman Apt Russell reviews theories about the relationship of spirit and the world, beginning with the Greeks and working her way through several influential figures, including the magician Giordano Bruno and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza and the poet Walt Whitman, looking for descriptions of pantheism in their work. These thoughtful historical overviews are mingled with her work banding birds in the Gila Valley of New Mexico, providing interesting models for writers wanting to create braided essays. for the lists of birds banded and recaptured (already banded), are not integrated with the rest of the prose, but they somehow feel right together. Perhaps because if you are a pantheist there is no difference between the careful observation of the world since it is a manifestation of spirit.
Notes I took from this library book which I did not (alas! due dates) get to finish:
She mentions D.H. Lawrence, Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman as pantheists. Also Wordsworth and Tennyson. My early college quote book (begun in 1971) is full of Lawrence quotes. And this from Joseph Campbell:
"An old Apache storyteller reminds us: "The plants, rocks, fire, water, all are alive. They watch us and see our needs. They seek when we have nothing to protect us, and it is then that they reveal themselves and speak to us."”
From Russell's book:
Robinson Jeffers: I believe that the universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy...The whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine.
Frank Lloyd Wright: I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
Russell defines pantheism as a belief that the universe is an interrelated whole that deserves human reverence. But it can be interpreted in different ways. Scientific pantheism believes that the universe if made of one substance: matter/energy that is beautiful and holy but is also impersonal and nonsentient. Human consciousness dies when the body dies.
Other pantheists, like Hindus and Buddhists, believe the universe is made up of mind. Matter is an illusion. Everything is God and God is consciousness.
Other pantheists see a separation between spirit and matter. So spirit can exist outside of the human body. Some pantheists are also animists, they believe that animals, plants and rocks have souls. Or they may be polytheists, believing spirit can manifest as various gods.
Thales: There are gods in everything.
Russell: "We tell ourselves stories about the world and about death because stories are how we think and play, and thinking and playing are who we are, the animal with language."
Russell is a Quaker but a questioning Quaker who finds solace mostly in the sitting in silence, waiting for Light to manifest.
She reads Marcus Aurelius' meditations. He wrote of time "If you've seen the present, then you've seen everything--as it's been since the beginning, as it will be forever. The same substance, the same form. All of it."
Russell marvels at the connections between plants and the body. Yarrow clots blood. Willow blocks pain.
Thoreau: Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature--daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it--rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! The actual world! The common sense!
Hegel; What God creates, he himself is.
Schelling: Nature is visible spirit; Spirit is invisible Nature
Moses Cordovero, a sixteenth century Jewish kabbalist: All existence is God, and a stone is a thing pervaded by divinity.
Thoreau: My happiness is a good deal like that of the woodchucks.
This is definitely a book I will buy and treasure.
October 23, 2020
dnf p.55. I am interested in the topic, but sadly this book was just dull & didn't keep my interest. The author seems a good person, to the point that I am a little upset this book was such a miss for me. Oh, well.
April 1, 2013
2.5 Interesting reading about Marcus Aurelius and Giordano Bruni, but just could not get up enough interest to continue into the second half of the book. I was frankly getting tired reading about the cranes.
November 2, 2008
Pantheism explained through the eyes of a quasi-Quaker. Very interesting and enlightening discourse on nature, universe, and the spirit that moves all.
May 22, 2009
Unfortunately I found this book very slow and fairly uninformative. Wouldn't recommend it except as a sleep aid...
September 28, 2010
A wonderful work on Pantheism. Not only is it a biography, but simultaneously you are taught the history of Pantheism.
February 11, 2020
Standing in the Light by Sharman Apt Russell is a true blend of the writer’s experiences of nature and spiritual growth. Russell described her life as being a Pantheist, a word coined by John Toland in the 1700s. In beautiful prose she captured the joys of nature especially with bird watching and banding. In the text the writer reviewed the tenets of Eastern religions that she learned from books, companions, and during her travels as a younger woman in Asian countries.
Interestingly she put into context the lives and experiences of Pantheists like Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Giordano Bruno, Baruch Spinoza, Henry David Thoreau, D. H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman, and founder of the World Pantheist Movement Paul Harrison. Russell explained while being a Pantheist how she continued an on-and-off basis to have ties with Quakers. She wrote glowingly about her husband’s and family’s love for nature, work as a creative writing professor at two universities, philosophy, religious life, living in Silver City, and her friends that were involved in conservation efforts in New Mexico.
Interestingly she put into context the lives and experiences of Pantheists like Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Giordano Bruno, Baruch Spinoza, Henry David Thoreau, D. H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman, and founder of the World Pantheist Movement Paul Harrison. Russell explained while being a Pantheist how she continued an on-and-off basis to have ties with Quakers. She wrote glowingly about her husband’s and family’s love for nature, work as a creative writing professor at two universities, philosophy, religious life, living in Silver City, and her friends that were involved in conservation efforts in New Mexico.
February 9, 2024
This book is absolutely stunning in its simplicity. I'm so thrilled I found Sharman Apt Russell. I am in the process of reading and thinking more on my commitment to pantheism, the guiding principle of which is we are all interconnected, and that web is holy. I was looking for something that could help me elucidate my feelings without getting bogged down in jargon. This book fit the bill perfectly. Russell walks through her life as a pantheist, intertwining her own life experiences with Quakerism, birds, philosophy, poets, and so much more. Her words were endlessly readable and relatable, and give me the courage now to move on to some of the more heavy duty stuff, like Spinoza (shrudder).
February 5, 2022
This is the third Sharman Apt Russell book I have read within the last eight months or so. Since reading her works, she has quickly become a household name (in my house) and a figure of inspiration for me. I don't stray from fiction very often, but have been rewarded by exploring Russel's nonfiction titles, finding myself enriched by her wisdom and insight. I love reading about her life on the Gila River, in Silver City, or her travelling experiences.
Personally, I really enjoy the mix of history, nature, and memoir that weaves in and out of the narrative within Standing in the Light. I can see how some readers may not like the meandering style, but for me it just works.
Personally, I really enjoy the mix of history, nature, and memoir that weaves in and out of the narrative within Standing in the Light. I can see how some readers may not like the meandering style, but for me it just works.
August 21, 2018
This was one of those books that, when I got to the end, I was sad that there was not more. I thoroughly enjoyed Standing in the Light, and have created a space on my shelf of books which are a permanent part of my library. I took my time reading it. From the beginning I sensed that this was a book to be savored, taking time to ponder and enjoy each and every word and idea. I look forward to reading it again in the future. Thank you, Sharman Apt Russell, for letting me have a glimpse into your world, and your soul.
November 21, 2017
I loved this book! When I figured out what I believed about this crazy universe I was relieved. When I found out that what I believed is believed by others I found fellowship. This book reinforces those feelings. I loved her descriptions of the nature that surrounded her, the thoughts in her head and I loved the background she gave on the great pantheist thinkers. I highly recommend this book.
December 18, 2023
A personal and philosophical exploration of pantheism - knowable, nuanced, sometimes funny, neither too confident in her conclusions nor too vague in explaining key ideas. I really enjoyed the interplay of observation of the natural world and religious history (it includes Marcus Aurelius, Spinoza, Quakers, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf among others), and Russell's turn of phrase, always in the service of the ideas but frequently enjoyable for its own sake as well.
Did Not Finish
March 4, 2023DNF only because I'm not really in the mood for this and also when I am in the mood I think I'd rather have my own edition to make notations in.
May 15, 2016
I started Standing in the Light because it’s on a topic I’ve been curious about for a long while, and because the author is a friend and fellow writer. I finished the book with immense admiration for Sharman Apt Russell’s ability to weave together the rich history of pantheism (Eastern as well as Western) with its contemporary manifestations—scientific, philosophical and, most importantly for this genre, personal.
She approaches her topic as a holistic scientist would—empirically, analytically, intuitively and emotionally—and in the process asks the hard questions, of herself and others, that any person on a genuine spiritual quest must ask. Throughout her examination of the many dimensions of pantheism, she unflinchingly remains in the flux between self-reflection and observation, reminiscence and speculation, doubt and awe.
If I began this book long troubled to be, as the author quotes Frank Lloyd Wright, “a deeply religious unbeliever,” I finished Standing in the Light with a strong sense of spiritual affirmation. “Yes,” I said to myself, “this is a form of belief I can connect with.” If so, my friend has given me rich sources for delving even further into pantheism. Equally important, Standing in the Light has left me with a deep appreciation of her earnestness, sensitivity and compassion as a writer.
She approaches her topic as a holistic scientist would—empirically, analytically, intuitively and emotionally—and in the process asks the hard questions, of herself and others, that any person on a genuine spiritual quest must ask. Throughout her examination of the many dimensions of pantheism, she unflinchingly remains in the flux between self-reflection and observation, reminiscence and speculation, doubt and awe.
If I began this book long troubled to be, as the author quotes Frank Lloyd Wright, “a deeply religious unbeliever,” I finished Standing in the Light with a strong sense of spiritual affirmation. “Yes,” I said to myself, “this is a form of belief I can connect with.” If so, my friend has given me rich sources for delving even further into pantheism. Equally important, Standing in the Light has left me with a deep appreciation of her earnestness, sensitivity and compassion as a writer.
September 13, 2009
I think I can honestly say I understand pantheism because Sharman Apt Russell has done a marvelous job of presenting the history of this concept, or spiritual viewpoint. Her research is both deep and broad, reaching back to early thinkers like the Greeks and Marcus Aurelius, and extending outward to writers like Walt Whitman, D.H. Lawrence, and Robinson Jeffers, and the wrapping luxuriously around scientists who manage to find the sacred in the work they do. The narrative is set against the backdrop of Gila River and Valley in New Mexico, part memoir, part nature writing, part travel story.
This is the 3rd book I've read by this author and with each successive book, Russell's skill becomes more and more apparent. This is truly fine writing, prose that is understated and exquisite, while also offering a truly thought provoking investigation. I hope Standing in the Light gets the recognition it deserves among those who award prizes for writing about spiritual exploration.
This is the 3rd book I've read by this author and with each successive book, Russell's skill becomes more and more apparent. This is truly fine writing, prose that is understated and exquisite, while also offering a truly thought provoking investigation. I hope Standing in the Light gets the recognition it deserves among those who award prizes for writing about spiritual exploration.
June 17, 2012
I wanted to like this book more than I did, but that says much about my personal taste and very little about this volume. I've discovered over time that I want my wisdom about matters of the spirit served up through biography - people writing about their honest struggles with whatever tradition resonates best for them, rather than books about the history of a tradition, or "how to!" books about being a better person. There's some biography in Russell's text and I relished it - the ins and outs of living in the southwest, the contrast of city and rural environment, her volunteer work with birds. But a great deal of this volume is the history of patheism, and while I appreciated Russell's tour through that belief system, it was too much history and too little hands-on experience for me to really love the book. A worthy read, but not a book I'll return to.
June 12, 2010
This was a very unusual book for me. Though the subtitle is "My life as a Pantheist" I was not prepared for how the book was to be written. I assumed that it would be more on theological lines but instead it really was about her life as a Pantheist. The book was 1/3 really a study or talk about her life, 1/3 about other previous authors and religious leaders who have something to offer her and 1/3 about what a pantheist or perhaps a Pantheist Quaker (Quaker and Pantheist are not equivalent) is all about.
It was interesting but not gripping to me. Obviously I am not a Pantheist, so maybe it is more difficult for me to grasp that line of thought.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
It was interesting but not gripping to me. Obviously I am not a Pantheist, so maybe it is more difficult for me to grasp that line of thought.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
March 14, 2012
Written in a derivative style that alternates, with some integration, personal reflection with sections about historical figures, Standing in the Light offers honest personal reflections about religious faith and doubt, which I appreciated, combined with some errors regarding Quaker history and the occasional tediously long list of wildlife species. I can't be more specific because I returned the book to the library without finishing it after encountering the suggestion that Thomas Paine -- like, apparently, Betsy Ross and Gen. Nathanael Greene -- was a Quaker who conscientiously set aside Quaker principles to support the Revolutionary War.
September 26, 2009
This book was a pleasure to read, enhanced by the fact that I know Sharman and know the landscape that formed the background for her exploration of the subject. She did a wonderful job of weaving her personal story thru the pages and showing pantheism's mark in many different philosophies and in the lives of many different individuals. I appreciated the historical perspectives she presented. Living everyday in the Mind and Body of God. I can relate to that. It is what sustains me. Thank you Sharman.
March 26, 2015
This is a book about spiritual and scientific pantheism. The author writes beautifully about the web of life she sees a the Gila River nature preserve in New Mexico, along with a history of pantheists and the influence of their ideas and observations on her own thinking. The author is a (sort of) Quaker who worships nature, which is what pantheists do. I skimmed a little bit, but it's well written and thoughtful. I'd like to take a walk with this lady and talk to her. She seems peaceful, smart, and observant.
December 17, 2009
Gives Sherman’s perspective on life and philosophy interweaved with her day to day experiences in New Mexico’s Gila Valley. Defines Pantheisism as finding the holy in everything and discusses that compared to other major religions. Talks about the history of pantheisim and its philisophical foundations from the Greeks through Spinoza. Great discussions on the evilution of philosophy and the meaning of life.
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