Darton, Longman & Todd (London). 2019. Pbk. 240 pages. £14.99.
A book entitled The Sacramental Sea has, surely, to be required reading for members of the Sea of Faith Network. I certainly approached the book with a sense of expectation and excitement and I was not disappointed.
In under 200 pages, Edmund Newell steers us on a voyage across a vast wealth of human relationships with the sea. Our odyssey begins in the company of Old, New and post New Testament writers. We cross the seas with extraordinarily brave saints like St Brendan and later crusaders. Our horizons are expanded with the European missionaries and explorers, before our travels come to end holidaying on familiar beaches, pondering over our ‘epigenetic’ connection to the sea.
Paradoxical insights into our relationship with the sea are deepened. It is chaotic yet life-giving. It is tempestuous yet serene, destructive and revitalising; a symbol of God’s punishment and depths of God’s love; a place of intense solitude and deep companionship. We come from the sea and we return to it. As the author himself summarises: ‘This book has explored the spiritual and religious dimensions of our relationship with the sea … [which has] … fired the imagination and provided a rich source of imagery for theologians, religious poets, writers and musicians. The experience of being at or by the sea can do more than conjure up ideas and images… Engaging with the sea has the potential to connect with something deep within us or beyond ourselves – with God.’
Most readers of Sofia will feel comfortable with Newell’s talk of God. His own theology floats lightly over the text. I felt particularly comfortable with his careful description of ‘pansacramentalism’ – the belief in the potential of everything to be sacramental.
As a non-swimming land-blubber, I appreciated the descriptions of the perils of long sea voyages and learning about the intrepid perigrinati, early travellers who allowed their crafts to take them on a trial by drifting to new lands, even Newfoundland, centuries before Columbus. But it wasn’t only the souvenirs I picked up on the cruise across the centuries that I relished. The book served as an inspiration to make my own explorations among the composers and artists familiar to me.
Edmund Newell is principal of Cumberland Lodge, which promotes interdisciplinary discussion, and both the clarity of his writing and the summaries at the end of each chapter witness to his skill as an educator. Without wishing to discourage anyone from buying the book, there are several tasters on YouTube.
We should read the book because our future very much depends upon a respect for the power of the sea to maintain life on our planet. If we can turn that respect into a sacramental reverence and nurture the ‘oceanic feeling’ in us, our chances of keeping the Earth alive will be that much greater. I’m left with a question: have we in Sea of Faith sufficiently explored the potent symbolism of the sea?
Stephen Mitchell is a retired priest and former chair of the SOF Steering Committee. His book God in the Bath was published by O Books (Winchester, 2006) and his Past Perfect by Christian Alternative (Winchester, 2018).