Reading the Book of Nature as an Invitation to Prayer

Christian theology has traditionally spoken of creation as a book, a means of revelation that can be metaphorically read by human creatures for a variety of purposes. The thirteenth century theologian Bonaventure takes up this tradition, giving the Book of Nature a significant place in his theology. This paper considers Bonaventure’s theology of the Book of Nature in conversation with the concept of the hospitable text, articulated by Rowan Williams. Read in this way and along with Bonaventure, creation becomes a text that invites the reader to pray, both in contemplation and in petition. This paper argues that creation’s invitation to petitionary prayer calls on human creatures to fulfill their priestly role in relationship to creation, even as it grounds humanity in humility. Human creatures are invited to plead with God for creation as it groans under the curse, to recognise their complicity in the cause of its groaning, and to seek creation’s redemption. This paper concludes by considering Bonaventure’s exemplar of St. Francis as one whose response to creation’s invitation demonstrated a life of prayer that integrated contemplation and action.