Inspirators
Bodinnick & Fowey, just down the road.
The Blue House was home of Daphne de Maurier,
author of Frenchman’s Creek and Jamaica Inn.
Inspirators
or ‘Trustees in Spirit’
12 medievals.
12 early moderns.
12 contemporaries.
36 people who personify our vision and to whom we hold ourselves remotely accountable.
A bit like the listing of a ‘Board’, John wanted to list the people he feels personifies the vision we are in pursuit of, drawn from a range of eras.
This range of eras reflect our view that modern thinking alone cannot meet the moment we’re in. It’s often too utilitarian or simply a weaker version of something older, richer and more useful. Popular books on leadership and business, which have huge impact, are often susceptible to this.
12 Medievals
Julian of Norwich
The ‘hazelnut’ theology of God’s love for all of creation.
St Benedict
Father of western monasticism and a Patron Saint of Europe.
St Cuthbert
Archetypal Celtic saint living in harmony with wildlife and community.
St Petroc
‘Captain of Cornish saints’ and friend of the stag.
St Basil The Great
Wrote The Hexaemeron, a foundation work on the nature of creation.
St Francis of Assisi
Patron saint of ecology. Wrote Canticle of the Creatures.
St Bonaventure
Famed for writing on beauty, integrated deeply into his theology.
St Hildegard
Wrote on ‘Divine Greening’ and our family relation with nature
St Dunstan
Much loved English saint who led a cultural and monastic revival in C10th.
The Venerable Bede
England’s first great historian; wove the land into our sacred story.
St Walstan
From prince to prayerful farmer. English patron of farmers & farm animals.
Caedmon
First English poet; cowherder who sang about nature’s maker.
12 Early Moderns
St Teresa of Avila
Central to monastic and spiritual renewal. Rhythmic prayer.
Christopher Wren
Anglican architect who blended the beautiful, cosmic and rational.
John Wesley
Reformer who brought a spiritual revolution to England.
John Constable
Painter at the intersection of mysticism and English countryside.
Sir Bevil Grenville
Popular Cornish knight mourned as the perfect Christian gentleman.
Charles & Sarah Fox
Cornish Quakers, industrialists, stewards, mystics and gardeners.
John Milton
Paradise Lost. Wrote in mythic narrative to tackle spirituality and England.
John Bunyan
Myth maker. Pilgrim’s Progress maps spiritual journey as a trek.
St Hubert
Patron saint of hunters and foresters diligent in fasting, prayer.
Izaak Walton
‘The Compleat Angler’; poetic, pastoral guide to fishing and the rural life.
John Evelyn
Royal Society Founder and early evangelist for sustainable forestry.
George Herbert
England’s primary religious poet: church, liturgical year, soil.
12 Contemporaries
Bishop Barron
Catholic theologian and iconic engager of online audiences.
Ellen Davis
Theologian writing on biblical nature of farming and land stewardship.
Lyla June
Euro-Cheyenne ecologist who speaks on epic, mass land stewardship.
Paul Kingsnorth
Poetic author on the perils of modernity for nature and humanity.
Martin Shaw
‘Liturgies of the Wild’. Myth maker, story teller and rites of passage.
CS Lewis
Writer who used myth to bypass the watchful dragons of the intellect.
Roger Scruton
English philosopher writing on rural life, England and beauty.
Wendell Berry
Iconic farmer poet writing about country life, food and nature.
Donnie Vincent
Hunter biologist explorer conservationist who films stories about the wild.
Jonathan Pageau
Thinker-artist reviving the nature of symbolism and patterns of meaning.
Gisela Kreglinger
‘Spirituality of Wine’. Explores the sacred, power of wine.
Gabe Brown
Pioneering regenerative farmer with a spiritual connection to the land.