The abyss, understood as a void, desert, or darkness, is essential to the work of love, as expressed by the medieval mystic Hadewijch of Antwerp and others in the apophatic tradition: love can only be known by relinquishing the narrow self and becoming lost in the depths. This idea has reemerged today as a grammar for engaging profound losses—social, political, environmental, spiritual, and personal—and for reimagining the value of what is being lost, rekindling love for what is precious, and recovering a sense of shared life with all sentient beings. It forms part of an emerging contemplative ecology of darkness, a radical spiritual practice for beholding ourselves and other living beings as part of a larger whole.
The Christian mystical tradition holds a complex and shifting view of creation, caught between two poles. On one side, mystics affirm creation as a sacrament that reveals God, especially through the logos, the principle of creation that enables spiritual experience. On the other, they emphasize the limits of knowledge, respecting what remains hidden, particularly in suffering and loss. The image of Christ crucified and dead in the tomb calls for humility before the unknowable aspects of God. Thus, creation both reveals and conceals the divine.
Christian contemplative and meditative practices have grown and developed in the contemporary period through the retrieval of ancient traditions by figures like Thomas Merton, John Main, and Thomas Keating. The practice continues to thrive among new movements such as new monasticism, with emerging writers like Martin Laird, Richard Rohr, and Cynthia Bourgeault deepening its understanding. Latin American, African American, and feminist writers, including Gustavo Gutiérrez, Maria Clara Bingemer, and Howard Thurman, highlight the role of Christian contemplative practice in addressing social injustice.