​The Coming Solar Eclipse:
An Astronomical Altar Call

At half past noon on April 8, 2024, for three minutes and fifty-three seconds, the moon will cover the sun where I live. I will witness a total solar eclipse, wearing dark glasses, of course. I am in what they call "the path of totality."

I know it will be amazing. Needless to say, I've never seen one before. I also hope the eclipse can be just a little redemptive: an astronomical altar call of sorts - not because it is engineered by God, but because it can provide a respite from political tensions in my country, a reminder of the larger context of human and terrestrial life, and an invitation to love my neighbor as myself.

Here I'm talking about my actual next-door neighbor, Jim, who will be standing alongside me, with dark glasses of his own, gazing at the darkened sun and its corona. He and I belong to a different political parties. We have strong differences on a certain political candidate, but we both know what it is like to be amazed by things in nature that are bigger than us, more than us, both beautiful and frightening.  I think we will both be awed when the sun darkens by the moon, and the corona appears as a halo.

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I'm not alone in this hope for something redemptive. At a liberal arts college where I live, they are canceling classes to watch the eclipse. As a professor of religious studies, I cannot help but see this as a liberal arts altar call with an astronomical spin. An altar call is a practice in evangelical Christian worship services, where individuals are invited to come forward to the front of the congregation, often near the altar, to make a public commitment or recommitment to their faith in Jesus Christ. In a similar, albeit secular, sense, the upcoming solar eclipse is a calling. The altar is the solar eclipse itself and the anticipation of it. There are six ways to respond to it, all part of a single transformation.

• Perspective: It is a call to recognize our place in the larger celestial scheme of things, amid which our daily concerns seem petty.
• Awe: It is a call to enjoy a moment of awe in the face of a spectacular visual epiphany: that of the sun, darkened by the moon and haloed by its corona.
• Order: It is a call to marvel at the movements of the heavens, with their mathematical precision, revealing the intricate dance of celestial bodies exhibiting incredible patterns of motion.
• Mathematics and Science: It is a call to appreciate the intricate calculations and geometrical relationships underlying celestial mechanics, as traced by scientists.
• Community: It is a call to enjoy a moment of fellowship with fellow sun gazers (all with dark glasses, of course), who come together as a congregation of kindred wonder-enjoyers, whatever our differences (including political ones) might be.

This astronomical altar call invites us all to momentarily step away from the flurry of daily life, to immerse ourselves in an experience that transcends ordinary perception, reminding us of the beauty and intricacy of the universe we inhabit.

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As a process theologian I see God in all of this. I see God in the gaining of perspective, in the experience of awe, in respect for order in the universe, in respect for science and mathematics, and in the enjoyment of community.  I also see God in the event itself, but not as its engineer. The event is a window through which divine beauty is felt: a holy icon.

I recognize, of course, that others will see beauty in the event but not associate it with God. It is the beauty of the universe, they will say. For my part, the two - God and Beauty - are not so different. The beauty of the universe is part of what God is and the very word Beauty, with an upper case B, is another name for God. God is Beauty and Beauty is God. Not the shallow beauty of a pretty face, but the deep beauty of, well, stars and plants, hills and rivers, kindness and love.

As a process theologian I have other names for God, too. Love with an upper case "L" and Creativity with an upper case "C." But there's no need to quibble about names, Responding to the astronomical altar call is enough. 

Of course, the entire universe is also an astronomical altar call. Each planet, each star, each moon, each distant galaxy, the very possibility of life on other planets -- all are altar calls. But for now, the eclipse is in our sights. How poignantly, how persistently, the universe speaks, if only we have ears to hear and, with dark glasses, eyes to see.

- Jay McDaniel

​NASA Videos explaining
the April 8, 2024 Eclipse
​

Solar Eclipses

BBC's In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss solar eclipses, some of life’s most extraordinary moments, when day becomes night and the stars come out before day returns either all too soon or not soon enough, depending on what you understand to be happening. In ancient China, for example, there was a story that a dragon was eating the sun and it had to be scared away by banging pots and pans if the sun were to return. Total lunar eclipses are more frequent and last longer, with a blood moon coloured red like a sunrise or sunset. Both events have created the chance for scientists to learn something remarkable, from the speed of light, to the width of the Atlantic, to the roundness of Earth, to discovering helium and proving Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. With Carolin Crawford, Public Astronomer based at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge and a fellow of Emmanuel College; Frank Close, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford; and Lucie Green, Professor of Physics and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University, College London

Producers: Simon Tillotson and Julia Johnson

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

Carolin Crawford at the University of Cambridge
Frank Close at the University of Oxford
Lucie Green at University College London

Eclipses - NASA

Total solar eclipse - why so rare? – BBC Learning

Lucie Green's eclipse watching tips – BBC Stargazing

‘Halley as an eclipse pioneer: his maps and observations of the total solar eclipses of 1715 and 1724’ by Jay M. Pasachoff - Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 1999

What are solar eclipses? – timeanddate.com

What is a solar eclipse? – NASA’s website for children

Eclipse - Wikipedia


READING LIST:

Frank Close, Eclipse: Journeys to the Dark Side of the Moon (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Frank Close, Eclipses: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2019)

Lucie Green, 15 Million Degrees: A Journey to the Centre of the Sun (Viking, 2016)

Mark Littmann and Fred Espenak, Totality: The Great American Eclipses of 2017 and 2024 (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Duncan Steel, Eclipse: The Celestial Phenomenon That Changed the Course of History (Henry Joseph Press, 2001)