The Dynamic Depth
of a Canyon Precipice
​​
A Photograph by Thomas Oord
A Comment by Lisa Pratt
​

Photography by Thomas Oord: Sheep Creek in the Owyhees of Idaho

​​"A canyon precipice and
dramatically dynamic
​in it's depth. Beautiful."


​Lisa Pratt, Facebook Friend of Thomas Oord,
commenting on the photograph

The Grace of the Precipice
​

The Photography of Thomas Jay Oord

​Thomas Oord is well-known for helping people reclaim the sense of a loving God whose self-giving love (essential kenosis) offers healing grace, empowerment, and sympathetic love to the world: a God in whose life we live and move and have our being.

For me, his photography often helps us appreciate another kind of self-giving: that of mountains and landscapes as they "give themselves" to us as objects - no, subjects - of appreciation and awe. Not in a conscious way, of course. They give themselves just in being themselves and thus declaring their value to the world. Oord's photography helps us see the self-giving.

Their self-giving need not be equated with God or with love. They can and do give themselves in dangerous ways, too. There is no need to sentimentalize the natural world: precipices, for example. The grace of the natural world is not that of a tender parent. 

But hills and rivers, mountains and stars do have creativity and they do give themselves. And there is, I suggest, a kind of grace in their self-giving, because we humans could survive, much less enjoy some modicum of wholeness, without them. We are not islands unto ourselves; we inter-become with the more-than-human world. 

Oord's gift is to encourage us to be receptive to both forms of grace: the loving grace of God who is always on the side of life, and the natural grace of a world that is so much more than human life, and beautiful in its more-ness.

For Oord, these two often go together even as they are not identical. The beauty in creation is itself inspired by God; see his video at the bottom of this page. He is always seeking the light in creation: God's enlightening love. And I, too, sense this love often.

But I want to add that in the sheer power of nature, God or no God, there is something graceful, not in a loving way, but in a way that heals us because it is more than us. Call it the grace of the precipice.

We need the sense of mystery and power, which includes fear as well as love, in order to be fully human. The palpable presence of precipices offers a kind of grace, too: a reminder that we dwell within a power much greater than us, sometimes beautiful, often frightening, but somehow holy. Not necessarily divine, but holy nonetheless.

If we link it with God, it is the light of darkness; of fear and trembling; of what Rudolph Otto calls mystery both fascinating and terrifying; of what Islam calls tanzih, the magisterial transcendence of God. It is the light of the rattlesnake or the whirlwind. The author of the book of Job would understand.

Jay McDaniel, 9/1/2022

​More Photography from Thomas Oord

Owyhee Range in
​Southern Idaho
​

BLMIdaho / Public domain

BLMIdaho / Public domain

BLMIdaho / Public domain

Process Cosmology (Four Key Ideas)

Co-Creative Mountains,
Co-Creative Photography​​

Suggestion: When we find ourselves immersed inn the dynamic depth of a canyon precipice, we are sensing some combination of the four realities named above: process, interconnectedness, continuous creativity, nature as alive. And, with help from Oord's photograph, and the others as well, we are experiencing these realities through the emotion of what Rudolph Otto calls mysterium tremendum et fascinans: the felt presence of mystery both frightening and fascinating.

There is something beautiful (fascinating) and also terrifying about precipice. We are drawn to it and we want to step away from it. Two emotions held in creative tension through what process thinkers call a felt contrast.

Through Oord's photograph we are drawn into that contrast. We are also drawn into a sense of grace: the grace, the self-giving, of the mountains. We feel it as a dangerous grace, but a grace nonetheless. Not divine grace, but mountainous grace.

Oord's photograph presents the self-giving creativity of the Owyhee, of geological formations that are dynamic outcroppings of divine and geological co-creativity. 

​Is it the earth's creativity? Is it God's? It is both.

​At least this is what open and relational theologians believe. They - we - believe that creativity is found in the evolving of geological formations as well as in human life, and that the Life in whose consciousness the whole of the universe unfolds works with this creativity.

Oord's image also opens us into a recognition that humanly created art (photography, for example) is itself an act of co-creativity, not only of humans with God but also with the universe. All together.

The creativity is not simply active; it is also receptive. Oord had to see the mountains, to let them present themselves to him, in order to take the photograph. Yes, this act of seeing, along with the taking of the photograph, was a creative act. And yet the mountains had to give themselves to him in order for him to see them. They are dramatically dynamic in their giving. 

Lisa Pratt had it right: ""A canyon precipice and dramatically dynamic in it's depth. Beautiful."

Jay McDaniel, Sept. 1. 2022
​

About the Owyhee Range
​

"The Owyhee Range of extreme southwestern Idaho was one of the last explored areas in the lower 48 states. The terrain in the region is rugged and varies from 2000 feet to over 8000 feet in elevation. The true beauty and wilderness of the region lies in its lower canyons, some of which have probably seen only a few human visits, ever. The peaks are often visited in the summer by off road vehicles and hikers. Still, it’s extremely easy to not see a single soul on many of the peaks in the region.
​
The Owyhee uplands are part of the Basin and Range region. The mountain range runs north to southeast separated by broad basins. Geologically the Owyhees extend southeast into Nevada and the Ruby Mountain region. The lower slopes of War Eagle Mountain contain some of the most impressive rock outcroppings in all of southwestern Idaho.  The rock is mostly granite with a patina covering. Agates, petrified wood, garnets, and crystals are commonly found in the canyon portion of the region."

Visit Idaho website

​The Ever-Creative God

by Thomas Oord