Abstract
Abstract: The movement called "new animism" asserts that experiencing life as an immersion in personal relationships with all beings (including those commonly regarded as "inanimate") is the foundational human way of being. The suppression of that immersive, participative way of life is currently climaxing as both cascading ecological catastrophe and an epidemic of human despair. This essay argues that Christian faith can fruitfully be reconciled with the new animism through a recognition of Christ's ability to "person" anywhere. Openness to this participative ecological consciousness invites us to develop new skills of attentiveness to the "thousands-of-years-old conversation" through which Earth and its creatures exchange their primal wisdom.