About this Website

"When I am in the fields, every tree cries out to me, 'Holy! Holy! Holy!'" --Ludwig van Beethoven

"My profession is to always be on the alert to find God in nature--to know his lurking places." --Henry David Thoreau, Journal 1851

“…If one were to turn a colt loose in a green meadow that was entirely smooth and level…it would be the horse’s nature to let himself go with all his strength in galloping about the meadow—he would enjoy it for it is his nature. In just the same way, God rejoices, pouring out all His nature and His being into His likeness (humankind), for He is Himself this likeness!”  --Meister Eckhart, Sermon 57            

                                                                     
This Web site, Religious Scholar, explores common themes and images in world religions and spiritual traditions. The site has two primary goals: to advocate for tolerance and appreciation of the many ways of thinking about and expressing spiritual understanding throughout history and the world; and to celebrate the role of Nature in opening doors to spiritual understanding.

Examples of commonalities among spiritual traditions include :

  • Visual metaphors in ancient Tibetan mandalas (religious images) and the illuminations of the 12th century theologian, composer and scientist, Hildegard of Bingen;
  • Ideas of love, work and detachment in both the Bhagavad Gita--often called the gospel of Hinduism--and the sermons and discourses of Meister Eckhart, a 14th century Dominican master;
  • The spiritual path of ascent in Yoga's chakra theory and the book, Interior Castle, by St. Teresa of Avila.

Religious Scholar believes that studying and using the structures of different faiths to reexamine what we know and believe in our own traditions can be an invigorating experience for mind and spirit. Rather than detract from the integrity of our own beliefs, such study will expand our understanding of religious and spiritual truth and the global community we live in.

Religious Scholar also believes, with H.D. Thoreau, that in wildness--the natural environment around us--is the salvation of the world.

Web-site author Linda Holt teaches Humanities with Southern New Hampshire University and Thomas Edison State University, writes about classical music for the Broad Street Review, BachTrack.com, and NewYorkClassicalReview.com , and is the author of Invictus by L.L. Holt (Harvard Square Editions 2019), and The Black Spaniard, by L.L. Holt, a novel about bias, despair, and reconciliation published in 2016. She is the co-editor of a book on Daoism and Science to be published by Nova Science Publishers in February 2020. Order Invictus by L.L. Holt and The Black Spaniard by L.L. Holt at amazon.com .