The Sacramental Sea: A Spiritual Voyage through Christian History.

Ed Newell, Church of England priest, economic historian and Principal of Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, discusses his new book …

Where did the idea of writing The Sacramental Sea come from?

Oddly, it came while standing on the Golden Gallery of St Paul’s Cathedral, looking out over London. Great view, I thought, but not one that affects me spiritually – unlike standing on a cliff, looking out to sea. This instinctive reaction got me thinking and, eventually, writing.

When you think of the sea are you enticed by it, fearful of it, or both?

Definitely both. I once had a compulsive urge to borrow a friend’s canoe and go out exploring the coast. What began as an enticing adventure rapidly turned frightening as the sea suddenly got rough. I managed to get close to the shore before being capsized by a wave and washed-up unceremoniously on the beach with a mouthful of sand and water. I now treat the sea with great respect.

Why do so many people feel a spiritual connection with the sea?

It’s difficult to give a short answer to this, as there are a range of reasons. A common experience, though, is what’s termed ‘the oceanic feeling’. It’s an experience associated with looking out to sea, up at a starry sky, or across the landscape from the top of a mountain. As well as heightening an awareness of the infinite, these vistas can also induce a sense of there being a Creator behind everything that exists, and a deep personal bond with that Creator and the rest of creation.

Why does so much of our art, poetry and expressions of religious experience draw so heavily on imagery of its power, wideness and depth?

The sea is an endless source of metaphors for God – infinite, mysterious, life-giving, life-taking, awe-inspiring, and so on. There are also many Biblical references to the sea which also provide stories and images that artists, writers and musicians have drawn on to express religious ideas. Writing the book brought back fond memories of singing Michael Hurd’s Jonah-Man Jazz in a school music festival, and also led me to discover the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Caspar David Friedrich’s wonderful painting Monk by the Sea, which features on the book’s cover.

In your book you liken the sea to a desert, what do you mean by this?

Many early Christian monastics were drawn the Egyptian desert to find solitude, escape worldly distractions and follow Christ into the wilderness. When Christian monasticism spread west, many were drawn to coastal regions, islands or drifting at sea for the same reasons, seeking ‘a desert in the ocean’. My favourite example of this is the island Skellig Michael, off the west coast of Ireland. It’s hard to think of a more inhospitable place to live, but a community of monks managed to do so for 600 years!

As mankind through the ages mapped the oceans, did the theological ideas relating to the sea change, and if so, how?

Yes, and perhaps the most significant was a change in thinking about the Atlantic. In the ancient Middle Eastern thought-world, the Atlantic was regarded as the remnant of the primordial chaos around the edge of the world. Ancient maps show this, with the land encircled by ‘ocean’. In contrast, the Mediterranean was regarded as one of the seas that was created out of the primordial chaos on the second day of creation in Genesis. Even though it was long known that the Earth was spherical, this theological distinction between sea and ocean persisted into the Middle Ages – until he voyages of Christopher Columbus and others made it untenable.

Many of the great hymns are associated with the sea – do you have favourite and why?

I’m very fond of ‘Abide with me’. Although it makes no reference to the sea, it was written by Henry Francis Lyte as he looked out to sea during a sunset, contemplating his impending death and the hope of eternal life. As well as its association with many church services - and FA Cup finals - it reminds me of how the sea can speak to us at a very deep level and also unlock our creativity.

Today, the sea is often in the news because of pollution from oil, plastics and so forth; what can Christians and the Christian community do to help prevent further environmental disaster in our oceans?

Perhaps the big spiritual lesson of our time is that we are part of creation, and that everything we do has implications for everything else on our Blue Planet. So, if people of faith can take a lead in treating the sea with reverence, as opposed to a dumping ground, then we can do much to help.

Ed Newell’s new book, The Sacramental Sea: A Spiritual Voyage through Christian History, is available now in paperback.