Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice was published in April by Ave Maria Press, and I have been so grateful for the wonderful reception! I embarked on an almost two-month long Virtual Book Tour (ah, the wonders of the internet!) and am so grateful to everyone who participated, wrote reviews, hosted guest posts, and conducted interviews.  I am really in awe at the generous response. I have compiled the whole tour below broken down by category so it is easier now to find what you might be looking for.  Several guest posts from me on the

Image is a journal of religion and the arts.  I love the work they do, as it is in such alignment with my own passion for the monk and artist paths.  I have attended their Glen Workshop with classes in writing and the arts in the past and found it to be really inspiring and enlivening. So I am thrilled they have chose to review Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice in their latest newsletter: Eyes of the Heart by Christine Valters Paintner is a little like Madeleine L’Engle’s classic Walking on Water, if L’Engle’s book had

The Patheos Book Club continues to feature Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice.   New today is a visual guided meditation featured on the main page of the book club.  Click here and scroll down to where it says Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart: A Guided Meditation with Images by Christine Valters Paintner and you can scroll through a series of my photos, with quotes from the book, as well as suggestions for reflection and pondering. There is also a brand new and wonderful review by Craig Detweiler of Doc Hollywood, who is a professor

I am always thrilled when the wonderful folks at Spirituality and Practice review my books.  I am a big fan of the work they do, so much in alignment with what the Abbey offers.  (I am very honored to be one of their Living Spiritual Teachers and I have an e-course offered through them on Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers) In an adventuresome opening chapter, the author takes us on an exhilarating spiritual ride with reflections on beauty, the art of beholding, the heart as the source of vision, the third eye, and Thomas Merton as photographer. These

I am delighted that my newest book – Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice – is being featured June 1-15 at the Patheos Book Club. Stop by for. . . Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart: A Q&A with Christine Valters Paintner: Eyes of the Heart is about photography as a Christian contemplative practice.  To begin with, what is your description of a contemplative practice? And then specifically, what is a Christian contemplative practice? Carmelite monk William McNamara described contemplation as a “long loving look at the real” which I find to be an excellent foundation

Next stop on the Virtual Book Tour is Mary Benton’s great review at Find Hope where she describes becoming intoxicated by life: I went out after work tonight and got drunk. In the woods. With my camera. There was no food or drink involved – for it was not my body but my spirit that became intoxicated. Allow me to explain. I first “met” Christine Valters Paintner online a couple of years ago quite by accident – or so I tell myself. I was on the internet one evening, googling something or other. I no longer recall what I was searching