Christine Valters Paintner Books In Order

Publication Order of Christine Valters Paintner Religion Books

Publication Order of Paraclete Poetry Books

Christine Valters Paintner
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD is the Abbess at AbbeyoftheArts.com and has written nonfiction books on creative expression and contemplative practice as well as some collections of poetry. She lives in Galway, Ireland where she leads writing retreats and pilgrimages with John, her husband, as well as in Germany, Scotland, and Austria. Christine’s a Benedictine oblate, and lives out her commitment as a monk in the world.

While growing up in New York City, The Cloisters was one of her favorite places. It was a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the northern tip of Manhattan. The place is a reproduction of a medieval monastery with a cloistered garden, glorious arches, unicorn tapestries, and a stunning view of the Hudson. It was the aesthetic dimension of monastic life that captured her imagination long before she understood anything at all about its religious side.

Christine’s spiritual roots are in Catholicism with a special love for the sacramental imagination, commitment to radical justice, and mystical love.

Later in life, when she was studying Christian spirituality in grad school, she fell in love with the great twelfth century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. Christine was smitten with Hildegard’s creative breadth and her outpouring, her poetic writing and her love of music. Christine wanted to learn more about what inspired and shaped Hildegard’s soul which led her down the Benedictine path. Hildegard was the doorway to Christine’s growing love of monasticism and what eventually lead to Christine becoming an oblate.

Christine brings her scholarly heart in service to this love of contemplative tradition and practice, which is rooted in the ancient ways of Celtic, desert, and Benedictine monks, and the contemplative streams found in other traditions. These include the path of yoga. It lead her to the heart of stillness, which is the place of deep healing in the world.

Her creative heart’s led her to the study of the expressive arts, Jungian psychology, dream work, and working with archetypes. While her earth-cherishing heart loves the wisdom being found in the seasons and presence to the voice of creation.

She also has a pilgrim’s heart. In the spring of 2012, she and her husband sold off everything they owned in Seattle, Washington, where they lived for nine years, including their books, car, home, and the majority of their belongings. This was to go off on a grand life adventure and live overseas.

Their pilgrimage took them first to Vienna, Austria, where they stayed for six months, a place that she found was one of great personal ancestral significance and where her dad’s buried. Then they moved off to Galway, the land where monasteries were once thriving and integral to the community.

During their time here, they have fallen in love that much more with the wisdom of Celtic monasticism and the desert tradition that influenced the Irish monks so much. From this perch on the sacred edge she still serves the Abbey through online programs and welcoming in the monks in the world that come on their pilgrimage.

She holds life experience in the highest regard in preparation for the work she does, but still has dedicated herself to her own personal development and education.

She has a BA in Philosophy from Fordham University, an MA in Systemic Theology from Jesuit School of Theology at Berkley, and her PhD in Christian Spirituality from Graduate Theological Union. She has a certificate in the Art of Spiritual Direction Supervision, Together in the Mystery, and is certified as a Dancing Mindfulness facilitator. She has over two hundred hours of yoga training through the Samarya Center in Seattle, Washington.

“The Artist’s Rule” is a book that was released in the year 2011. “Pray and work” summarizes this book, and the “The Rules of St. Benedict” provides the inspiration for this exploration of the mutually nourishing relationship between creative expression and contemplative practices.

Artists of all stations and stripes in life, either painters or poets, photographers or potters are going to discover how traditions of Celtic, and desert spirituality can offer new sources of inspiration for their work.

Through this twelve week course, themes such as Creative Solitude and Community, Sacred Space and Sacred Tools, and Nature as a Source of Revelation and Inspiration. These become enriched by Paintner’s perceptive discussion and are enhanced by some insightful quotes from prominent writers and artists. Each of the weeks offers up some suggestions for grounding both of the spiritual and creative life through three very basic practices. Lectio divina, walking, and journaling.

“Eyes of the Heart” is a book that was released in the year 2013. This book explores photography as a spiritual practice from the perspective of a Christian, Christine builds on the process of contemplative creative she introduced other places. She considers just how a camera is able to help readers open up “the eyes of the heart”.

This is about cultivating photography as a spiritual practice. Adapting the monastic practice of sacred reading into a sort of sacred seeing, spiritual director and Benedictine oblate Christine invites her readers to a new way of viewing the world. Through a camera lens.

Paintner guides the reader through six themes connecting photography with the Christian spiritual life. Each of these themes gives a photographic journey that the reader doesn’t just take in the images, but gets images and learns about seeing with “the eyes of the heart”.

“The Soul of a Pilgrim” is a book that was released in the year 2015. Christine helps the readers travel to the frontiers of their souls so they can discover the hidden presence of God. Paintner identifies the eight stages of the way of the pilgrims and illustrates how to follow these steps in order to make a transformative and intentional journey to the readers inner wild edges.

Each phase of this exploration requires distinct practice such as being uncomfortable, packing lightly, or embracing the unknown. She shows how to cultivate attentiveness to the divine through patience, deep listening, and opening up oneself to the gifts that arise in the middle of discomfort.