I’m Sam Harrelson, a PhD Student in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion, a consultant, and an ecotheologian tracing how the Cross, the Cosmos, and Carolina landscapes belong to one another.
My work lives where phenomenology, process thought, and spiritual ecology meet under the branches of black walnut trees, in the archives of Edith Stein, and in the restless questions of a world in crisis.
“All living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God’s brilliance.”
Ecology of the Cross
The Cross, for me, is not only a historical event or a doctrinal symbol. It is an ecological pattern — a way of being in the world marked by self-giving, participation, and shared vulnerability.
These pieces sketch the heart of what I mean by the Ecology of the Cross.
- Edith Stein’s Finite and Eternal Being
How Stein’s metaphysics undergirds my claim that ecological consciousness is cruciform. - Edith Stein and Laudato Si’: Recovering the Interior Life of Creation
Reading integral ecology through Stein’s interior, participatory vision of the world. - An Ecology of the Cross — Audio Reflection
A spoken meditation from my walnut tree about cruciform belonging and ecological thought.
→ Explore the full Ecology of the Cross archive
“Every finite being is a participation in the fullness of Being.”
Ecology & Phenomenology
Small acts of attention punctuate my days… standing beneath a walnut tree in Spartanburg, watching clouds move over the Piedmont, tracing the slow decay of leaves.
Phenomenology gives me a language for these encounters. Ecology gives them stakes. Together they form what I call ecological intentionality.
- Tree Tracking Journal
An ongoing practice of sitting with and learning from a single walnut tree. - Phenomenology Notes
Reflections on Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Edith Stein, and the phenomenology of nature. - Plasma Consciousness: Thinking With the Luminous Universe
On plasma, atmosphere, and a universe that feels more like relation than inert matter.
“The world is filled with the hidden radiance of God.”
Religion & Theology
I was trained in theology and biblical studies, and those roots still shape everything I write.
Here you’ll find work on mystics like Hildegard, philosophical retrievals of Stein, and ongoing wrestling with scripture, doctrine, and the Church in an age of ecological unraveling.
“All of creation speaks a silent language that the soul can learn to hear.”
Tech, AI & Digital Life
I make a living helping people build things on the web and think through the spiritual and ethical stakes of emerging technologies.
These pieces track my attempts to hold silicon and sacrament together without collapsing one into the other.
“The soul is a place where the divine and the earthly interpenetrate.”
Family & Life in the Carolinas
Theology, philosophy, and ecological reflection are never abstract for me. They run through Scouts trips to the USS Yorktown, late-night conversations with Merianna, baseball games, and ordinary days in Spartanburg and Columbia.
These posts are small windows into the human side of the work.
“Whoever seeks the truth becomes part of a greater harmony.”
Walk This Path With Me
If you’re drawn to the edges where ecology, theology, consciousness, and digital life blur into one another, I’d love for you to keep walking with me.