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.
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
The Edith Stein Project
My ongoing work in ecology, spirituality, and phenomenology continually returns to Edith Stein, a thinker whose insights into analogical being, empathy, and the depth of creaturely existence illuminate so much of our ecological moment. The Edith Stein Project gathers my reflections, essays, and research as I explore Stein’s philosophical and theological legacy through the lenses of ecological intentionality, process cosmology, and place-based spirituality.
These posts form a growing archive of my work on Stein as part of my PhD studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and they serve as the foundation for my developing expertise on her work, especially Finite and Eternal Being and The Science of the Cross.
→ Explore Posts on Edith Stein
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.
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.
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.
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.
Published Papers, Conference Talks, and Research
Alongside blog reflections, I publish formal essays, theological explorations, and phenomenological research papers that extend this work. These pieces include material on Edith Stein, ecological theology, phenomenology, and the broader project I’m developing around the Ecology of the Cross.
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.