Book Review:
Religious Experience and Ecological Responsibility
edited by Donald A. Crosby and Charley D. Hardwick
(New York: Peter Lang, 1996)
This collection of essays by academic philosophers and theologians were selected from
presentations at the Second International Conference on Philosophical Theology, held at
the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, August, 1993. The focus of the conference was
on religion and ecology. It resulted in a widely divergent collection, including
perspectives from Naturalism, Feminist theory, and American Religious Liberal thought.
Several of the essays are of great interest for Pantheists. In J. Edward Barrett's
"Ecological Reverence: Or, Religion Rediscovering Reality," this theologian,
although grounding every theological statement in a Biblical text, explicitly embraced
Pantheism. He argued that in the future people will less and less distinguish between the
spiritual world and the secular world:
"The religious realist is the person concerned with the holiness of what can be
touched - in nature and history, social, inter-personal, and family life - and not with
that which is above or outside of nature and human experience... In tomorrow's planet,
religion will increasingly be concerned with the reality in which 'we live and move and
have our being,' and will have the character of 'ecological reverence.'"
To my amazement, Barrett then asked the same question my mind was forming when reading
this statement: "But, is this not simply Pantheism?" And he answered, "If
it is, then we should be all means make the most of it, and become conscious
pantheists."
Barrett states: "Pantheism has at least two advantages over most historical and
modern theologies: (1) You know you are talking about something real rather than
hypothetical; and (2) It makes (if not clear at least) clearer the relationship between
religious experience and ecological responsibility; it is, in other words, relevant."
In adopting this frankly Pantheist point of view, Barrett, the graduate of Princeton
Theological Seminary (which he describes as a ñbackwater of Reformation bibliolatry),
concludes that the religion of Gaia (Mother Earth) was closer to the truth than two
thousand years of Christian theology! He summarizes his theology thus: "The true
atheist is not the person who refuses to believe what is not known, but the person who
refuses to act with reverence toward what is known... The authentically religious person
(as distinct from the superstitious person) is not the one who believes what is doubtful,
but the person who embraces with reverence what is beyond doubt - the reality in which we
live and move and have our being."
Barrett's is not the only voice of Pantheism in this book. J. Harley Chapman adopts a
clearly pantheist expression in his essay, "The Practice of Natural Piety as a
Spiritual Discipline," although he never uses the term. Chapman writes, "Natural
piety... Is the awe-filled respect for, and the often-attending delight in, the presence
of the divine in the natural world; as a discipline, it is, additionally, a practice, an
intentional structure of behavior, the end of which is to foster the experience of the
divine in nature." He stresses that this is much more than simply "getting a
kick out of nature." He describes five overlapping themes to delimit what is meant by
natural piety: A non-utilitarian openness to nature. "Nature is to be
cherished for its own sake; the values experienced there are to be respected, honored, and
loved because of their intrinsic worth. Genuine piety begins after all concern with human
want and need is given up." An awareness sensitive and appreciative but
nonetheless disciplined. "At one level, we must cleanse the windows of
perception; at another, we have to learn how to look and listen and feel (education in the
arts is useful in this regard); at yet another, we need new hearts (careful reflection on,
and self-examination in the light of, profound spiritual teachings can be crucial.)" The
aesthetic. "Natural piety has to do with how the natural world strikes,
overwhelms, and delights us - with escarpments so sheer that they stun the mind into
silence; with expanses so vast that they exhaust the eye as it runs toward a retreating
horizon; with rain forests so teemingly lush that they palpably oppress; with swatches and
swirls of undersea color so vivid that they arrest; with individual specimens so
dignified, so serene, so beautiful that they shame all human pretension. Depth, power,
and mystery of the aesthetic whole. "Natural piety is more than aesthetic delight
since it is directed toward that which moves from the mysterious depths through the
sensuous surfaces of the things of the natural world to evoking in the experiencer both
awe-filled respect and delight." The Infinite in the finite. "Positively
considered, the object of natural piety is the divine presence in nature, a presence which
stirs, delights, and haunts the aesthetically arresting things, events, and places of the
natural world."
Chapman explores these dimensions in some detail, and notes that place, body, and time
must be focused to practice natural piety. Such a practice is open to individual
specification. He suggests that we continue to read in environmental studies and
ecological philosophy; that we practice meditation, the practice of mindfulness, to focus
on experiencing the environment more sensitively, and that we ñsimply hang out with
natureî on a regular basis. As he says, "With its immediate access to nature, its
maneuverability and manageability, walking is about the right mode of traversing a place
for integrating the experience of the divine, a fact well-known to the nineteenth-century
German and English Romantic poets, to the American wilderness writers Thoreau and Muir, to
contemporary backpackers in the High Sierras, and to nature mystics of all times."
Finally, a third essay, by Charles S. Milligan, not only embraces Pantheism, but, as
the title indicates, makes "The Eco-Religious Case for Naturalistic Pantheism."
Milligan's brand of pantheism is naturalistic, significantly different from
panentheism, gnosticism, absolute idealism, materialism and spiritualism. "Pantheism
is the view that the whole of reality is God... Reality, naturalistically perceived,
consists of pervasively interrelated entities of many modes and varieties, including their
relational and qualitative attributes. .. There is no bifurcation of reality, but one
comprehensive realm of all that is, has been, and potentially might be."
Members of the Universal Pantheist Society will recognize Milligan's description of the
source of our theology: "Pantheistically-inclined people do not read of doctrines and
then 'apply' them; they have been beholding nature with wonder and delight and find
themselves becoming pantheists or, having heard of a pantheistic view, say that that is
what they have felt all along." Moreover, "Pantheism so enlarges our heart that
it rids us of 'the greed for personal gratification;' it repudiates human arrogance."
In his essay, Milligan argues that some of the old objections to pantheism have now
become among the strongest arguments for it. For example, Pantheism accepts religious
pluralism, unlike many historical religions. According to Milligan, it acknowledges
frankly that "Religions are human developments like language and the arts." But,
"It is not anything against religion that it is a human creation, that it did not
fall from the sky or was not dictated from another realm to special earthlings. It is no
more surprising that there are diverse religions than that there are diverse languages,
cuisines, and songs." Thus, Pantheists, from a naturalistic point of view, know it is
simply silly to ask "which religion is the one and only true one." We can seek
truth wherever it can be found.
Perhaps the strongest argument for Pantheism is the issue of the existence of God.
"The classical proofs for the existence of God are now widely rejected. In their
place are contorted arguments justifying the language by ignoring the plain question. When
God is identified with the whole of reality there is no doubt of GodÍs realness if
anything at all exists. The advantage of pantheism is that inquiry focuses on what the
nature of God is, as object of religious devotion. It is open to the strong possibility
that ultimate reality may very well not match everything we wish it to be, learning to
live with that and, in fact, to celebrate doing so."
With this in mind, Milligan addresses the major objection to pantheism that argues that
our God is morally ambiguous, since the universe permits many kinds of terrible evils to
occur. As Milligan points out, "Of course that is true however God is
perceived." Milligan makes short shrift of this objection, because in Pantheism one
need not struggle with convoluted philosophical reasoning or biblio-idolatrous theology to
try to separate the 'good' of God from the 'evil' of the world. Instead, Pantheists simply
recognize that human ethics are human creations, they emerge in cultures, as do languages
and the arts, and the historical attempt to establish theological underpinnings for right
and wrong is simply impossible. "Far from being a disadvantage that pantheism cannot
claim an ethical system given by God, it is an advantage in that it removes the frightful
features of moral theocracy. When people think their policies are divinely ordained, there
is no debate or reasoning with them." Just as the earth is not complete, humanity
certainly is not complete. "It is given to humanity to add justice and mercy to what
nature hitherto has brought forth." Humanity has a crucial role in continuing
creation.
Therefore, Milligan asserts the importance of Pantheism as a religious faith promoting
vigorous remedial action to solve the global ecological crisis. In contrast with
traditional Christian theologians, such as John Cobb, who say "Nothing is more
important than evangelism," Milligan says "Pantheism would hold that saving
planet earth is far more important than evangelism, however interpreted.... The crux of
environmentalism is to take the practical long view rather than the short-run, impractical
one for the sake of convenience of profit. The whole meaning of 'sustainable development'
is avoidance of short range policies which destroy the possibility of continuing
development. It comes down to caring about those who are to come after us. Anthropocentric
religions have difficulty with this, because they regard nature as of value ohnly for
human development... In pantheism, ecological responsibility is central and obligatory. It
requires a lifestyle and social activism on behalf of the environment. Added to the
motivations which arise from sheer practicality there is the additional religious
motivation that this caring about and caring for nature is necessary for our own
self-respect and fulfillment as human beings."
It is good to read that Pantheism is gaining acceptance in the world of theology and
philosophy, as it certainly is among many scientists, artists, and nature-lovers. We look
forward to hearing more from this new brand of theologians!
- Harold Wood
Source Pantheist Vision, Vol. 17., No. 3, Autumnal Equinox, 1996.
