Sister Earth

Beyond Retribution

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Wed, 11 May 2011 02:41:00 +0000

Retributive punishment rarely brings the satisfaction that we imagine it will. And so, more often than not, we conclude that the punishment just wasn’t enough. We envision torments heaped on torments. We imagine an eternal realm in which the most unbearable afflictions stretch out not for days or years or thousands of years, but forever. Anguish without end, Amen.

But the glee that comes from indulging in such imaginings is not something to cling to. It is toxic, cutting us off from the compassion that can bring peace. And yet I don’t blame our drive for revenge as such. The problem, I think, is that we have misunderstood the reason we’re not satisfied when an enemy is punished—even the punishment of death. We think it’s because our enemies haven’t suffered enough—the truth is that it’s because our enemies haven’t been redeemed.

…

And so my theory is this: at the root of our desire for retribution is the wish that those who have wronged us feel the full weight of what they have done, suffering remorse proportionate in severity to the gravity of their crime. In short, we hunger for their redemption. And so, when the retributive impulse is finally satisfied, it naturally resolves itself into forgiveness. The darkness is lifted, because the evil—the dissociation from the good that inspired the crime—has been destroyed.

A lethal injection, ending the life of a self-satisfied killer who remains unrepentant to the end, will not produce what our retributive impulses crave. And so we are left dissatisfied. And because we do not understand what we really need, what the impulse for retribution is really hungering for, we think inflicting even more suffering will do the trick.

…

So, is Osama bin Laden in hell? Yes, absolutely. But I will not be at peace, I will not believe that justice has been done, until he is redeemed.

—Eric Reitan, Beyond Retribution: Bin Laden’s Death in its Cosmic Context

via @eatingwords

Thin Places

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 23:31:00 +0000

I know plenty of people who find God most reliably in books, in buildings, and even in other people. I have found God in all of these places too, but the most reliable meeting place for me has always been creation. Since I first became aware of the Divine Presence in that lit-up field in Kansas, I have known where to go when my own flame is guttering. To lie with my back flat on the fragrant ground is to receive a transfusion of the same power that makes the green blade rise. To remember that I am dirt and to dirt I shall return is to be given my life back again, if only for one present moment at a time. Where other people see acreage, timber, soil, and river frontage, I see God’s body, or at least as much of it as I am able to see. In the only wisdom I have at my disposal, the Creator does not live apart from creation but spans and suffuses it. When I take a breath, God’s Holy Spirit enters me. When a cricket speaks to me, I talk back. Like everything else on earth, I am an embodied soul, who leaps to life when I recognize my kin. If this makes me a pagan, than I am a grateful one.

…I learned the proper name for those places on earth where the Presence is so strong that they serve as portals between this world and another. “Thin places,” the Irish call them, which turn out to include not only the famous places such as Croagh Patrick and Glendalough but also the ordinary places that people walk right by if they are not paying attention.

On our first day in Ireland, Ed and I discovered a thin place in a cow pasture. We were not looking for it. We were just taking a walk down a country lane after supper when we saw a break in the hedges off to our left, like a hole in a garden wall. Curious, we followed the well-worn footpath a couple of hundred feet to where it ended at a little mossy hole full of crystal clear water. If not for the tidy bank of stones set into its side, we might have mistaken it for an ordinary watering hole, but someone had clearly taken pains to hallow the place.

“Do you feel that?” Ed said.

“I do,” I said. Freshness was pouring from that spring, drenching me as thoroughly as a shower. I felt as peaceful and alive as I had felt in ages. My jet lag was all gone. How it worked was a complete mystery to me, but there was no denying the effect. Simply to stand near that spring was to experience living water.

Later I would find the Celtic theology that went with the experience, in which God’s “big book” of creation is revered alongside God’s “little book” of sacred scripture. I would also find Christian mystics such as Bernard of Clairvaux and Julian of Norwich, who found heaven on earth in union with the Divine. “I have had no other masters than the beeches and the oaks,” Bernard wrote in the twelfth century, while Julian recognized the love of God in a hazel nut in her hand. Hildegard of Bingen coined the word viriditas (“green power”) to describe the divine power of creation, while Francis of Assisi composed love songs to Brother Sun and Sister Moon.

“You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins,” wrote the seventeenth-century Anglican priest Thomas Traherne, “till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars; and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you.” Since I had received Christian education that taught me to view creation as both fallen and inert, I was happy to discover these dissenting opinions, but they only confirmed what I already knew to be true. I did not live on the earth but in it, in communion with all that gave me life.

—Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

Cathedral of Grass and Dirt

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:52:00 +0000

As hard as I have tried to remember the exact moment when I fell in love with God, I cannot do it. My earliest memories are bathed in a kind of golden light that seems to embrace me a surely as my mother’s arms. The Divine Presence was strongest outdoors, and most palpable when I was alone. When I think of my first cathedral, I am back in a field behind my parents’ house in Kansas, with every stalk of prairie grass lit up from within. I can hear the entire community of crows, grasshoppers, and tree frogs who belong to this field with me. The smell of the grass is so sweet that it perfumes me from within, while the sun heating the top of my head brings out my own fragrance too. There is more in this field than I will ever be able to discover—not in the abandoned shells of land snails and the shed feathers of blue jays but also round holes in the earth that might have been dug by field mice or black snakes, but I will never know which, because as long as I lie there watching the hole, no creature ever appears to go in or come out of it.

This does not really matter because lying there is very good. My skin is happy on the black dirt, which speaks a language my bones understand. If I roll over and think only about the places on my back that are touching the ground, then pretty soon I cannot tell whether I am pressing down on the earth or the earth is pressing up on me….

I am floating in this field, held up towards the sun by the black dirt under my back. I am this earth’s child, and I know it. When I am done lying here, I will visit the small crystal stream that runs through this field to see what is moving in it today. The Presence will be there too, lighting up everything that moves. I have met salamanders there, tadpoles, crayfish, and water bugs. I have watched the moss on the bottom ripple as the water runs over it. Years later, I will discover that this was no crystal stream but a drainage ditch. The difference between these two descriptions of the same place will screw with my sense of reality for a long time. Is the Divine Presence in the world, or in my eye?

—Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

Andy Goldsworthy, Earth Artist

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 05:02:00 +0000

I just saw a marvellous documentary about British earth artist Andy Goldsworthy. He creates sculptures in nature using found natural materials. Some of these are quite ephemeral, such as a lattice of icicles or an arrangement of leaves on the ground, and others are more permanent stone structures, located in the landscape that they are made from. As he describes it, working with natural materials is his way of connecting with the earth and understanding it, and the impermanent nature of many of his sculptures is an integral part of the work.

See more at Cass Sculpture or the Andy Goldsworthy Digital Catalogue. There is also a Flickr group devoted Goldsworthy’s art. The beautiful documentary Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time can be seen (in whole or in part, depending on copyright enforcement) on YouTube.

Beauty is Pure Gratuity

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:16:00 +0000

In this place, Gaudí desired to unify that inspiration which came to him from the three books which nourished him as a man, as a believer and as an architect: the book of nature, the book of sacred Scripture and the book of the liturgy. In this way he brought together the reality of the world and the history of salvation, as recounted in the Bible and made present in the liturgy. He made stones, trees and human life part of the church so that all creation might come together in praise of God, but at the same time he brought the sacred images outside so as to place before people the mystery of God revealed in the birth, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this way, he brilliantly helped to build our human consciousness, anchored in the world yet open to God, enlightened and sanctified by Christ. In this he accomplished one of the most important tasks of our times: overcoming the division between human consciousness and Christian consciousness, between living in this temporal world and being open to eternal life, between the beauty of things and God as beauty. Antoni Gaudí did this not with words but with stones, lines, planes, and points. Indeed, beauty is one of mankind's greatest needs; it is the root from which the branches of our peace and the fruits of our hope come forth. Beauty also reveals God because, like him, a work of beauty is pure gratuity; it calls us to freedom and draws us away from selfishness.

—Pope Benedict XVI, Consecration of the Basilica de la Sagrada Família

Tree of Life, Nativity façade, Basilica de la Sagrada Família, Barcelona, Spain. (Photo Liz Castro)

Father Roy Bourgeois on the Ordination of Women

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 03:10:00 +0000

From his open letter in response to the threat of excommunication:

Over the years I have met a number of women in our Church who, like me, feel called by God to the priesthood. You, our Church leaders at the Vatican, tell us that women cannot be ordained.

With all due respect, I believe our Catholic Church’s teaching on this issue is wrong and does not stand up to scrutiny. A 1976 report by the Pontifical Biblical Commission supports the research of Scripture scholars, canon lawyers and many faithful Catholics who have studied and pondered the Scriptures and have concluded that there is no justification in the Bible for excluding women from the priesthood.

As people of faith, we profess that the invitation to the ministry of priesthood comes from God. We profess that God is the Source of life and created men and women of equal stature and dignity. The current Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women implies our loving and all-powerful God, Creator of heaven and earth, somehow cannot empower a woman to be a priest.

Women in our Church are telling us that God is calling them to the priesthood. Who are we, as men, to say to women, “Our call is valid, but yours is not.” Who are we to tamper with God’s call?

Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard or how long we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always immoral.

Hundreds of Catholic churches in the U.S. are closing because of a shortage of priests. Yet there are hundreds of committed and prophetic women telling us that God is calling them to serve our Church as priests.

If we are to have a vibrant, healthy Church rooted in the teachings of our Savior, we need the faith, wisdom, experience, compassion and courage of women in the priesthood.

Continued…

—Fr. Roy Bourgeois, M.M., Nov. 7, 2008

Roy Bourgeois is the founder of School of the Americas Watch, and has dedicated his life to peace and social justice.

Season of Creation 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:14:00 +0000

The Season of Creation is a ecumenical celebration of our living planet that takes place every autumn, between the Orthodox Day of Creation on September 1st and the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi on October 4th. There are suggested themes and readings for each Sunday of the season, as well resources for both public liturgies and private reflection. This year there is a call to extend the season to October 10th to coincide with 350.org’s Global Work Party to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This would make the Season of Creation a full 40 days, an appropriately biblical number!

The patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I, made a statement on September 1st urging Christians to join in the effort to safeguard Creation:

It is important to note that the current grievous financial crisis may spark the much-reported and absolutely essential shift to environmentally viable development; i.e., to a standard of economic and social policy whose priority will be the environment, and not unbridled financial gain….

For our Orthodox Church, the protection of the environment, as a divine and very good creation, embodies a great responsibility for every human person, regardless of material or financial benefits. The direct correlation of the God-given duty and mandate, to work and preserve, with every aspect of contemporary life constitutes the only way to a harmonious co-existence with each and every element of creation, and the entirety of the natural world in general.

Therefore, we call upon all of you, beloved brethren and children in the Lord, to take part in the titanic and righteous battle to alleviate the environmental crisis, and to prevent the even worse results that derive from its consequences. Let us motivate ourselves to harmonize our personal and collective life and attitudes with the needs of nature’s ecosystems, so that every kind of fauna and flora in the world and in the universe may live and thrive and be preserved.

Though the Day of Creation is not on the official Catholic calendar, it is observed in the spirit of ecumenism. Benedict XVI spoke of the fact that “there cannot be peace without respect for the environment,” and of our “duty to entrust to future generations the earth in such a state that they too can inhabit it and subsequently conserve it.” Today, a group representing the Catholic bishops of Europe are completing a 5-day pilgrimage in the heart of Europe to bring more attention to the connection between peace and the environment. They will travel by foot and mass transit through three countries as they learn about human ecology, water, energy, forests, and contemplation.

The Catholic bishops of Latin America held a symposium at the end of August to discuss the “Christian spirituality of ecology.” Delegates from 18 nations looked at how environmentally destructive practices harm both biodiversity and the well-being of those who live on the land, especially the poor and indigenous peoples who live closest to the land and waters. They called for an “ecological conversion” to a sense of gratitude for God’s gift of creation and an end to our current path of maximum consumption and maximum profit. The group particularly looks to indigenous peoples for guidance in integrating ecology and spirituality, and approaching Nature with a contemplative attitude. Finally they call on all of us to live with simplicity, seeking connectedness with God, especially through Nature, as an infinitely higher good than the superficial consumer goods we are encouraged to buy. (For those who speak Spanish, the full statement is here.)

Peace Words

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:33:00 +0000

Ahimsa: a Sanskrit word meaning “do no harm.” In his poem “Jain Bird Hospital, in Delhi,” William Meredith writes that the term “in our belligerent tongue becomes nonviolence.”

Alay Dangal: a Phillipine term for nonviolence meaning “to give dignity”

Satyagraha: a synthesis of the Sanskrit words Saya (truth) and Agraha (holding firmly to). “I began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha, that is to say, the force which is born of Truth and Love…” —Gandhi

Shantih: a Sanskrit word meaning inner peace or peace of mind. Recognizing the inadequacies of the English word “peace,” TS Elliot ends his poem The Waste Land with the words “Shantih, Shantih, Shantih.”

—“Putting words to peacemaking and nonviolence” from A Matter of Spirit, Fall 2009

Benedictines Leave Victorian Abbey for Green Monastery

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:02:00 +0000

It is not often that the Benedictine nuns of the Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation leave their monastery. It is even rarer for them to move monasteries entirely.

But today, the nuns left their Worcestershire home of 171 years to take possession of their new residence in the North York Moors national park – a new building that they insisted must remain as environmentally-friendly as possible as they lead their quiet life of prayer.

Among the £4.7 million building's green features are solar panels to provide hot water, a woodchip boiler that will be fuelled by locally-sourced trees and a roof covered in sedum grass to better insulate the buildings and attract local wildlife.

Rainwater from some of the roofs will be collected and used to flush the toilets and, instead of an electrically-driven waste water treatment plant, the architects have installed a reedbed sewage system. The effluent from the monastery will filter through the reedbed and, after it is processed through natural anaerobic digestion, the resulting water will trickle out onto the surrounding land.

And the basic materials for the building – everything from timber to stone – have been sourced as locally as possible.

"A lot of building projects start out with all these environmental features and, by the value engineering stage, usually you've lost quite a few of them," said project architect Gill Smith of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, winners of the 2008 Stirling Prize. "The nuns have been remarkably good at sticking with their principles and not letting them drift as other clients tend to do. The list they've ended up with is quite impressive."

—The Guardian, Nuns arrive at eco-convent and leave behind high-carbon habit

Simplicity and sustainability: Inside Stanbrook Abbey, the new eco-friendly nunnery

Get thee to a nunnery - just make sure it has an eco loo

Gallery: Benedictine nuns prepare for move to green convent

Gertrude the Great: Compassion for Every Creature

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Fri, 21 May 2010 00:18:00 +0000

[Gertrude’s] tender compassion extended not only to human beings, but reached out to every creature. When she saw little birds or other animals suffering from hunger, thirst, or cold, she was moved with intense pity for the work of her Lord. Then, desiring that God have mercy on his creature and deign to relieve its misery, she strove to offer devoutly to the Lord’s eternal praise this suffering of irrational creation, in union with the dignity by which every creature is supremely perfected and ennobled in God.

—Gertrude the Great, The Herald of Divine Love (from Monastic Wisdom: Writings on the Contemplative Life)

Hildegard of Bingen: Reverence for Creation

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Fri, 21 May 2010 00:14:00 +0000

Reverence declares: “All things God established please me. I do not hurt any of them.”

—Hildegard of Bingen, Book of Life’s Merits (from Monastic Wisdom: Writings on the Contemplative Life)

Among the Woods

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Sun, 09 May 2010 03:46:00 +0000

You will find among the woods
Something you never found in books.
Stones and trees will teach you a lesson
you never heard from a master in school.
—St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

The Four Directions: A Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:42:00 +0000

God, I go east:
You call me to begin in light
my journey towards You.
Let this light be in my life
the brilliant sun of justice.

God, I go north:
You turn my face inward
to mark the darkness and coldness
of my own heart.
Melt the ice that can encase my mind.
Unseal the frostiness of my struggling heart.

God, I go south:
You open to me the lightsome paths of wisdom.
Teach me to choose well,
to befriend the spirit of choice.

God, I go west:
You point me again to the Scriptures
where I can meet Your Word
on the highways and byways of Life.
Open my eyes to the flashing forth
of these brilliant rays of light.

Go with me:
I go with You.

—Mary T. Malone (Inspired by Hildegarde of Bingen), Praying with the Women Mystics

To Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation

noreply@blogger.com (Classical Bookworm) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:44:00 +0000

It should be evident that the ecological crisis cannot be viewed in isolation from other related questions, since it is closely linked to the notion of development itself and our understanding of man in his relationship to others and to the rest of creation. Prudence would thus dictate a profound, long-term review of our model of development, one which would take into consideration the meaning of the economy and its goals with an eye to correcting its malfunctions and misapplications. The ecological health of the planet calls for this, but it is also demanded by the cultural and moral crisis of humanity whose symptoms have for some time been evident in every part of the world.[8] Humanity needs a profound cultural renewal; it needs to rediscover those values which can serve as the solid basis for building a brighter future for all. Our present crises – be they economic, food-related, environmental or social – are ultimately also moral crises, and all of them are interrelated. They require us to rethink the path which we are travelling together. Specifically, they call for a lifestyle marked by sobriety and solidarity, with new rules and forms of engagement, one which focuses confidently and courageously on strategies that actually work, while decisively rejecting those that have failed. Only in this way can the current crisis become an opportunity for discernment and new strategic planning.

…

There is a need, in effect, to move beyond a purely consumerist mentality in order to promote forms of agricultural and industrial production capable of respecting creation and satisfying the primary needs of all. The ecological problem must be dealt with not only because of the chilling prospects of environmental degradation on the horizon; the real motivation must be the quest for authentic world-wide solidarity inspired by the values of charity, justice and the common good.

…

A greater sense of intergenerational solidarity is urgently needed. Future generations cannot be saddled with the cost of our use of common environmental resources. “We have inherited from past generations, and we have benefited from the work of our contemporaries; for this reason we have obligations towards all, and we cannot refuse to interest ourselves in those who will come after us, to enlarge the human family. Universal solidarity represents a benefit as well as a duty. This is a responsibility that present generations have towards those of the future, a responsibility that also concerns individual States and the international community”.[17] Natural resources should be used in such a way that immediate benefits do not have a negative impact on living creatures, human and not, present and future; that the protection of private property does not conflict with the universal destination of goods;[18] that human activity does not compromise the fruitfulness of the earth, for the benefit of people now and in the future. In addition to a fairer sense of intergenerational solidarity there is also an urgent moral need for a renewed sense of intragenerational solidarity, especially in relationships between developing countries and highly industrialized countries: “the international community has an urgent duty to find institutional means of regulating the exploitation of non-renewable resources, involving poor countries in the process, in order to plan together for the future”.[19] The ecological crisis shows the urgency of a solidarity which embraces time and space. It is important to acknowledge that among the causes of the present ecological crisis is the historical responsibility of the industrialized countries. Yet the less developed countries, and emerging countries in particular, are not exempt from their own responsibilities with regard to creation, for the duty of gradually adopting effective environmental measures and policies is incumbent upon all. This would be accomplished more easily if self-interest played a lesser role in the granting of aid and the sharing of knowledge and cleaner technologies.

…

The quest for peace by people of good will surely would become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship between God, human beings and the whole of creation. In the light of divine Revelation and in fidelity to the Church’s Tradition, Christians have their own contribution to make. They contemplate the cosmos and its marvels in light of the creative work of the Father and the redemptive work of Christ, who by his death and resurrection has reconciled with God “all things, whether on earth or in heaven” (Col 1:20). Christ, crucified and risen, has bestowed his Spirit of holiness upon mankind, to guide the course of history in anticipation of that day when, with the glorious return of the Saviour, there will be “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Pet 3:13), in which justice and peace will dwell for ever. Protecting the natural environment in order to build a world of peace is thus a duty incumbent upon each and all. It is an urgent challenge, one to be faced with renewed and concerted commitment; it is also a providential opportunity to hand down to coming generations the prospect of a better future for all. May this be clear to world leaders and to those at every level who are concerned for the future of humanity: the protection of creation and peacemaking are profoundly linked! For this reason, I invite all believers to raise a fervent prayer to God, the all-powerful Creator and the Father of mercies, so that all men and women may take to heart the urgent appeal: If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.

—Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the Celebration of World Peace Day, January 1, 2010

Let us go over to Bethlehem

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Let us return to the Christmas Gospel. It tells us that after listening to the Angel’s message, the shepherds said one to another: “‘Let us go over to Bethlehem’ … they went at once” (Lk 2:15f.). “They made haste” is literally what the Greek text says.… The Gospel tells us: God is the highest priority. If anything in our life deserves haste without delay, then, it is God’s work alone. The Rule of Saint Benedict contains this teaching: “Place nothing at all before the work of God (i.e. the divine office)”. For monks, the Liturgy is the first priority. Everything else comes later. In its essence, though, this saying applies to everyone. God is important, by far the most important thing in our lives. The shepherds teach us this priority. From them we should learn not to be crushed by all the pressing matters in our daily lives. From them we should learn the inner freedom to put other tasks in second place – however important they may be – so as to make our way towards God, to allow him into our lives and into our time. Time given to God and, in his name, to our neighbour is never time lost. It is the time when we are most truly alive, when we live our humanity to the full.

Some commentators point out that the shepherds, the simple souls, were the first to come to Jesus in the manger and to encounter the Redeemer of the world. The wise men from the East, representing those with social standing and fame, arrived much later. The commentators go on to say: this is quite natural. The shepherds lived nearby. They only needed to “come over” (cf. Lk 2:15), as we do when we go to visit our neighbours. The wise men, however, lived far away. They had to undertake a long and arduous journey in order to arrive in Bethlehem. And they needed guidance and direction. Today too there are simple and lowly souls who live very close to the Lord. They are, so to speak, his neighbours and they can easily go to see him. But most of us in the world today live far from Jesus Christ, the incarnate God who came to dwell amongst us. We live our lives by philosophies, amid worldly affairs and occupations that totally absorb us and are a great distance from the manger. In all kinds of ways, God has to prod us and reach out to us again and again, so that we can manage to escape from the muddle of our thoughts and activities and discover the way that leads to him. But a path exists for all of us. The Lord provides everyone with tailor-made signals. He calls each one of us, so that we too can say: “Come on, ‘let us go over’ to Bethlehem – to the God who has come to meet us. Yes indeed, God has set out towards us. Left to ourselves we could not reach him. The path is too much for our strength. But God has come down. He comes towards us. He has travelled the longer part of the journey. Now he invites us: come and see how much I love you. Come and see that I am here. Transeamus usque Bethlehem, the Latin Bible says. Let us go there! Let us surpass ourselves! Let us journey towards God in all sorts of ways: along our interior path towards him, but also along very concrete paths – the Liturgy of the Church, the service of our neighbour, in whom Christ awaits us.

—Pope Benedict XVI, Christmas Homily 2009

Science and Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:16:00 +0000

The International Year of Astronomy is meant not least to recapture for people throughout our world the extraordinary wonder and amazement which characterized the great age of discovery in the sixteenth century. I think, for example, of the exultation felt by the scientists of the Roman College who just a few steps from here carried out the observations and calculations which led to the worldwide adoption of the Gregorian calendar. Our own age, poised at the edge of perhaps even greater and more far-ranging scientific discoveries, would benefit from that same sense of awe and the desire to attain a truly humanistic synthesis of knowledge which inspired the fathers of modern science. Who can deny that responsibility for the future of humanity, and indeed respect for nature and the world around us, demand - today as much as ever - the careful observation, critical judgement, patience and discipline which are essential to the modern scientific method? At the same time, the great scientists of the age of discovery remind us also that true knowledge is always directed to wisdom, and, rather than restricting the eyes of the mind, it invites us to lift our gaze to the higher realm of the spirit.

. . .

Dear friends, modern cosmology has shown us that neither we, nor the earth we stand on, is the centre of our universe, composed of billions of galaxies, each of them with myriads of stars and planets. Yet, as we seek to respond to the challenge of this Year - to lift up our eyes to the heavens in order to rediscover our place in the universe - how can we not be caught up in the marvel expressed by the Psalmist so long ago? Contemplating the starry sky, he cried out with wonder to the Lord: "When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place, what is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man, that you should care for him?" (Ps 8:4-5). It is my hope that the wonder and exaltation which are meant to be the fruits of this International Year of Astronomy will lead beyond the contemplation of the marvels of creation to the contemplation of the Creator, and of that Love which is the underlying motive of his creation - the Love which, in the words of Dante Alighieri, "moves the sun and the other stars" (Paradiso XXXIII, 145). Revelation tells us that, in the fullness of time, the Word through whom all things were made came to dwell among us. In Christ, the new Adam, we acknowledge the true centre of the universe and all history, and in him, the incarnate Logos, we see the fullest measure of our grandeur as human beings, endowed with reason and called to an eternal destiny.

—Pope Benedict XVI, Address to Vatican Astronomy Congress, October 30, 2009

The Vatican is also celebrating the International Year of Astronomy with a special exhibit on the history of astronomy in Italy over the last 400 years. See below for more.

via IYA2009

Happy Darwin Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:49:00 +0000

Cross-posted from Classical Bookworm

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, father of evolutionary biology. This year is also the 150th anniversary of the publication of one of the most influential books ever written, On the Origin of Species.

Now, let's be clear. Evolution is not a theory. What Darwin theorized was the main mechanism that causes it, natural selection. It's not "the theory of evolution" but "the theory of evolution by natural selection." Evolution itself is a fact that is literally written in stone and written in every living thing on the planet. It was described long before Darwin, and even the ancient Greeks had an idea of it. What Darwin did was painstakingly put together his minute observations of natural history into a scientific explanation of how species change and diversify over time.

As a biologist I am particularly indebted to Darwin and his contemporaries for elucidating the mechanisms behind evolution. Modern biology is founded on evolution; biology just doesn't make sense without it. Natural selection is without question one of the most powerful scientific discoveries of all time, and Darwin deserves a place next to the likes of Newton and Einstein in the pantheon of science.

If you saw any television news today you know that there were special celebrations of Charles Darwin, including the unveiling of a statue of him as a student at Cambridge (take that, Oxford!). In fact the celebrations began last summer, commemorating the day Darwin first presented his findings to the Linnean Society, and will continue until the 24th of November this year, the exact date on which On the Origin of Species was published. The Natural History Museum in London has a special website dedicated to Charles Darwin and his discoveries: Darwin200.org. Attenborough fans might enjoy the video on (animal) evolution at the Wellcome Trust's Tree of Life site. A more thorough treatment of the history of life on Earth is the Tree of Life Web Project, which today is featuring party balloons and an animated gif showing Darwin blowing out a candle on a birthday cupcake! Silly biologists.

The Deep Ecology Platform

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:08:00 +0000

The passing of Arne Naess has prompted me to go back to the beginning and present the basic principles of deep ecology. They were developed in 1984 by Naess and George Sessions during a camping trip in Death Valley, a location that perhaps enhanced their reverence for life by virtue of its inhospitable climate.

1) The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves (synonyms: inherent worth; intrinsic value; inherent value). These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes.
2) Richness and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values and are also values in themselves.
3) Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.
4) Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.
5) The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.
6) Policies must therefore be changed. The changes in policies affect basic economic, technological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the present.
7) The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality (dwelling in situations of inherent worth) rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great.
8) Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes.
(Source: Devall & Sessions, Deep Ecology)

Arne Naess, 1912–2009

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:05:00 +0000

Arne Naess, the grandfather of environmental philosophy, passed away this week at the age of 96. He coined the phrase "deep ecology" in his 1973 article, "The Shallow and the Deep, Long-range Ecology Movements: A Summary," and set off a new wave of philosophical enquiry and environmental activism that seeks not to reform our ways of life but to transform our ways of thinking about our environment. He not only wrote about nature, he lived in it and fought for it all his life. He wrote many of his books in a mountain hut called Tvergastein, after which he named his own personal philosophy, "Ecosophy T." He also fought to preserve nature in his native Norway, once even chaining himself beside a waterfall to stop a dam from being built. For him environmental philosophy was not an academic exercise but a foundation for political action.

I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Naess about ten years ago at a dinner party. It was an entirely informal occasion, and I don't know if philosophy was even mentioned once. Like a groupie I stuck around after dinner and was treated to the sight of Arne Naess, world famous philosopher, playing Superman on the floor with the children! That was when someone told me that he had made various appearances on Norwegian television as a wrestler, and not too far in the past either! In honour of his playfulness, I leave you with this remembrance of Arne Naess...

Rest in peace, Arne.

The Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy recently published a large number of articles by and about Arne Naess. They can be read online—click on the issues for 2005 and 2006.

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice!

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:47:00 +0000

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it.
Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy.

~ Psalm 96

"Earthrise," taken December 24, 1968 by William Anders from lunar orbit.

via Pages Turned

Loving the Earth Is Loving the Poor

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:27:00 +0000

...our modern lifestyle of consumption puts a heavy burden on the earth.... What that means is we are living outside the capability of our own land to support us. Even worse, we are taking from others to bolster our way of life. We go to another's valley, well, river, forest, mine, and even sky to supply our high level of consumption. Our high level of consumption also means a high level of waste—from all the effluence from manufacturing and packaging to the toys that last for barely a year and the clothes that quickly go out of fashion....
And here's the harsh reality for the poor: it's usually their resources we are capturing to support our lifestyle, and their land, rivers, and lakes where we are dumping our waste....
In the wealthy West we live what is called a "phantom" lifestyle. Rather than relying on the earth around us, we almost invisibly (like a phantom) rely on the earth of others. If we run out of vegetables, we import them from another country. If we need more electricity, we import it from another state or river or region. The same is true for water, minerals, fruit, and meat. If we need more petroleum, we import it from abroad. Very often we lose our innocence in the capturing of those resources. We take land that belongs to another group of people; we invade countries; we destroy rain forests. The true cost of living the modern lifestyle is not measured by what we pay at the cash register. Rather, it is measured by what we have done to other people's rivers, valleys, oceans, and land. And, more precisely, what we have done to the poor....
The cultural preoccupation with wealth and its temporal benefits is not founded in the faith tradition. Indeed, that preoccupation is as dangerous to our spirituality as it is to the bodies of the poor. It certainly is not in sync with the character and call of the Creator. Our wholesale destruction of God's creation in the pursuit of our self-defined good life is certainly a curious contrast to the biblical notion of the character of Christians—temperate, self-controlled, compassionate, satisfied, not coveting, not stealing, not harming those who have little....
Becoming free of the "American dream" is no easy task, but it can happen on many levels. The first thing to do is to evaluate our personal consumption and to become free of the idea that our worth and fulfilment are wrapped up in the pursuit of "stuff" and status symbols. (It's hard to imagine Jesus preaching a life of getting all the goods we want or of seeking the approval of the cultural establishment.) The less we consume, the less we are taking from the earth of the poor, from the rivers of the poor, from the future of the poor. The less we consume, the less garbage we are dumping into the rivers and backyards of the poor. Developing an ethic of consumption that meets our needs while also defending God's creation and delivering justice for the poor is the frontline biblical work for Christians today.
We are promised that one day there will be no more tears. God will wipe them all away. We are promised a new heaven and a new earth. In this new heaven and earth there will be no more pain (Revelation 21:1-4). That's a world without thirst, without hunger. But that day will not be our doing. What we have is now. And so we reverently keep God's earth. And we seek justice for the poor of God's earth. Nothing less suits our faith, nothing less honors the Creator. And in today's modern world, nothing less makes sense.
...If it's true that to hurt the earth is to hurt the poor, it is also true that being kind to the earth is being kind to the poor. Every time we save another acre of rain forest, clean up another river, recycle another bottle, say no to another frivolous purchase, we are serving God's creation and we are serving the poor.
—Gordon Aeshliman, President of Target Earth International, "Loving the Earth Is Loving the Poor" in The Green Bible

The Green Bible

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:41:00 +0000

Crossposted from Classical Bookworm

Bible publishing is big business these days. One way publishers have kept up sales has been by putting out specialty Bibles to suit every imaginable demographic and interest group, from men, women, teens, and children, to sports fans, hunters, and even surfers (yes, it's waterproof). Most of these are geared towards American Evangelicals, but there is one new specialty Bible that should be of interest to a much broader group of people: Harper Collins' new Green Bible.

Concern for and kinship with nature has a long history in mainstream Christianity (as the collection of quotes in the Green Bible attests), but it took the energy of American Evangelicals to make the environment a public Christian issue and thus to make this book possible. This is not a book specifically for Evangelicals, however. It comes from a mainstream publisher, and it uses an up-to-date, scholarly translation of the Bible, the New Revised Standard Version. It also features essays from a variety of faith perspectives: Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant and Evangelical. These writings range from personal stories of growing environmental awareness to sophisticated statements on the Christian's duty to safeguard what ultimately does not belong to us.

The Green Bible's main feature is that all verses relating to nature and the environment (there are more than a thousand) are printed in green. This is an idea borrowed from "red letter Bibles," in which words spoken by Jesus are printed in red. There is also a special concordance of environmental topics at the back, and a "Green Bible Trail Guide" which traces six environmental themes through the Bible with references and study questions. As I mentioned before, there is also a section of quotations from both Christian and Jewish sources arranged chronologically from the first century to the present day. A resource guide, with suggestions for action and website addresses, and a general concordance complete the volume.

It should be mentioned that the book itself is "green," printed on Forestry Stewardship Council-certified paper with vegetable ink, and made in the U.S. rather than somewhere without pollution controls. Like the other recent Harper Bibles I've seen, this book is beautifully produced, but it has the same flaw as the others: bleed-through. The paper is so thin you can see through it easily, which is especially a problem in the green-letter sections, since the green ink is a little lighter than the black. The paper is also quite glossy, which causes glare, depending on your lighting, and that makes reading it more difficult still. It really is such a shame that Harper insists on using inappropriate paper for its Bibles because otherwise they are beautiful books. If the Green Bible is used primarily as a reference these shortcomings should present no problem, but I do hope Harper Collins will "see the light" and start printing Bibles that as readable as they are beautiful and relevant.

Overall I'd have to say I am very impressed with the Green Bible. When I first heard about it I feared it might just be a gimmick, an attempt to capitalize on the green bandwagon. Now I see that it is a serious effort and could be a very effective tool in advancing the environmental agenda among English-speaking Christians. Gripes about paper aside, Harper Collins has done a very good thing here, and not a moment too soon.

The Green Bible (official website)

Disclosure: My copy came courtesy of Harper Collins.

For the Beauty of Earth and Sky and Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:42:00 +0000

We give you thanks, most gracious God, for the beauty of the earth and sky and sea; for the richness of mountains, plains, and rivers; for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flowers. We praise you for these good gifts and pray that we may safeguard them for our posterity. Grant that we may continue to grow in our grateful enjoyment of your abundant creation, to the honour and glory of your name, now and forever.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1549) [via The Green Bible]

Compassion for All

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:26:00 +0000

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
—Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) [seen in The Green Bible]

Still Sacred Creation

noreply@blogger.com (Island Bookworm) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:29:00 +0000

For much of Western Christianity, the doctrine of creation (a biblical term) has been eaten alive by the doctrine of the fall (not a biblical term). In other words, creation's downfall resulting from human sin has eclipsed its original glow as God's handiwork, radiant with God's glory. Make no mistake. Human sin is awful and reprehensible beyond words, and the whole earthly creation suffers because of it. But if, due to an exaggerated doctrine of the fall, God's creation loses its sacredness as God's beloved artwork, we have magnified human sin beyond sane bounds—and in fact added to its sad effects.
As a result, in many circles, about the only time the word creation comes up these days is before versus evolution. The God-affirmed goodness of creation, the beauty of creation, its priceless preciousness and meaning as God's own handiwork—these values are seldom heard. Instead, more discouraging words are heard—about the ruin of creation via an "ontological fall," a concept that conveniently seems to degrade God's inherently valuable handiwork into humanity's bargain resources for profitable exploitation. It's far easier to put a price tag on a fallen creation than on a still sacred one.
—Brain D. McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (seen in The Green Bible)