THERE CAN BE some debate about when humans, by virtue of population and industrialisation, became a peril to the planet. However, in these past few centuries, especially in the period after World War II, humans began a relentless termination of the basic life systems of the planet. This came about through human arrogance and through the dark side of our religious-cultural traditions. It was not simply an aggression that arose with modern sciences or with industrial development in these centuries. There are still deeper sources of the pathology. Until these are recognised and dealt with, all our present efforts will at best mitigate the problem, not deal with it in any effective manner. The religions certainly have a role in these transformations. The unjust social conditions that evolved within industrial societies have been a main concern of the religious traditions, as have the inner salvation experience and the personal spiritual disciplines they transmit. Only in the last years of the twentieth century did the religious establishments develop any serious interest in the devastation of the life-giving qualities of the planet. The earlier sense that religion arises out of a sense of awe and wonderment at the incomprehensible majesty of the natural world seems to have disappeared. Western religion has only recently begun to recover its sense of concern for Earth and Earth’s life systems. This recovery is clearly needed in order to move toward the enhancement of human-Earth relations. Without this, our way forward is blocked; with this, the renewal of the larger community of life is possible. A vast new orientation to the universe and to the Earth will be needed to reorient the human community toward a viable future.

Road with Cypresses, by Vincent van Gogh COURTESY: RIJKSMUSEUM KROLLER-MULLER/ BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

ping malls and corporate centres, the Earth had to deal with the more disastrous effects of the chemical industry. The chemical concoction of fuels for power plants and internal combustion engines eventuated in the saturation of not only the soils of the Earth but also its atmosphere and the waters. The consequences for the forests of the world are beyond all calculation. Here we must note the ambivalence of the situation. It has not been easy to

know what ultimately is of benefi t to, and what ultimately is detrimental to, the integral functioning of the planet or to the human mode of being. What should have been clear from the beginning and throughout the entire process is that we are dealing with powers that we understood only to a very limited degree. There was from the beginning an avid quest for the ‘improvement’ of the human situation.

Extracted from Evening Thoughts: Refl ecting on Earth as Sacred Community by Thomas Berry, published by Sierra Club Books, ISBN 978-1-57805-130-4.

Thomas Berry is a historian of cultures. He is author of many books, including The Great Work: Our Way into the Future.

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