Sacredness and Sustainability: Searching for a Practical Eco-Spirituality

Abstract

In a time of ecological crises with huge consequences for humanity and the earth system which is a result of a mechanistic world view and human exploitation of the earth, there exists a serious need for a ecological, resacralised worldview of which an “ecological” concept of religion and spirituality is part. Eco-spirituality is then the direct consciousness and experience of the Sacred in the ecology which may serve as a sustained source for communities’ and individuals’ practical search to live sustainably from the earth’s resources. The story of Tim Wigley serves as an example of how this balance between eco-spirituality and ecological activism is possible.

Full text

Sacredness and Sustainability: Searching for a Practical Eco-Spirituality
In a time of ecological crises with huge consequences for humanity and the earth
system which is a result of a mechanistic world view and human exploitation of the
earth, there exists a serious need for a ecological, resacralised world view of which an
“ecological” concept of religion and spirituality is part. Eco-spirituality is then the
direct consciousness and experience of the Sacred in the ecology which may serve as a
sustained source for communities’ and individuals’ practical search to live sustainably
from the earth’s resources. The story of Tim Wigley serves as an example of how this
balance between eco-spirituality and ecological activism is possible.
Key words: ecology, ecological crises; exploitation of the earth; Cosmoecology; eco-spirituality; ecological
activism, sustainability.
Introduction
In our time, society is superficially aware of the ecology and the ecological crisis which humanity has
brought on ourselves. Power outages, acid mine water problems and changing weather patterns act as
danger signals that all is not well in our interaction with natural “resources” and the environment.
After receiving such a signal, we often return to our consumerist, mostly urban, technological life
styles. In the comfort of this way of life, nature becomes hidden from us, even if we rely on it every
day1. Even if we try to deny and forget what we observe around us, many of us intuitively know that
our relationship with “nature” (as if we are not also part of nature) is totally awry. Those of us who
have a tendency towards mystical experiences, realize how close to the Sacred 2 we are when we are in
a place of natural beauty and harmony, or simply when we become aware of birdsong, trees and
changing seasons around us. And yet we struggle to bring this sense of harmony with nature back into
the daily hustle and bustle of postmodern and often urbanized life. But what does these realisations
and experiences mean for how we relate to the environment, or to choose a more correct and
descriptive term, to the ecology? And if we honestly search for more responsible and sustainable
1 Jacklyn Cock, in her book The War against Ourselves: Nature, Power and Justice (Johannesburg: Wits
University Press, 2007) argue that our whole life style is dependent on nature and natural “resources”, and yet,
that this is hidden from us through the processes of production and consumption. Our minds become
lobotomised from that which is essential for our daily lives and our survival.
2 In this article, I will use the term “sacred” in the sense of something being worthy of devotion and reverence or
something being of ultimate value. I will also use it as a word of faith, to express my own belief and that of
others that something is sacred because it is enspirited and embraced by what may be called the Creative Energy
(Thomas Berry), the All-Nourishing Abyss (Brian Swimme) or simply the Spirit (Ken Wilber) or what I call the
Divine or God. See Albert Nolan, Jesus Today: A Spirituality of Radical Freedom (Cape Town: Double Storey
Books; 2006), 139-140.
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ways to live from nature and her bounty, where does this take us? How do we fit into the greater
scheme of the natural world, and how do we act?
In this article, I will shortly describe the “man-made” ecological crisis and how a predominant
mechanistic and capitalistic world view has contributed to it. This will bring me to the central
hypothesis of this article: The environmental crisis necessitates a world view which recognises the
Sacred in the whole web of life. In the light of this statement, I will ask the following question: How
do we understand and describe an eco-spirituality which will sustain our search for an ethical way of
life in relation to the living ecosystems of the earth, and which may help us to create a sustainable
future3 for following generations and for the planet as a whole? After having explored the possible
contours of such an spirituality, I will use a case study to test whether an eco-spirituality may interact
with, inform and strengthen our action for sustainability – and vice versa; and whether it is possible
that an interplay of spirituality and action may help us heal ourselves and the earth’s ecology .
From a Mechanistic World View to a Cosmoecology
The present ecological disaster is a result of human exploitation of earth’s natural resources due to a
capitalist and consumerist world economy, which disadvantages the larger majority of the world’s
population, but most of all, which ravages the bounty of the earth in the name of using “natural
resources” in a productive economy. This exploitation creates crises like the extinction of species and
biodiversity, the destruction of the habitats in which species need to survive; the pollution of water, air
and the environment in which humans, animals and plants have to exist; the depletion of mineral
resources, forests and fisheries; change of climate patterns, global warming and so forth. The
exploitation of the earth relates closely to the prevailing mechanistic and dualistic scientific views
which we inherited from Descartes, Newton and even Darwin, who presented us with a view of the
world as a giant mechanism, composed of “dead” matter, and of which the mind and consciousness is
an ineffective by-product of matter that has evolved into the complexity of nervous systems and
brains4. It is not strange that this world view of reductionist mechanism and materialism went side by
side with the development of rampant capitalism which simply stripped and destroyed the “natural
resources” of the earth in the name of progress and profit; and oppressed the poor as the majority of
the earth’s population; women and indigenous people – those who are “lower” than the (male) elite
endowed with reason and science.
3 Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute has given a clear definition of sustainability: “ A sustainable society
is one that satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of future generations”. See Lester R Brown,
Building a Sustainable Society (New York: Norton, 1981).
4 Radical Nature: Rediscovering the Soul of Matter. (Montpelier, Vermont: Invisible Cities Press, 2002), 4-5.
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Part of this world view with its strict separation between science and religion, matter and spirit, are
religions and theologies which are anthropocentric, dualistic, hierarchical and exclusive to such an
extent that religious authorities, systems and practices does not only find it acceptable to exploit
nature and oppressed groups; but also sanction the exploitation of the earth5.
The hypothesis of this article is the following: The environmental crisis, together with the inability of
orthodox religions and theology to deal with these problems, necessitate the search for an ecological,
resacralised world view of which an “ecological” understanding of religion and spirituality is part, and
for an awareness of the sacredness of the whole reality (or the whole “web of life”); the cosmos, the
earth system6 and its ecosystems, and of humanity as part of this whole and not separate from it. We
need a new cosmological story, an ecological account of the world in which we humans find our fit,
our place, our home. Christian de Quincey7 calls this a cosmoecology – a story that gives a rational
account (logos) of the grand order (cosmos) in which we feel at home (ecos). Various ecological
thinkers8 propose that this new paradigm is to be found in the “new cosmology” or the “new creation
story” – which draws heavily on the insights of “new science” but re-mythologise it by finding the
sacred in each connection and interaction within the greater order of the earth and cosmos. Here
science itself is used to restore a sense of the sacred to the world. Research in the fields of “new
science”: astrophysics, new physics, evolutionary biology, molecular biology and ecological studies
help non-scientific, ordinary, religious and spiritual people to come to a new account of the universe
as a whole. Sallie McFague9 summarises the story in the following words:
Everything that is, from the fungi and protozoa on our planet to the black holes
and exploding supernovas in distant galaxies, has a common origin: everything
that is comes from one infinitesimal bit of matter. It staggers the imagination; it
5 In Genesis 1:28, God commands Adam to have dominion over nature. Also see Ps. 8:28, “You have given them
dominion over the work of your hands”. In the now famous essay by Lynn White Jr, “The historical roots of our
ecological crisis” in Western Man and Environmental Ethics (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison – Wesley, 1973),
White argues that these texts was used in traditional theology to explain and justify humanity’s elevated position
over nature, and the use – to the point of exploitation – of natural resources for human survival and progress.
Ecofeminist theologians like Rosemary Ruether in New woman, new earth (New York: Seabury Press, 1975)
and Anne Primavesi in From Apocalypse to Genesis: Ecology, Feminism and Christianity (Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1991) describes the dualistic view of self and world, body and spirit, and the oppression of
women, blacks, Jews and others in Western theology and thinking. They link the symbolic devaluation of the
“feminine” and the “other” to the dominating mindset behind these various forms of oppression and the
exploitation of the earth.
6 James Lovelock explains the workings of the earth system- or the Gaia System - in his Gaia Theory. See,
among others, “Gaia and the Balance of Nature”, in The Logic of the Gift (London: Routledge, 1990), ed. A D
Schrift.
7 De Quincey, Radical Nature, 19.
8 See Brian Swimme & Thomas Berry, The universe story: from the primordial flashing forth to the ecozoic era
(New York: Penguin, 1992); Larry Rasmussen, Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996)
and Sallie McFague, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).
9 Sallie McFague, The Body of God, 45. Larry Rasmussen, Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Maryknoll: Orbis
Books, 1996
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also helps us to think about unity and diversity in a new way. This unity and
diversity is based on radical relationship and interdependence, yet it produces the
most stupefying array of diversified individuals. It is placed in a process of
change, openness, beginnings and endings which has been going on for billions of
years.
This brings to the fore the need for a concept of religion which is inseparably part of such a sacred
and holistic world view. The conditionalist understanding of reality and religion, as espoused by
Kruger10 is to my mind the most satisfying approach to bring together the complex and living systems
of natural and human life. It conceptually overcomes the old paradigm of dualism and separation
between living nature and the human spirit. This approach can also be called ‘radical relationality’.
This approach links up with the work of thinkers like William James11, C G Jung12, A N Whitehead13
and Thomas Berry14. It also seeks an alliance with Buddhist philosophy15. The principle of
‘conditionality’ implies a religious philosophy which places the notions of togetherness and
relatedness – in stead of separateness and division – at the very core of reality: the togetherness of
humanity, of humanity with nature, and of both humanity and nature with God; more than that,
humanity, nature and God is understood as being constituted by relatedness and the dynamic interplay
of relations. This religious understanding would start from and confirm particular ‘data’ of experience,
in the here and now. These data are concretely real. In them other data are implied, in expanding
connotations or networks. This relates to a systemic understanding of the physical reality16.
This conditionalist understanding of religion links up closely with various ecofeminist approaches to
the study of religion and theology, as well as their underlying world views. Anna Primavesi17 refers to
the feminist philosopher of religion, Evelyn Fox-Keller18, and the philosopher and founder of the deep
ecology movement Arne Naess19(1989:63) when she describes a contextual and ecological way of
10 Kobus Kruger. Along Edges: Religion in South Africa – Bushman, Christian, Buddhist (Pretoria: Unisa
Publishers, 1996), 21-22.
11 William James, Essays in Radical Empiricism: A Pluralistic Universe (New York: Longman Green & Co,
1912).
12 Carl Gustav Jung, The Collected Works of C G Jung (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958).
13 Alfred North Whitehead. Process and reality: An Essay in Cosmology (New York: Free Press; 1929, 1979).
14 Thomas Berry. The dream of the earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books; 1990, 1988); The great work: our
way into the future (New York: Bell Tower Publishers, 1999).
15 A Western interpretation of Buddhist thought that is relevant for the notion of “radical relationality” is that of
Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: the Dharma of Natural Systems
(New York: State University of New York Press, 1991).
16 Kruger, Along Edges, 23.
17 Anne Primavesi, “A tide in the affairs of women?” in Ecofeminism and Theology: Yearbook of the European
Society of Women in Theological Researchi (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1994), ed. Elizabeth Green and Mary Gray,
7-19.
18 Evelyn Fox-Keller. Reflections on Gender and Science (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
19 Arne Naess. Ecology, community and life-style (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1989).
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doing theology, which literally follows the autopoetic pattern20 of a living organism evolving from a
single cell to a self-nurturing organism, while interacting with the growth or decay of organisms
around it in a mutually interdependent way. She places this approach in a non-violent framework by
saying the following:
In the context of an ecological philosophy which holds that the human person is
compounded of interactions between elements of which we partake, it is a call to
conscious awareness of those interactions and the necessity for sustaining them in a non-
violent way. By crossing the boundaries between emotion and what is conventionally
classed as thinking, the cognitive act becomes a non-violent act of understanding love
between us, between us and all living beings, between us and God.
Such a search for an ecofeminist and ecological understanding of religion is part of the broad shift in
large sections of contemporary society towards exploration of new forms of spirituality and an
aversion to formalized, authoritarian, dogmatic and fundamentalist religions. Many postmodern and
postcolonial people are part of an emerging search for what Gordon Lynch calls “progressive
spirituality”21, as a response to the need for credible forms of religion for a modern age; the need to
reconnect religion with scientific understanding of the cosmos and the earth; the need for religion
which is truly liberating and beneficial for women; and the need for a spirituality that can respond to
situations of political injustice and to the impending ecological crisis. It can be seen as a step beyond
multi-faith tolerance and collaboration, towards the definition of an interreligious spirituality that
could unite people across and beyond religious traditions, so as to meet and support each other in a
search for a deeper awareness of the Sacred; as well as to become united in a search for political and
ecological justice. It is indeed with trepidation and with the greatest respect that one dares to move
into this direction. As Paul Knitter writes, the more one moves into interreligious dialogue, the more
one realizes what the vast differences between the various religions are22. Yet, when people of
different faiths are jointly involved in not only an interreligious dialogue but also in a struggle for
what Knitter terms “eco-human justice”, “the utterly Other has become … the possible, the
imaginable, the attractive”23 .
20 Autopoiesis is the term coined by the scientists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Valera for their description
of systemic organisation in living beings. The network refers to the dynamic, self-producing and self-
maintaining networks of production processes within a specific live organism, while each component of the
evolving network of organisms also participates in the production or transformation of other components in the
network. This process made the single evolutionary process in which organisms and the material earth evolved
together, possible. See Anne Primavesi, Sacred Gaia: Holistic Theology and Earth System Science (Routledge:
London, 2000), 2.
21 Gordon Lynch. The new spirituality: an introduction to progressive belief in the twenty-first century (London:
I B Taurus & Co; 2007), 20-21.
22 Paul F Knitter. One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith dialogue and Global Responsibility (Maryknoll, New
York: Orbis Books; 1995), 11-13.
23 Knitter. One Earth Many Religions, 12.
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From Cosmoecology to Eco-Spirituality
Where does this exploration of and reconceptualisation of a new cosmoecology, an ecological
world view and of “ecological religion” take us? How does this reconceptualisation help us in
the real struggle which we face everyday, to change our individual and collective life style and
actions, so that we may work concretely towards living sustainably and in harmony with the
earth system or oikos?
As a contextual and liberation theologian, I am interested in the rethinking of the
interrelationship between the new creation story, “ecological religion” and eco-spirituality; in
an era of growing interest in progressive spirituality and interspirituality, and sustainable life
styles and practices. The larger “new creation story” and “ecological religion” is the bigger or
“macro” story which is constituted in the dynamic relationships between humanity, the ecology
and the Divine, as these interrelationships evolve throughout the aeons of the “new creation
story”. Such a re-conceptualisation of religion may re-orientate the way in which we relate to
the earth and the cosmos. However, we have to go further and find ways of bringing the “new
creation story” to our daily practice: Eco-spirituality is then the direct consciousness and
experience of the Sacred in the ecology which may serve as a sustained source for
communities’ and individuals’ practical struggle for the healing of the earth’s ecology and for
humanity’s sustainable living from the earth’s resources. It is the consciousness and experience
of the physical-spiritual interconnections between ourselves and the ecology. A fine example of
this movement from an awareness and understanding of the workings of the earth’s ecology to
spirituality and then to action, is that of the Deep Ecology movement, one of the most important
streams in the wider ecological movement. Here the human spirit is understood as the mode of
consciousness in which the individual feels a deep sense of belonging, of connectedness, to the
earth and the cosmos as a whole. This ecological awareness is spiritual in its deepest essence 24.
It also connects a sense of belonging to the earth to practical choices and actions. A specific
eco-spirituality is therefore a smaller (micro) story of the conscious and practical togetherness
of a human being with the rest of the “communion of living beings” and with the Divine. If we
are consciously, mindfully, aware of our connection to the ecology and how each of our actions
directly affect the wellbeing of the whole community of human and other-than-human beings,
we can start to establish lifestyles, practices and cultures which bring us closer to living
sustainably in relation to the earth and its resources.
24 Fritjof Capra. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. (New York: Anchor Books;
1997), 7.
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Spirituality is defined by Anne Carr25 as follows: “Spirituality can be described as the whole of our
deepest religious beliefs, convictions, and patterns of thought, emotion, and behaviour in respect to
what is ultimate, to God. Spirituality is holistic, encompassing our relationships to all of creation – to
others, to society and nature, to work and recreation – in a fundamentally religious orientation”. This
holistic and encompassing definition can be given greater depth by referring to Schneiders’
definition26: “The experience of consciously striving to integrate one’s life in terms of self-
transcendence towards the ultimate value one perceives”. Despite the all-encompassing holism with
which Anne Carr describes spirituality, it is sometimes defined and understood in an anthropocentric
manner, as is the case with most of our religious practices and studies. For example, Kees Waaijman,
in his seminal work, Spirituality: forms, foundations, methods, defines spirituality as follows: “…It
touches the core of our human existence; our relation to the Absolute”27. The object of the study of
spirituality is that of the Divine-human relationship and the transformation that takes place in this
relationship, and this relationship is largely understood in terms of an anthropocentric view of reality.
Although Waaijman’s definition of spirituality, and his tracing of the various schools of spirituality is
fundamentally correct and historical, and although it may be interpreted within an ecological world
view, it places the various traditions of the transformational relation between humanity and the Divine
in a theological, religious, social and cultural context; and not within an understanding and
appreciation of the “new cosmology” as the context in which humanity relates with the Divine and the
“community of living beings”. Spirituality: forms, foundations, methods contains a very good section
on ecospirituality, but it is one short section in a book of nearly a thousand pages. The same can be
said of a book such as Spirituality and mysticism by James A. Wiseman28; which demonstrates this
same ambivalence between definitions of spirituality which can be understood holistically and a
content which deals mostly with the transformational human-Divine relationships in various religious
traditions. In a time of upsurge in the search for spirituality, there is a place for all these aspects of
spirituality. However, I would like to argue that eco-spirituality is a corrective to anthropocentric
understandings of spirituality. It entails a search to “…. Integrate one’s life in terms of self-
transcendence towards the ultimate value one perceives”, to use the definition of Sandra Schneiders,
in relation to the whole cosmos and not only to the human-Divine sphere as it is traditionally
understood. In this sense “the ultimate value one perceives” is the fact that one’s relationship with the
whole ecology and cosmology which is filled with and contained in the presence of the Sacred, is
central to one’s search for wholeness and integrity.
25 Anne Carr. “On Feminist Spirituality”, in (ed.) Conn, J.W. Women’s Spirituality: Resources for Christian
Development. (New York: Paulist Press), 49-58.
26 Sandra M Schneiders. “Spirituality as an Academic Discipline: Foundations and Methods”, in Minding the
Spirit: The Study of Christian Spirituality, ed. Elizabeth A Dreyer and Mark S Burrows. (Baltimore and London:
The John Hopkins University Press, 2005), 5-6.
27 Kees Waaijman. Spirituality: Forms, Foundations, Methods. (Leuven: Peeters; 2002), 1.
28 James A Wiseman. Spirituality and Mysticism - A Global View. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books; 2006) 1-
7.
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This relationship has an outer dimension in terms of one’s interaction with the external ecology of the
earth, but is, especially in contemporary spiritualities, reflected in “….A whole living matrix of
spiritual insight” 29 or what I wish to call an “ecology of the spirit” (as against an ecological
spirituality). The wellbeing of a person is characterised by an energetic flow within the “ecology” or
the holistic interconnectedness of one’s own soul, body and mind; as it relates to the greater ecology.
Some people also speak of the flow of consciousness which pervades human body-mind-spirit, the
ecology of the earth, and the cosmos30. This flow is vital for the wellbeing of a person in relation to
his/her environment. If this connection is disturbed, the wellbeing of a person is adversely affected31.
From Eco-Spirituality to Ecological Activism – the Deep Ecology Cycle
The transformational process brought about by ecospirituality demonstrates a strong interplay
between what Wayne Teasdale32 describes as the two sides of the spiritual journey. “… The
awakening and actualization of who we are in our ultimate being ….. is incomplete unless our
compassion, sensitivity and love are similiarly awakened and actualized in our lives and
relationships”. The inner or the apophatic path into the heart of creation 33 leads to an
expansion of one’s understanding of reality, so that one starts to see the total reality as sacred. A
transformed understanding of the world leads to the outer or kataphatic path; where one’s task
29 Wayne Teasdale. The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions (Novato,
California: New World Library; 1999, 2001), 87.
30 Christian de Quincey in Radical Nature refers to Alfred North Whitehead and others when he argues that
consciousness and sentience evades through all the organisms in the earth’s ecology or Gaia system, and that
these organisms are, in their consciousness, part of the whole animate earth.
31 The relation between nature and human wellbeing can be demonstrated on various levels. The television
series, “The healing power of nature” showed on SABC3 documented the phenomenon of biophilia, or the ways
in which nature can heal people. It is generally accepted that people have the ability to care for and to conserve
nature, but this series demonstrated that it is actually people who are healed by nature.
http://www.tvsa.co.za/mastershowinfo.asp?mastershowid=809 (accessed 25-07-2011). Much research is done in
terms of the benevolent impact that a proximity to nature has for people’s physical and psychological health. For
example, studies have shown that children who are in close contact with nature are able to cope with stress and
have longer spans of attention http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200305/the-healing-power-nature
(accessed 25-07-2011). In “primal” and indigenous cultures, people regarded themselves as part of; and
dependent on the wider community of nature, and engaged in active relationships not only with other people but
with other animals, plants and natural objects, so as to find their place and their wellbeing in a reality where the
human spirit and the spirit in nature were perceived and experienced as part of one larger whole. See David
Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (New York: Vintage
Books, 1997). Also see how this ancient connection between the spirit of humanity and nature is rediscovered,
in an effort to regain post-industrialist people’s wellbeing, in Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries
of Nature and Psyche (Novato, California: New World Library, 2003). Another approach to the essential unity
between a person and the ecology which is required for the wellbeing and actualisation of both a person and of
the ecology of which a person is part; is the movement towards transpersonal ecology, where the Buddhist
notions of no-self and impermanence is applied to argue that a person’s opening-up of the ego towards
ecological awareness and towards the greater ecological whole leads towards the realisation of the wider Self or
the ecological Self. See Warwick Fox, Towards a Transpersonal Ecology: Developing New Foundations for
Environmentalism (Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1990).
32 Teasdale, The mystic heart, 77.
33 Teasdale, The mystic heart, 86.
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is to learn to live on the earth and in the cosmos in a way that honours the Sacred that gives it
life34. An awareness of a whole living network of Divine presence in the natural world and
cosmos leads to (or is sometimes preceded by) a solidarity with the suffering of the earth and its
human and other-than-human creatures35. One only need to think of St Francis’ total openness
to the natural world and to the creatures – whether lepers, his own fragile body, or birds and
wolves – who inhabit it. Ecospirituality therefore has a strong ethical dimension which
naturally flows into action and activism in the context of humanity’s daily exploitation of the
ecology36. I will now explore this further.
How does one explain the movement from an immersion in an ecological world view and eco-
spirituality, to a critical interaction with the current scientific and socio-economic paradigms, to
ecological activism? When answering this question, I again want to refer to the Deep Ecology
philosophy and movement, and what is called the Deep Ecology Cycle37, and relate this to
Teasdale’s explanation of the inner and outer dimensions of spirituality:
Understanding the earth as a total community of living beings in the light of a new cosmology and of
the new creation story implies that one is willing to immerse oneself in nature; and not to dominate
or objectify nature. This immersion leads one to finding one’s connection with nature, towards loving
nature (ecophilia). This deep connection and oneness with nature is the spiritual and even mystical
dimension of Deep Ecology. Here the practitioner of ecospirituality becomes one with the Sacred in
the ecology. This inner transformational experience leads to a deep insight into the functioning of
living beings and ecosystems, or an understanding of the wisdom of nature (ecosophia). This
intimate knowledge of nature changes one’s life orientation from anthropocentric to biocentric . The
inner transformation thus leads to a transformation of one’s outward orientation towards the ecology.
Ecophilia and ecosophia now brings about deep commitment to nature. This orientation and
commitment changes one’s values completely so as to become “eco-values” befitting for one’s
membership of the earth community. It also leads to deep questioning, where one critically analyses
the present relationship between humanity and nature. Such questioning and analysis again
strengthens our ecophilia so that one may develop a deep commitment to the ecology and may be
34 Teasdale, The mystic heart, 91.
35 Teasdale, The mystic heart, 179.
36 Waaijman, Spirituality, 206-207. Also see Hans Kessler, Das Stöhnen der Natur. Plädoyer für eine
Schöpfungspiritualität und Schöpfungsethic, (Düsseldorf: Patmos Verlag, 1990) and K O’Gorman, “Toward the
Cultivation of Ecological Spirituality. The Possibilities of Partnership” Religious Education 87(1992), 606-618.
37 The Deep Ecology Cycle is a short and practical summary of the thought of Arne Naess and has to be seen
against the backdrop of his seminal work, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press; 1989, 2001). I also want to refer to my notes on the course, Soul in Nature, which I attended at the
Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon, England, in May 2006. Our teacher, Dr Stephan Harding, worked
with the Gaia Theory of James Lovelock and the Deep Ecology Cycle to guide us through the course in both a
cognitive and an experiential manner.
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involved in actions of care and justice towards the ecology. This again feeds into the rest of the Deep
Ecology Cycle.
The Story of Tim Wigley
I am now going to present sections of a transcribed interview which I conducted in February 2006
with Tim Wigley of Hogsback38 in the Eastern Cape, in order to test whether this interaction between
eco-spirituality and action; or, in Deep Ecology language, between ecophilia, ecosophia, deep
commitment and deep action; is possible and if it has concrete results in terms of finding a sustainable
way of life in the context of an ecological world view.
The main thing that I am involved with is training for what I call natural farming. … That
is my focus, helping people make this shift... I am working in the villages with the
resources that people have ….
The focus has been very much on looking at the rainfall - what happens when it rains and
what happens with the water, how can we design a system around the home so that we
can maximise keeping that water….Simple things like that, harvesting the water and
covering the soil so that it absorbs more of the water; diversity, seeing that you have a
lot of di!erent things growing which support each other...all looking at how we can work
with nature….We take people into the forest as part of the training. You go into a healthy
environment. You spend the morning in there. You feel how does this forest feel, what
happens to the soil in the forest, what happens when it rains. How does that forest
support the earth…. the trees and the systems of the forest, working together, can make
it nice and rich, even the boulders will be covered with moss and little plants and things;
and people can see what is possible with plants there ….the same principle could apply
around the home, and people can start connecting to that. The principle that I use here
is learning from nature, to make productive, healthy systems that will support us and
keep us healthy.
The response to this approach is small, not everybody does it, and we are working in a
political and economic climate which is working against this approach.
I was brought up a Roman Catholic ….We had a German priest who taught me my
catechism. I respected him a lot. He was an ardent missionary - he converted a gqirha
(witchdoctor) to Christianity. He made her burn everything, all the “equipment” which a
gqirha uses. I was a young child and I remember that this did not feel right to me. She
could become a Christian, but did she have to renounce everything? Was there not value
in what she practised? Surely if people really knew Jesus, they would come to a
community and recognise in that community what was of the spirit of Jesus, and build on
it, and recognise it and enrich it. Look for where God was already present and not
destroy what was already there…. It was this masculine, paternalistic approach, this top-
down approach. It was not only Catholic, it was Christian in general. I felt it in relation to
the land as well. We are very dominating, we look at it like in Genesis, God said to man,
everything… is yours, we can do with it what we like and we are in charge…. Christianity
seemed to encourage domination of the earth, rather than awe and respect for it, and I
felt uncomfortable with it. I admired the spirit of people like St Francis and Hildegard of
Bingen…. We are missing something....So although my roots are still there and I’ll go
38 Annalet van Schalkwyk held interview with Tim Wigley on 30 January 2006.
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back there one day to nurture those roots, and I have a deep respect for Jesus and a
relationship with Jesus, I 3nd myself moving away from church, temporarily, at least, and
I am very drawn to the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, and he developed what he calls
“engaged Buddhism”…. It is so liberating. It is the same thing that what we as Christians
are encouraged to be and to live, but it is a di!erent perspective. It is not “thou shalt
not”, it is mindful of the damage that comes when I do this, mindful of the damage of
exploitation, and therefore sharing my resources….
In Da Vinci’s Last Supper, there is a woman next to Jesus….In a church in France which is
hundreds of years older than Da Vinci’s painting, in a stained glass window, there a
woman next to Jesus. So there is this whole thread of knowledge in the church which is
suppressed, but it recognises the male and the female element. We have got a labyrinth
on the property here, which we see as a strong feminist symbol.
What works for me and what motivates me, is to bring back the balance: To recognise
the sacredness of the earth and to bring back the more feminist approach to spirituality.
More gentle and in touch with the earth….It is recognising the sacredness of creation.
That is strong in the Psalms, recognising the wonder of God in creation, I don’t know why
we’ve lost it.
Everything is sacred, what is not sacred? It is all part of the whole, each part contributes
to the whole and it all works together. Something is not sacred because we like it and we
add value to it. To me there is nothing that is not sacred. It is all part of this amazing web
of life….
I think that I would just go back to what James Lovelock said, of Gaia (the earth) being a
living organism…. My sister is a Catholic nun and she managed to get hold of the video
called “The Global Brain”. And that really blew my mind watching Lovelock saying, this is
how the earth works, it is a living organism, and we as the human beings are the
brain....Brian Swimme says that the kind of motivating force in this whole is love, or
allurement, as he calls it. And that I would call the Holy Spirit or Sophia or whatever you
want to call it. That motivating energy which you can call God if you want to, which
brings this whole amazing thing together. And it is the energy, the thread that runs
through it all. And I do love to see how things work, and what I observe when I look into
nature....we think of nature as this competitiveness and this whole Darwinian theory of
evolution, and the survival of the 3ttest. This is not what I observe. What I observe is this
amazing cooperation ....
Reflection
The beauty of Tim’s story is its simplicity and clarity, encapsulating everything that I have analysed,
defined and discussed, with a simple story of balance – balance between the functioning of the
ecology and the way that people can live sustainably with the ecology, all held in the balance of the
Gaia System, all held within the Sacred, and the Sacred being present within those small energetic
connections which makes the whole system work.
Tim’s dissatisfaction with mainline Christianity because of its patriarchal domination of people and of
the earth, and his intuition that the church is missing something essential, made him go on a journey
of discovery of finding a the less forceful approach of engaged Buddhism and feminist spirituality to
society and the earth. He still had a close relationship with Jesus and a great appreciation of St
Francis’ and Hildegard of Bingen’s earth-friendly spirituality within the Christian tradition. He found
in engaged Buddhism and with figures within Christianity, such as St Francis and Hildegard of
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Bingen, a shift away from patriarchal, dogmatic religion which lead to his own discovery of an
ecological religion and spirituality of gentleness, equality, balance and harmony. There is nothing
forced, nothing dominating, and no judgementalism in this spirituality. Yet it is practical, and
encourages wellbeing and growth. There is consistency in this spiritual search: it seeks the wellbeing
and healing not only for people but also for the earth – and for the relationship between people and the
earth. This spirituality is also viable because it is in balance with a life and work of deep
understanding and commitment to the self-sustaining nature of the ecology.
What is remarkable about this case study is the following: The language that Tim Wigley uses to
explain the interactions between water, soil and the biodiversity of plants and animals of nature with
which he works in natural farming, is very much the same language that he uses to describe the
Sacred as that love which infuses every living organism and the allurement which creates the
connections between living organisms, and which makes the whole ecosystem work to the benefit of
every living creature. Everything is enspirited and is embraced by the Divine, not in a pantheistic, but
rather in a panentheistic manner. When one opens oneself for this reality, it becomes possible to be
part of the ecology, to be deeply aware of it and to live and to work sustainably within the sacred web
of life.
In Conclusion
Tim’s story is one demonstration that it is possible that one’s eco-spirituality may nurture a lifestyle
and practice of sustainability; and vice versa. An absolutely natural interaction between eco-
spirituality and eco-activism can be real and achievable. The purpose of using this story in this article
is of course not to do an empirical study of this unity of spirituality and practice in eco-activists’ lives.
It is rather an in-depth perspective into one exemplary person’s search for an integration of ecological
spirituality and practice of sustainability. Tim Wigley found this integration by understanding the
workings of nature and by helping small farmers by working with nature and not against it. His
description of the natural farming method and of his understanding of the Sacred as being present in
every moment of allurement between the different elements of an ecosystem – also in that ecosystem
of which a natural farmer becomes part - demonstrates the movements between ecophilia, ecosophia
and ecological action in the Deep Ecology Cycle. In a previous publication, I have explored how this
integration of eco-spirituality and practices of sustainability takes place in the lives of a number of
women39. One of the stories is that of Eve Annecke40, the director of the Sustainability Institute near
Stellenbosch. She explained that the root word for “sustainability” is sustinere which means “to hold
from below”. For Eve, there is a clear connection and movement between the concepts
“sustainability”, “ecology” and “ecosystem”, “spirituality”, and sustained action for ecological justice,
just as there is for Tim Wigley. It is indeed spiritual when the interconnectedness of the ecology is
understood and if people learn from the wisdom of nature and work with nature. It is also of socio-
political and economic significance.
This story acts as but one point of reference to a whole movement of people who are deeply
committed to a life of eco-spirituality and eco-activism. Much more needs to be done in terms of this
researcher’s work to explore the spirituality and practice of people similar to Tim Wigley, and to
establish, together with other researchers and practitioners, how larger movements of people who
practice “spiritualities of sustainability” can be mobilised to change the political and economic
structures of a globalised world and to restore the earth’s ecology. The growth of such a movement is
urgent, as the extent of the “man-made” ecological crisis remains sobering.
39 See a previous article by myself in this regard; “Women, Ecofeminist Theology and Sustainability in a Post-
Apartheid South Africa” in Journal of Theology of Southern Africa, 130 (2008), 6-23.
40 Women, Ecofeminist Theology and Sustainability”, 16-17.
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