Attunement: Living in Harmony with Nature

By Clifford Chalmers Cain and Charles Kimball

We live in a century in which we must either change our way of regarding and acting toward nature or else imperil our survival as a species and jeopardize as well the fate of the planet itself. This book by a theologian and environmental scientist examines four religious figures from European and Asian contexts who could aid us in developing a more sustainable and caring orientation, which would allow us to live more "in tune" with creation: twelfth-century German nun Hildegard of Bingen, thirteenth-century Italian monk and patron saint of ecology Francis of Assisi, nineteenth-century Japanese Zen monk and poet Taigu Ryōkan, and the first pontiff from Latin America, twenty-first-century Pope Francis. By emphasizing our intimate and unavoidable organic connection with the network of all life and our charge to care for and protect it, they point us in the direction of a new paradigm, a healthier perspective, a metanoia--a change of heart, mind, attitude, and action--that would partner what we know about nature (an environmental consciousness) with what we do (an ecological conscience). Our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren deserve at least this much.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Dec 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532641039

Book preview

Permissions

Ryōkan, [When I was a lad,] from Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryōkan, translated by John Stevens, © 1993 by John Stevens. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publiations Inc., Boulder, Colorado, www.shambhala.com.

Ryōkan, excerpts from One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan, translated and introduced by John Stevens, First edition, © 1977. Protected by copyright under the terms of the International Copyright Union. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boulder, Colorado, www.shambhala.com.

Ryōkan, You Do Not Need Many Things, quoted by pseudonymous author Meng-hu in Zen Poetics of Ryokan in Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry, Volume 4, Number 2, Summer 2006. Reprinted by permission.

Ryōkan, excerpts from Great Fool: Zen Master Ryōkan, translated by Ryuichi Abé and Peter Haskel, © 1996. Reprinted by permission granted by the University of Hawai’i Press.

Ryōkan, excerpt from Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryōkan, © 2012 by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boulder, Colorado, www.shambhala.com.

Ryōkan, excerpt from 1,001 Pearls of Wisdom, translated by David Ross, © 2006. Reprinted by permission granted by Chronicle Books.

New Revised Standard Version Bible © 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword

Clifford Chalmers Cain’s latest and timely book is a nonfiction gem. Writing in a compelling, yet accessible, style, he persuasively presents a framework for how human beings can and must relate to the whole of creation. While the importance of his central focus clearly stands the test of time, it is especially relevant in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Cain has achieved something rare in nonfiction. He has provided a crossover book that can and should be discussed, debated, and utilized by a wide variety of audiences. Why is this book so important, timely, and useful?

The attitudes and actions of humans toward the rest of creation have always been a weighty theological and practical issue. Readily visible examples abound in the major and numerous indigenous religious traditions. Laws governing the Sabbath in the Hebrew Bible, for example, focus on rest and renewal not only for the people of Israel, but also for animals and for the land. Fundamental worldviews in various forms of the Hindu traditions posit the one ultimate reality that binds all creation together. Many indigenous traditions affirm humans as inextricably connected with the world we inhabit. I often begin my course on comparative religion at the University of Oklahoma with a wonderfully insightful and thought-provoking chapter from Barre Toelken’s book, Seeing with a Native Eye. The author reports on the holistic ways the Navajo view their place in the world. They value and care for the land and water. And, even when taking of life—as in a deer hunt—they are guided by respect for the animal, including humane killing as the hunter apologizes to the animal for taking its life in order to provide essentials for his family and tribe.

The deep theological roots of an inclusive ecological worldview are highlighted throughout the chapters of this book. Cain identifies ways so many in the West have lost or distorted appropriate human respect for and relationships with creation. In addition to a spiritually or theologically based worldview that can inform human behavior, very real and pressing pragmatic issues must now concern everyone. Domination, exploitation, and abuse of the planet for short-term gains is not only selfish, it is self-destructive. Biologists estimate that between one hundred to two hundred species of plants, insects, birds, and mammals become extinct every single day. This may be as high as one thousand times the natural rate. It is certainly dramatically faster than any other time since dinosaurs were decimated sixty-five million years ago. While all of the medium and long-term consequences of this biodiversity loss are not precisely known, the fact that more than 190 nations have signed the Convention on Biological Diversity, a product of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, underscores the global consensus.

For several decades, scientific evidence has left no doubt about the human behaviors fueling progressively precipitous changes to the climate. Massive use of fossil fuels and deforestation in South America, Indonesia, and elsewhere are among the most obvious contributors to melting polar caps and increasingly destructive weather systems. Conservatively, 95 to 98 percent of scientists who study and track climate-related data are emphatic: Human behaviors are a major contributor to the ever-faster pace of climate change; the potential consequences in the coming decades are many and dire. And yet, there are many political and business leaders—most notably people with vested interests in lucrative products that are major contributors to degrading the climate we all depend upon—who continue to insist that scientists are not agreed or the jury is still out on human causes of the changing climate. Jane Mayer’s superb study, Dark Money, devotes considerable time to tracing how titans in the fossil fuel industries have been effective at changing the narrative from 95 to 98 percent of scientists agree to scientists disagree on human contributions to climate change. Mayer traces how major sources of funding impact political candidates and demonstrable changes easing, or eliminating safeguards put in place through the Environmental Protection Agency.

Caught up in short-term benefits, it appears many Americans (and others) can be easily distracted from the serious and possibly irreversible consequences of failing to address the proverbial elephant in the room. Consider the following analogy: Imagine you or your daughter has recurring and deeply troubling medical symptoms requiring the expertise of highly qualified physicians. You go to a doctor who determines the cause is a life-threatening condition requiring surgery without much delay. You then seek a second opinion and get the same diagnosis. Not quite satisfied, you go to a third doctor for more tests and analysis. After visiting one hundred different doctors, you find that ninety-five to ninety-eight of them are in agreement about the nature of the malady and need for immediate surgical intervention. Who among us—assuming we had the means and/or insurance coverage for the life-saving surgery—would respond by saying: Well, the doctors are not sure, or The jury is still out on whether or not surgery is needed?

The world today is vastly different from previous eras. We live in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world community where the attitudes and actions of human beings toward the rest of creation have global consequences. The environmental challenges we face are not limited by national boundaries; they are challenges for all who inhabit the planet. The 2016 Paris Agreement—an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—brought all countries into a common cause of combatting climate change and adapting to its effects. In 2017, much to the dismay of leaders around the world, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States as a signatory to the Paris Agreement. Through executive orders and Environmental Protection Agency actions lowering standards for scores of regulations, the Trump administration has eroded safeguards implemented to protect our land, air, and water supplies.

Cliff Cain is ideally qualified to engage both the theological and practical issues converging around human attitudes and actions in relation to the environment. He’s a seasoned religious studies teacher-scholar with longstanding interests in and multiple publications about human custodianship of nature. Using the exemplary lives and experiences of four prominent religious figures from different centuries, Cain educates, illuminates, and invites the reader into a perennial conversation that has never been more important. Three of the four people are European Christians; one is an Asian Buddhist. While two figures are very well-known—Saint Francis of Assisi and current Pope Francis—two others—Taigu Ryōkan and Hildegard of Bingen—will be less familiar to many readers.

All readers, I suspect, will be surprised and intrigued as I was by details woven into the narratives of all four figures. A few examples illustrate the point: In the informative chapter on the much beloved Saint Francis of Assisi, Cain creatively connects Francis’s worldview and lifestyle with contemporary dangers of rampant consumerism and avarice that reinforce an I/it relationship to the world. Building on the well-known Canticle to Brother Sun and Sister Moon, Cain develops a compelling case for a theocentric rather than anthropocentric worldview, the latter of which readily leads to the desacralization of nature and increased human ecological degradation.

In the chapter on Taigu Ryōkan, Cain gently educates the reader about key elements of Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist worldviews as he tells the story of this legendary Japanese Buddhist monk. Born in 1758 AD, Ryōkan’s poetry captures both his teachings and exemplary lifestyle enveloped in the natural world. His story is appealing as it also reflects cross-cultural wisdom of living in the present and avoiding the trap that things do not and cannot bring lasting meaning and happiness in this life. Cain explicates classic Buddhist understandings of impermanence even as he identifies striking parallels to teachings of Jesus echoed in Ryōkan’s poetry.

Hildegard of Bingen, the sibyl of the Rhine, is an especially intriguing figure. A woman who was believed to receive and convey messages from God, Hildegard was irrepressible as she challenged the limitations on women who were religious in the male-dominated culture of the twelfth century. A pioneering figure in science, medicine, and music, Hildegard had much to say about human relationships with God’s creation—including language about God’s lordship and motherhood.

The final major chapter focuses on Pope Francis. Cain presents compelling evidence that the first pope from the Americas is the pontiff to the poor and for nature. Reading Pope Francis’s richly documented writings and addresses is both captivating and persuasive. The world’s most visible Christian leader’s cry for awareness resonates like a fire alarm in the night. Impending ecological crises and their most immediate impact on the poor and marginalized demand urgent action by people of faith and goodwill. Cain not only presents the pontiff’s heartfelt admonitions, he deftly shows how Pope Francis is continuing in the traditions of his most recent predecessors—Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI.

The concluding chapter fittingly brings the central themes of the book into sharp focus, making clear that a healthy religious worldview can and must facilitate the transformations needed if we hope to live long into a sustainable future on the only planet we have.

The subject matter and accessible writing style will appeal to several target audiences. This is a wonderful book for various undergraduate religious studies classes—from introductory classes and comparative religion to courses on church history and religion and the environment. Similarly, it will be a valuable resource for seminary and divinity school students. It is an ideal resource for thoughtful adult study classes in churches throughout North America. I believe many book clubs will find Cain’s text an enjoyable read that is certain to stimulate lively discussion extending beyond the theological and practical foci noted above. In short, as various audiences learn and reflect on human interaction with the environment, they will also be rewarded by discovering thought-provoking nuggets lodged in each chapter of this fine book.

Charles Kimball

Presidential Professor and Chair

Religious Studies Department

The University of Oklahoma

Acknowledgments

Special thanks are given to the following persons:

Mr. Jim Tedrick and Mr. Matt Wimer of Cascade Books, for their guidance and patience;

Dr. Charles Kimball, Presidential Professor and Chair of the Religious Studies Department at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, for the foreword;

Dr. Hans Gustafson, Director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Dr. Irene Unger, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of Baker Wetlands at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas;

Dr. Jeffrey L. Richey, Professor of Asian Studies at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky;

Ms. Laura J. Wiltshire, Westminster College Class of 2016, for the beautiful photograph, Mammoth Beauty, on the book’s cover.

Introduction

The late Thomas Berry wrote of the importance of attunement in living with the natural world, that is, of existing in such a way that one’s perspective, values, and actions are in line with the rhythms and cycles of nature. Living in this way means listening to the natural world and allowing its wisdom to inform our actions as humans.¹

Native Americans and other aboriginal peoples informed and directed their lives by living in tune with the natural world. Indeed, their survival depended upon it. Consequently, the hunter-and-gatherer attitude toward nature was one of knowledge and respect, and behavior was consonant with this attitude. Living in harmony became the communal and individual goal. To do so was to live, even thrive. To not do so was to die.

We have lost this sense of attunement today: We see nature as something totally distinct and separate from us humans. The natural world is out there, a place to which we may go or retreat or journey. We don’t think of nature in here, that we are an inextricable part of what Native Americans and others have called the web of life. From their perspective, we did not weave the web; rather, we are merely a strand in it. We are a part of it; it is a part of us.

Beyond this, we have then demoted nature to the status of an object. Nature is a vast storehouse of resources—its sole purpose for existence is to supply what we humans want. Its value is to satisfy human beings. Nature is there for us. So, we can feel confident taking whatever we desire.

Religion, of course, has sometimes endorsed, or has been appealed to in order to sanction, this vision of nature’s role. In the example of Western religions, God made the world, but God made the world for us. God’s mandate is to dominate and subdue (Gen 1), and this apparently gives us the right to do whatever we want to do. Therefore, nature is a commodity to be used; it is not a community with which to relate.

What has resulted is what Berry calls cultural autism.² We live in a way that is separate from (the rest of) the natural world, and we don’t listen to it. Oblivious to nature’s voice and estranged from nature’s touch—somehow believing that we are exempt from nature’s