“What we are more less lacking at this moment is a new definition of holiness” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“To cherish what remains of the Earth and foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” – Wendell Berry
I am a retired pastor of the United Church of Christ living in Boulder, Colorado. I would describe my faith as contemplative, universalist and non-dualistic. I seek God in all things and in all spiritual paths. I have decided the best use of my life now is to serve the environmental movement. The late, Thomas Berry, the eco-theologian who called himself a “geologian” because he thought that the mystery we call God is actually the process of the earth, wrote that the environmental movement is “The Great Work” of our time. I agree and feel convicted that I should seek to contribute to this great work. I think one way for me to contribute is to write about my personal journey to find an earth based spirituality, and to explore how to bring earth honoring faith into my Christian tradition and my interest in permaculture, local food and regenerative living.
In this blog I will seek to explore ways of living, gardening and growing food, understanding faith as earth-honoring and doing theology that are regenerative. Honestly, part of my purpose is that I hope through researching and writing I can further my own thinking on these topics. For 30 years I wrote sermons and articles in relation to my work as a pastor. It is the way I learned and grew in my understanding. Through this blog I hope to continue to grow in my understanding of what is true through reading, practicing permaculture, contemplating, listening and writing about the experience. I invite you to read my reflections as I go. I hope there will be some thoughts worth reading.
I have been thinking about his blog for 3 years or so, but the election of Donald Trump convinced me I shouldn’t put it off any longer. The climate action movement is one of most important works of our time and now is not the time to sit on my hands or feel inadequate, it is a time to rise to the occasion and contribute what I can. I hope to contribute to the spiritual underpinning of this movement through sharing my journey of Earth-based spirituality, permaculture and environmentally responsible living. I don’t pretend to have achieved these goals, but am on a journey, seeking to live a more regenerative life.
Pete Terpenning, January 19, 2017
Great start Pete. It feels so right to me to listen for your voice in the wilderness. Keep the posts coming.
Pete, what do you mean by “non-dualist?”
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for reading and responding to my blog. It’s weird to be putting my thoughts out there in cyberspace. But it does start conversations…yay.
Dualism and non-dualism in the theological sense are a way of talking about the nature of God and humans. The dualistic view, which is pretty much the view of orthodox Christianity after the 2nd century, and most of western thought, is that God is utterly separate from the cosmos (or nature). God, in this view, is as outside nature, creating it out of nothing and perhaps intervening, (or not as in the case of Deist view). Humans, as made in the image of God, in this view, are also separate from nature, different from the rest and possible higher. The “dominion” given humans in Genesis, in the dualist view, would give us control of nature and freedom to use it as we please. What we do doesn’t ultimately matter in dualism because humans and God are separate, more important. We can use it up with no ethical consequences. Ethics in dualism usually apply only to interactions with humans.
Non-dualism is pantheism, or panentheism, (or animism) in which God is involved in the cosmos. God is part of nature. In the case of pantheism (long held to be a heresy by orthodox Christianity) God is the same as nature. God is nature, in a sense….this table…is God…this cup, God. Panentheism is more complicated (and you may already know this, so pardon me if you do), it means that God is both part of nature and apart from, or independent of nature. The cosmos, or universe is a process in which God is part and also in some way independent of. I plan to try to write a blog about pantheism and panentheism so that perhaps I will begin to really understand this myself.
In any case, the non-dual theology allows for humans to be part of nature, not somehow superior or separate from the rest of the animals, plants, rocks and things. Native American religion is classically non-dual. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. It is more consistent with the other story of creation in Genesis where God creates the heavens and the earth, animals, plants and humans, all in 6 days, and everything is good….no dominion.
That’s a start. I hope it helps.
Pete
Pete,
I am inspired and nudged by your growth and committens. Thank you.
Love this entry and will be following your blog!
Very thought provoking. I love how you tie together spirituality and science, and I look forward to reading more of these posts in the future.
Thanks, Pete. This is very thought provoking. Dualism predominates in some evangelical religions, but I have heard some evangelists state that dominion should be understood as the need to care for the Earth since it was left in humans’ hands. I was some what heartened by this interpretation.
I look forward to reading more of your blog.
Your writing is entertaining and informative, I’ve learnt a lot from it.