At just over fifty pages, Gary Gardner's tidy paperback openly engages one of our leading cultural disputes: the mutual distrust between environmentalism and religion. Recognizing that science has gradually replaced religion as the authority on issues of ultimate concern, Gardner sympathetically portrays the particular causes of distrust. At the same time, he asserts that these two communities share common interests and possess complimentary strengths, and would do well to embrace each other.

In acknowledging some of the flash points (like the status of women or conception and birth control), Gardner is quick to point out that complete consensus is not necessary to act. He makes the case that environmentalists and worshipping bodies should decide on common ground and move forward with that agenda, independent of misgivings on other issues. His prescription for religious organizations is to leverage their myriad assets in the service of sustainability. Religious institutions need to be critics of immoral social structures - which include destructive economic systems - while sponsoring prophetic and educational activity. Included in his examples are the witness of Thai monks resisting deforestation, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew convening Adriatic Sea symposia aimed at marine recovery. In addressing environmentalists, Gardner challenges the attitude of cold rationalism that predominates, arguing that humans need to be met at the emotional and spiritual level. The text contends that since religion exists deep within the human psyche, it can activate convictions that empiricism and technology cannot. Gardner also suggests that a whole generation of environmentalists may have been lost to an incomplete reading of Lynn White's 1967 essay critiquing the Judeo-Christian tradition.

With a concluding section entitled “Accelerating Engagement”, the author argues for reuniting our civilization's head and heart (environmentalism and religion). Appealing to the inherent unity of these themes found in writings left by luminaries such as John Muir, Gardner extends an equal measure of challenge to both the environmental and religious communities.

Invoking the Spirit is a clear and readable account of key dynamics pressing humanity as it labors toward a sustainable future. This book will serve both students and teachers, most usefully at the high school and college level -- though a mature middle-schooler could make some sense of it. Its short and balanced sections raise the important themes without wrapping things up too neatly, making it a useful resource in promoting creative global solutions.

review ©2003 Eric Mayer and RSiSS
Westtown School

 

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