Richard Rohr references the work of Michael Dowd and Ivey Cone on moving beyond the doom I feel when I reflect on where we are with our planet today. : “A foreboding sense of climate chaos, societal breakdown, and economic and ecological “doom” is now widespread.” How do we deal with this spiritually?
This is what Dowd calls living in a postd00m spirituality. We need to become and be aware that:
“Our inescapable predicament encompasses all aspects of life.• There are aspects of abrupt climate change and global pandemics beyond our control.• Climate chaos is a symptom of ecological overshoot of Earth’s carrying capacity.• Human-centered measures of progress and wellbeing are ecocidal and self-terminating.• Human-centered technology and the market are false gods, creating hell on Earth.• The extinction of rapacious industrial humanity (Homo colossus) is inevitable and necessary.• The extinction of Homo sapiens this century or next cannot be ruled out.”
He has a wealth of “conversations” with “75 different guests [including Richard Rohr] in which they share their personal journeys along this trajectory of post-doom spirituality and especially the gifts they have found on the other side of the post doom doorway. They explore questions of language for taking about this, their stories , how our fundamental human nature is involved, what is “the big picture,” impermanence & death in the midst of this, what gifts they bring to the conversation and world view, what are our remaining opportunities, and finally, what is their understandings & interpretations of the coronavirus pandemic [this discussion point was added in March, 2020, just at the start of the pandemic].
Interesting topics, Very well written and informative. I just started a Richard Rohr book..The Good News According to Luke. When the end of existence does happen there will be nothing to fear or worry about because it will happen quickly and we won’t know what hit us. Some people are afraid of the end of the world as we know it. But why is there fear? I do hope others are reading and enjoying your posts as well.. maybe just to shy to comment!
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