Customer Reviews

The Lost Gospel of the Earth: A Call for Renewing Nature, Spirit and Politics

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This is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It addresses a fundamental question now facing humanity: will we continue to delude ourselves that we are lords of the universe, that the Earth is ours to do with as we please, or will we come to understand and acknowledge our kinship with nature and the Earth, and our utter dependence upon them for our survival? There is a great spiritual division in our society today. One man or woman walks through a redwood forest, and sees the hand of God at work; another walks through the same forest and sees only board-feet. Which viewpoint ultimately wins over the hearts, minds, and allegiance of our species will determine whether or not we survive. Hayden realizes that if we come to understand the "immanence of the divine" in all creation, we can shape the future of politics to protect it. This is very heartening; "Lost Gospel" is not another hand-wringing book which offers us no guidance. By the way, the first reader review is a classic illustration of this chasm between viewpoints. How anyone at all familiar with the environmental record of the former Soviet bloc could confuse todays Greens with yesterday's Reds has me scratching both my green cover and my red, curly head! There is no need to look for an ulterior motive or hidden agenda to explain environmentalist passions. The goal is to save the Earth. Environmentalism is not a means to any other end, be it restriction of private property rights or anything else.

...Well, I read this book and found it very rich ( although not exhaustive ) in its attempt to search out the religious/spiritual sources of our alienation from the earth. Hayden is looking in the right places here; the environmental problem is wholly a spiritual/moral issue. How can we honor the Creator whilst heaping contempt upon Creation? So clear to me; so impossible for others...to see. A great book, Tom!

Tom Hayden's work in this text, while not perfect, illustrates some legitimate concerns about religion's role in the environmental crisis. To discredit this work based on his background or denounce the writing as "sophistry" would be a poor evaluation.

The work is worth reading, and if necessary, refuting based on the content.

There has been a backlash against the environmental movement initiated by corporations that do not want to be regulated. By an immense stroke of luck, they have found allies in the Christian Right. Let's face it. The environmentalists are losing. Wilderness is on the verge of becoming a theme park. Because of pollution, the rates of various types of cancer are rising. Too many good people are silent, and those who are speaking out appeal almost exclusively to utilitarian and scientific reasoning. Unfortunately, this does not affect people at their deep emotional core--as religion can do. Hayden argues persuasively for the greening of Christianity, Buddhism and other religions. He cites St. Francis, Hildegard of Bingen, and the vow of the Bodhisattvas to protect all beings. He calls for a new Martin Luther to "nail a Green Spiritual Manifesto on the vaulted doors of the powerful." He says we should appeal to spirituality, because people ARE spiritual beings.

This book deserves 5 stars based solely on the importance of the subject. Tom Hayden describes three types of relationship that we as humans can have with Nature: dominion, stewardship, or kinship. He correctly concludes that only reestablishing a kinship relationship with Nature offers humans and Earth's other inhabitants any kind of future. In 1982 Paul Shepard published "Nature and Madness" (also Sierra Club)which also pointed a finger at mainstream religion's role in the enviromental crisis. So Hayden's basic thesis in not entirely new.

Tom Hayden (born 1939) is an American social and political activist and politician, known for his involvement in the student anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. He is the former husband of actress Jane Fonda and the father of actor Troy Garity, and served in the California Legislature from 1982-2000. He has written many books, such as The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama, Reunion: A Memoir, Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish America, The Port Huron Statement: The Vision Call of the 1960s Revolution, etc.

He wrote in the Preface to this 1996 book, "I have killed many salmon in my time. I have caught them in many rivers, fought them, bludgeoned them, gutted and mounted them as trophies on my wall. For sport, for pleasure, for dominance. For the assertion of power over wild nature. I was not raised to have spiritual regard for lower orders of life. I have changed now ... And still the salmon swim in their tank, awaiting our response. What will we tell our children when they die? What will we tell God when we pray? To find answers to these questions, I have written this book."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"Over the centuries, we have been offered three spiritual perspectives toward saving ... the natural world as a whole. 'Lords of the Universe.' In this view, we have the God-given right to treat salmon as disposable and, if necessary, to exterminate them in order to extract the maximum beneficial use out of nature... 'Stewards of Nature.' These ... believe that ... nature can be molded to multiple benefits, rather than destroyed... 'Kinship With Nature.' ... a spiritual sense that the earth's creative processes... deserve our reverence." (Pg. xxi-xxii)

"Only when we believe the sacred is present in the living earth will we revere our world again." (Pg. 5)

"And so the battle lines for a new religious debate over nature are being drawn. The Christian Right must be considered the most aggressive and best organized foe. The mainstream denominations are more torpid and distracted by other priorities." (Pg. 71)

"It is the same with the lost gospel. It is there like a koan. We cannot prove with our minds that the earth is alive, or that a sacredness inhabits it. Nor can our selfish egos accept a kinship dependency on nature." (Pg. 182)

"The lost gospel is LOST, after all, not because it was misplaced, but because its vision and visionaries perished and were suppressed." (Pg. 229)

"The lost gospel is an important spiritual anchor against the tendencies to expediency and compromise. As a state senator, I am constantly aware of the temptations of settling only for access... The question is how to succeed without succumbing to success." (Pg. 231

In this book, left-swinger Tom Hayden proves he'll do ANYTHINGto attack the concept of private property. Not that attackingexisting religion (for not being environmentally aware enough) or having the effrontery to propose the ten commandments be modified along lines that suit him better (ah, child of the 60's...) represent anything that far out for Hayden. It is an interesting intellectual exercise, all the same --- just as long as the reader remains aware that in the end any verbal utterance by Tom Hayden is sophistry.