In Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth (Second Edition), Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, has edited a book that our existentially disconnected modern-world vitally needs to read. Vaughan-Lee is the founder of the Golden Sufi Center in northern California, and recently his teachings and writings are focusing on our spiritual responsibility to act within our world filled systemic crises. Vaughan-Lee brings together a truly world-class collection of voices to address the needed recognition that our ecological crisis has a deep spiritual dimension at its root. If you are a devout scientist and technocrat who believes our contemporary human problems can all be solved through better policies, education, and technologies, then this book is definitely not for you! However, if you would like to explore the deeper moral and spiritual aspects that permeate the depths of our sociocultural systems, which are the true cause of our multitude of global crises, then this book is well worth your read.
The collective argument of this edited book is that if we do not address the spiritual crisis of our modern, materialistic ways of life, we will not be able to do the actual healing needed to resacralize our world, our social relationships, and our relationship with the Earth. In this second edition, Vaughan-Lee’s call to address the moral and spiritual elements of our path of self-destruction is bolstered by Pope Francis’ recent encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. Vaughan-Lee uses the Pope’s leadership in this realm to support his own argument and the book’s validity.
One of the strongest attributes of this book is its draw on a diverse pool of scholars, writers, and leaders, which represent a cross-cultural and multi-faith approach to addressing the need for a spiritual ecology to complement and balance modern Western culture’s bias towards the scientific imperative and “rational” thinking and analysis.
One particular area of Vaughan-Lee’s writing that I do not agree with, and wish more of us would reflect upon more critically, is the perpetuation of the female gendering of nature. Buried within the moral and spiritual crisis that is responsible for our contemporary human problems is the logic of dualism that perpetuates hierarchical binary gender stereotypes. When we refer to nature as “Her” we are unintentionally colluding in the reification of the power dynamics used to dominate the more-than-human world. I’m offering this specific critique in the spirit of a generative dialogue, and do not want this to be taken as a significant blow to Vaughan-Lee’s vital work, but I do believe it will need to be addressed in the next edition of this valuable text.
I’ve worked as an outdoor adventure leader for over twenty-five years, which has given me a unique look into how we Westerners view and interact with nature and the more-than-human world. I have Bachelor of Science degrees in psychology and anthropology, a MA in Transformative Leadership, working on a PhD in Transformative Studies, and facilitate learning about leadership at the University level as well as in the private sector. I’ve recently developed a course in Spiritual Ecology and Transformative Leadership, and will be utilizing this book of Vaughan-Lee’s as the main text. I strongly recommend this book to anyone wanting to deepen and broaden their understandings about the deeper causes of our contemporary human problems.
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