For most of human history, there were two ways of thinking, speaking and acquiring knowledge about the world: mythos and logos. Both were essential to
comprehending reality; they were not in opposition to one another but complementary modes of arriving at truth, and each had its special area of competence. Mythos was concerned with what was considered timeless . . .        Logos is wholly pragmatic; it is the rational mode of thought that enables human beings to function. It is the basis of our modern society.
Karen Armstrong, Sacred Nature

            Global warming is the latest proof that we have crossed a boundary into a truly apocalyptic age, for we now live in a period when anthropogenic change is overpowering nature and life itself. Human actions have modified the atmosphere, oceans, rivers, weather and wind patterns, and the most durable processes supporting life.

God’s handiwork has been damaged by unrestricted exploitation of fossil fuels in a greed-driven economic system. The prosperity we were told springs from market-driven economics turned out to be a cancer devouring life on Earth for the profit of insatiable elites. Add up the damage and you reach the conclusion, first publicized by Nobel-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, that planet Earth has entered the Anthropocene when deadly human-generated forces are overpowering the life-supporting processes of nature.

            When Crutzen used the term Anthropocene in an article in Nature in January 2002, he was appealing to geologists to recognize that human activity had ended the mild weather of the Holocene (that had lasted for fourteen thousand years) and caused a new geological age. Over the next decade, Crutzen was joined in subsequent articles by another chemist, a biologist, and historians to extend the Anthropocene into a new phase in human and planetary history. The deadly nature of the new age became more notable as a phase called the Great Acceleration since 1945 was discovered in which all the factors degrading life on Earth are multiplying at enormous speeds. Corrective actions to reverse damages of the Anthropocene may surpass human abilities, but humanity can moderate the immediate crisis of the Great Acceleration if a global response is achieved in time to prevent the collapse of the current world order.

            What is the role of spirituality and religion in this catastrophic time? Scientists, engineers, and policymakers are working on the Herculean measures needed to end the Great Acceleration and begin healing damage to the planet. But these efforts will only work if spiritual and religious movements support facing up to planetary danger. Spiritual regeneration is needed if public acceptance of the lifestyle and economic habits that provide the foundation for the Great Acceleration are to be changed.

            The times require a durable Great Awakening that results in transformation rather than burnout following initial success. We do not need a New Reformation or new evangelical wave of conversions or public campaigns that lose momentum and durability in our rapidly changing culture. A genuine transformation is needed.

            Thinking ourselves into new beliefs is not how we usually make deep-seated changes. Evangelicals have long emphasized the importance of conversion as a revelatory and foundation-shaking experience. Similar experiences are called mystical insights or revelations as one is suddenly aware of reality in ways that cannot be described in rational terms. Such experiences can alter one’s inner convictions about what is most important and thereby change the direction of one’s life.

These transformations are best understood in terms of mythos, not logos. Life-changing decisions happen when people wake up to ignored realities and take leaps of faith that become fundamental assumptions of a new style of living. Sometimes personal transformations become the start of movements as groups follow the call of people like Gautama Buddha, Laozi, Confucius, Zoroaster, Jewish prophets, Jesus, Paul, or Mohammed. However, mystical experiences are highly personal and usually cannot become group movements, as with those recounted by Tolstoy and Marcus Borg.

How do we encourage the right kind of Great Awakening for the Anthropocene? First, we must become informed of the crises involved in the Great Acceleration and the Anthropocene along with the social modifications they require. Second, we must encourage new forms of spirituality based on understanding healthier and more sustainable lifestyles. From an emphasis on new forms of spirituality can emerge the insights and personal awakenings that are needed. New foundational beliefs can be defended with logos, but care is needed to avoid theological movements based on precise beliefs and doctrines—which are products of logos—because they tend to favor powers of enforcement to achieve uniformity.

            Therefore, this article is the first in a series that will call attention to current literature on forms of spirituality that are being advocated in response to the Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration. This literature examines the logos driving our industrial, market, and consumer-driven society with its inequities and inequalities—and finds it is based on a mythos that destroys life and spirituality. These books will challenge the values underlying current society and point to new or revived forms of mythos needed to build societies that do not undermine the forces supporting life on Earth.

The literature I will highlight represents the ongoing expansion of the Beloved Community that motivated the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. His vision represented an updating of the Kingdom of God taught by Jesus to deal with social and racial limitations put on God’s love of all humanity. Since King’s death, his vision has been expanded to include environmental justice as an essential aspect of inclusion, equity, and diversity in the Beloved Community. This ever-renewing vision of Beloved Community may yet become the awakening leading to the spiritual transformation needed to overcome the Great Acceleration and the Anthropocene.

Edward G. Simmons is a Vanderbilt Ph.D. who teaches history at Georgia Gwinnett College. He is a Bible scholar, Unitarian Christian, and veteran Sunday School teacher in Presbyterian Churches. He is the author of Talking Back to the Bible and two chapters in The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump: 30 Christian Evangelicals on Justice, Truth, and Moral Integrity edited by Ronald J. Sider. His latest book is Values, Truth, and Spiritual Danger: Progressive Christianity in the Age of Trump. Dr. Simmons is an energetic speaker for education, religious, and civic groups of all ages. He may be contacted at the following email address: egsimmons6@gmail.com.

References:
Armstrong, Karen. Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022).
Crutzen, Paul J. “Geology of Mankind,” Nature, Vol. 451 (January 31, 2002), 23.
McNeill, J.R. and Engelke, Peter. The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 2014).