A illustration of Origen. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
‘The challenge to faith rooted in experience is processing concepts that transcend any individual.’
What has Origen, a third century Christian mystic, got to do with the climate emergency? Or, for that matter, with the Quaker Testimony of Sustainability? Martyn Kelly looks at the ancient practice of Lectio Divina
Sustainability and the climate emergency seem like obvious bedfellows but how, within the ever-fluctuating meta-Venn diagrams that encapsulate modern life, does Origen fit into the picture?
Take a step back. Start with the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impacts of global warming. It is a huge and tightly reasoned document so feel free, if you prefer, to jump straight to the twenty-four-page summary for policymakers. The evidence it presents is compelling and wide-ranging. As a result, no scientist can claim expert insight into every claim, although they can be respectful, knowing that the work is rooted in peer-reviewed research (even if it is not from their own discipline) and recognising that the authors, too, are honest about the confidence that should be attached to each assertion.
This is science but it is also, in a way, eschatology – that part of theology concerned with the end of days. That takes us back almost a thousand years before Origen, when the Old Testament prophets were writing their predictions on the fate of Israel and Judah, threatened by the Assyrian and Babylonian empires. Isaiah, Jeremiah and the other prophetic writings of the Bible are, in parts, alarming to read but that was because their purpose was to urge change while change was still possible. And therein lies the link between Origen and the IPCC report.
It is in the writings of Origen that we find the early foundations of the practice of Lectio Divina, the meditative reading of scripture that became, over the following centuries, a core practice, particularly among monastics but also within the wider Christian community. In a letter to Gregory of Neocaesarea Origen wrote: ‘[W]hen you devote yourself to the divine reading… seek the meaning of the divine words which is hidden from most people.’ Origen believed that God – the word – was incarnate in the Bible and it could therefore touch and teach readers and hearers. He taught that reading it reflectively (and prayerfully) could help us move beyond elementary thoughts and discover a higher wisdom.
The challenge to a denomination whose faith is rooted in experience rather than divine revelation is how we process concepts, such as climate change, that transcend any individual’s experience. Secular scientific reports such as those from the IPCC offer a distillation of objective evidence from a far greater range of situations than any one of us is likely to encounter, and so constitute a form of secular ‘revelation’, making them subjects ripe for Lectio Divina.
Reading the IPCC reports with this specific meditative approach leads, perhaps naturally, to the contemplation of an appropriate response. Some of the changes that are required are structural and, as such, require engagement with the political process (and the time is ripe, with rumours of a general election in the offing). But there is space, too, for us to reflect on individual responses. The broadscale predictions of the report can each be unpacked into lifestyle choices – in diet, in travel and more – where a Quaker or any other person of faith may find opportunities for fruitful reflection.
Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. But modern practitioners add a fifth step: act, or ‘go and do likewise’. Jan Johnson, who in Meeting God in Scripture comes up with ‘a hands‐on guide to Lectio Divina’, adds two others: silencio (relax and refocus) and incarnatio (trying it on).
The considered, carefully-weighted arguments of the IPCC summary report are, in my opinion, an appropriate starting point for this secular Lectio Divina. More so, perhaps, than the writings of campaigning journalists like George Monbiot. These certainly have their place but at this point in time the IPCC represents the scientific magisterium and deserves respect over any single opinion, however exalted. Lectio Divina offers us the opportunity to link the climate emergency to a whole range of spiritual traditions, not least confession and repentance. Through this process, we can be honest with ourselves, and start the process of renewal.
I’d like to finish with an extract from Quaker faith & practice (29:13). It could itself be a starting point for this process.
The truth is that we are all hurt and need healing. There is a spiritual poverty among both rich and poor… If we are to be whole, we can no longer ignore the divisions created by idolising wealth, success and power.
The 2018 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C can be found at: www.ipcc.ch/sr15.
