The Tao of Liberation: Exploring the Ecology of Transformation

by Mark Hathaway, Leonardo Boff

Overview

Today, humanity stands at an historic crossroads. Deepening poverty and accelerating ecological destruction challenge us to act with wisdom and maturity: How can we move toward a future where meaning, hope, and beauty can truly flourish?
Drawing on insights from economics, psychology, science, and spirituality, The Tao of Liberation seeks wisdom leading to authentic liberation a path toward ever-greater communion, diversity, and creativity for the Earth community. It describes this wisdom using the Chinese word Tao both a way leading to harmony and the unfolding process of the cosmos itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781570758416
Publisher:	Orbis Books
Publication date:	11/28/2009
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Mark Hathaway is an adult educator who researches and writes about the interconnections between ecology, economics, social justice, spirituality, and cosmology. He is an ecumenical eco-justice activist who has studied math, physics, spirituality, and transformative education.
Leonardo Boff is Brazil's best-known theologian, author of more than sixty books on liberation theology, ecology, and spirituality including Ecology and Liberation and Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. In 2001 he received the prestigious Right Livelihood Award.

Table of Contents

Foreword xiii

About the Tao Te Ching xxi

Prologue xxiii

1 Seeking Wisdom in a Time of Crisis 1

The Crisis of the Earth: A Cosmic Perspective 4

The Search for Wisdom 7

Exploring the Obstacles 8

Delving Deeper: Cosmology and Liberation 10

The Ecology of Transformation 10

Part I Exploring The Obstacles

2 Unmasking a Pathological System 15

Cancerous Growth 22

Distorted Development 33

Corporate Rule 40

Parasitic Finance 45

Monoculture of the Mind 50

Power as Domination 53

From Pathology to Health 55

3 Beyond Domination 62

Deep Ecology 63

Ecofeminism 67

The Origins of Patriarchy and Anthropocentrism 69

Global Capitalism: An Androcentric System 74

Reconstructing Power 81

4 Overcoming Paralysis: Renewing the Psyche 86

The Dynamics of Powerlessness 88

Systemic Reinforcements 96

Delving Deeper: Perspectives from Ecopsychology 105

From Paralysis to Reconnection 117

Part 2 Cosmology And Liberation

5 Rediscovering Cosmology 129

Traditional Cosmologies 131

The Loss of Cosmology in the West 134

Cosmology and Transformation 137

6 The Cosmology of Domination 141

From Organism to Machine: The Death of the Living Cosmos 144

Reducing the Whole to Parts: Atomic Materialism 148

Subduing Nature: The Quest for Control 151

Eternity, Determinism, and the Loss of Purpose 155

Private Gain, Progress, and the Survival of the Fittest 158

A Cosmology of Exploitation and Despair 162

Moving beyond Mechanism 165

7 Transcending Matter: The Holistic Microcosm 168

Thinglessness 172

Radical Relationality 177

The Pregnant Void 180

The Immanence of Mind 182

The Holographic Cosmos 187

Quantum Holism192

8 Complexity, Chaos, and Creativity 195

Exploring Systems Theory 199

The Emergence of Creativity and Mind 205

Complexity and Transformation 210

9 Memory, Morphic Resonance, and Emergence 218

The Reverberations of Memory 222

Beyond Genetic Determinism 229

From Eternal Laws to Evolving Habits 235

Creativity and Change 240

Morphic Resonance and Transformative Praxis 243

10 The Cosmos as Revelation 246

Cosmogenesis 249

The Unfolding of Life 253

Gaia: The Living Earth 261

A Sense of Purpose 271

The Wisdom of the Cosmos 278

Reinventing the Human 289

The Earth Charter as a Common Framework 298

Part 3 The Tao Of Liberation

11 Spirituality for an Ecozoic Era 309

Understanding Spirituality 311

Ecology, Spirituality, and the Christian Tradition 317

The Role of Religions 335

12 The Ecology of Transformation 343

Conceiving a New Vision 351

A Fourfold Path toward Liberation 369

Continuing the Journey 392

References 393

Additional Reading 402

Index 404

What People are Saying About This

Mary Evelyn Tucker

"There is no other book that has so carefully identified the new cosmology of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme as a liberating context for a sustainable future. This is a masterful and important work."--(Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D., Co-Director of the Forum on Religion and Ecology, Yale University and author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase)

Elizabeth May

"I love this book. Its inspiration lives up to its ambition - leading the reader through some of the most complex issues of our age (from globalization and the current recession to climate change and loss of species) while illuminating a path forward through religion and spirituality. Having had the great privilege of serving on the Earth Charter Commission with Leonardo Boff, it was not a new idea that our values and our faith have immediate relevance to the current interlocking web of crises in which we find ourselves. Together he and Mark Hathaway have written a transcendent work of eco-liberation and planetary survival."--(Elizabeth May, O.C., Leader, Green Party of Canada)

Brian Swimme

"The Tao of Liberation is a path-breaking book. It brings together the insights of cosmology, ecology, and spirituality in a fresh and powerful way. With their creative collaboration, Mark Hathaway and Leonardo Boff offer us a remarkable new synthesis which will surely becoming an enduring classic."--(Brian Swimme, Ph.D., Director, Center for the Story of the Universe, California Institute of Integral Studies and author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos and co-author of The Universe Story)

Editorial Reviews

Hathaway (South America program coordinator, United Church of Canada) and prolific author and theologian Boff (Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor) offer an exhaustive study of the world's current economic and ecological sicknesses and present possible ways forward. Inspired by, but by no means limited to, the ancient Tao Te Ching's vision of cosmic balance, the authors urge us to attempt to overcome the idea of domination, and even the limitations of material thinking, to be able to understand the world itself as a form of revelation. Whether the world is ready for the purity and intensity of their vision of transformation is another question, but the reader's journey to their conclusions promises to be heady. VERDICT An intense and intensely idealistic blueprint for transformation of the world's economy and soul. Recommended for a general readership.

Library Journal