Christopher White, “Seed-Root-Tree-Branch: Baha’i Perspectives on Human Oneness and Ecological Interconnection”

How have contemporary ideas about nature and ecology been structured by Christian theological concepts—and how do the Bahá’í teachings offer new ways to think about nature, humanity and our ecological crisis?  In this paper I begin with recent literature that links Christian theological concepts to forms of domination and power.  A number of scholars have pointed to problems with western Christian notions of sin, the sinful body and salvation, connecting this framework to a kind of “dominionist” theology that generates different hierarchical relationships: humans must dominate their sinful bodies, men must dominate women, one race must dominate others, and people must dominate nature and its lifeforms.  Many scholars are writing about these ideas and their interlocking circles of power and domination. One problem with these ideas is that they have caused us to dominate rather than engage with nature in respectful, sustainable ways. 

In this paper I argue that the Bahá’í approach offers a new alternative. The Faith offers a unique position on the nature of physical reality as something that is characterized by interconnection and unity—interconnection that links reality through its different levels, from minerals to plants, animals, and humans. Another set of metaphors for this, often used in the Writings, has to do with the connections between seeds, roots, trees and branches. In this talk I want to explore these metaphors and the ways they pull reality together into an interconnected, developing web that emanates from God’s reality. I hope to engage the audience in a discussion of several passages that raise these issues from Some Answered Questions and other sources.

Chris White is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Vassar College.  He teaches and writes about religion, spirituality, science, technology, and media in the U.S. during the last century.  He has published articles on these subjects and has written two books — Unsettled Minds: Psychology and the American Search for Spiritual Assurance (University of California Press) and Other Worlds: Spirituality and the Search for Invisible Dimensions (Harvard University Press), which won a best book prize in science and religion from the International Society for Science and Religion.