Green History of Religion

the long version

Book review by John B. Cobb. Jr. on Green History of Religion by pastorveeraraj (WorldCat user published 2010-01-29) Permalink Green History of Religion, by Anand Veeraraj (Centre for Contemporary Christianity, 2006), 295 pp, Hardcover $35; Paperback $25. Reviewed by John B. Cobb, Jr. This is a truly groundbreaking book! Despite all our talk of overcoming dualism, our historical and system­atic accounts of the history of religion rarely take the relation of human beings and their natural environ­ment seriously into account. Veeraraj devotes several chapters to recent interpretations of what Jaspers calls the Axial Age to show how oblivious most of them are to the natural world. I myself certainly ignored nature in my account until I was educated by Veeraraj through working with him on his dissertation. That experience was revelatory for me. This book is a further outcome of the research he did for his dissertation. Taking the changing relation of human beings to their natural environment into account deeply transforms the understanding of the history of religion. Veera­raj does not merely note that all the axial or higher religions express alienation from nature, he provides a rich historical analysis of why this is so. Focusing on Mesopotamia, he traces the changing experience of the natural context from hunters and gatherers, through archaic agrarians and the first cities, to the rise of imperialism in the context of which the axial religions were born. Objectively the relation to nature changed, and subjectively this registered in religious sensibility and doctrine. Once this is pointed out, it is hard to question. A green history requires the author to draw on many fields of knowledge. Veeraraj had done so responsi­bly, but he can claim no expertise in most of them. Breaking ground in this way invites the participation of many with greater specialized knowledge in such fields as the history of climate change and its effects on population movements and agriculture. No doubt the details of his history will need revision as research continues, but I suspect that the basic account and the associated theses will survive criticism. Whether they will be internalized by students of religion in this deeply dualistic culture remains to be seen. I hope that scholars influenced by process thought will not be resistant to greening their historical perspective. At one point Veeraraj was inclined to blame the axial religions, and especially Christianity, for the degrada­tion of the Earth. The picture he now gives is more nuanced. The alienation of human beings from nature was caused, not by the axial religions, but by the actual human condition under imperial rule. The axial religions reflected this alienation and even transmitted it to peoples whose historical situation was different. The role of these religions, including Christianity, has thus been destructive in relation to the natural environment. Nevertheless, Veeraraj appreciates their positive contributions to human self-understanding and morality and that they also contain and can de­velop a different understanding of the natural world. It is their transformation and not their destruction for which he now calls. One of the many suggestive ideas he develops is that Egyptian religion, despite its imperial context, expressed a much more positive relation to nature. He sees this as resulting from the behavior of the Nile which annually renewed the land. The Egyptian expe­rience was very different from that in Mesopotamia, where irrigation required immense labor and resulted over time in diminishing yields. This difference of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian experience points to the need for far more work. Veeraraj has truly broken new ground. The project has been well begun, but there is much more to do. Although Veeraraj is an Indian and his book is published in India, he does not discuss the rise of axial religions in India. There are also Persia and China to be consid­ered, as well as other imperial contexts in which axial religions did not arise. These limitations are appropriate to breaking new ground. This book is an invita­tion for many others to take on parallel projects. Veeraraj^'s deepest concern is not the past but the present and the future. How can religion become a contributor to the healing of the Earth and sustainable hu­man living within it? He deals briefly with this in the end. the Earth and sustainable hu­man living within it? He deals briefly with this in the end. His passion for the present and future is shown by the book jacket. The back flap announces that all profits from sale of the book will support a program of supplying sun ovens to Indi­ans for whom acquiring fuel is crucial to livelihood. My fear is that American academia will not take seriously a book that so directly promotes a critical social cause. So much the worse for academia.