A Theology for the Earth: The Contributions of Thomas Berry and Bernard Lonergan

CHAPTER TWO: THE INFLUENCE OF WORLD RELIGIONS

CHAPTER TWO THE INFLUENCE OF WORLDRELIGIONS Introduction Berry's professional career, his teaching and much of his scholarly research and writing, was in world religions, especially the religions of India and Asia. (His writings about North American native religions came later and within the context of the ecological crisis.) Within the field of world religions he remained primarily a cultural historian, interested in the ideas and events that shaped human culture . Later, as his concern turned toward the ecological crisis, his focus became a history of nature and of ideas relevant to the humanearth relationship. Berry commonly referred to himself as a "geologian," conveying his notion that his religious reflections were focused on the earth.1 Berry's knowledge of world religions provided him with alternatives to mainline Western notions of human-earth relationships. Furthermore, in terms of methodology, his work in world religions reveals a long-standing concern to make theory and scholarship effectively available to a larger public. There are three identifiable levels at which Berry's writings about the major religions influenced his proposed response to the ecological crisis: (1)the framework, i.e., his motivational project; (2)the general assumptions within which he worked; and (3)the specific insights of 34 A THEOLOGY FOR THE EARTH the religions themselves, especially with regard to the beliefs about and attitudes toward the universe. The General Framework: An Existentialist-Humanist Motivation Berry's study of world religions was motivated by a desire to understand the contemporary world, especially what he perceived as the inadequacy of present religion in answering the existential needs of humankind. In responding to a question about his involvement in the ecological issue, Berry remarked that his study of the Asian religions was part of a wider desire to "maintain a certain independence," "to test how people found meaning," because "the process [modernWestern society] was not working."2 The existential concern with meaning and the conviction that "the process was not working" did indeed show up in all of Berry's writings about world religions (as well as in other writings). Although he studied and taught the Asian languages and translated texts, this kind of scholarship for its own sake was not primarily characteristic of him. Huston Smith said of his own classic work, The Religions of Man: Every attempt has been made to keep scholarship in the foundations , essential to the strength of the structure but out of sight, instead of letting it rise in scaffolding which would obstruct the view of the mansions themselves.3 The same could be said of Berry's writings in world religions. While his scholarship and expertise were apparent, his works were not primarily technical. They were accounts of how various cultures across successive historical periods found meaning in their existential realities . They were not written exclusively for his academic colleagues. In the final chapter of Buddhism, Berry wrote: All the basic spiritual traditions of man are open, clear, direct expressions of the manner in which man has structured his personal and social life in order to give it some higher, transcendent significance. These spiritual disciplines have enabled man to deal with the problemof suffering and eventuallyto attain some kind of liberation from the afflictions that mark his temporal existence.4 In the introduction to The Religions of India, he expressed a similar sentiment in a broader context: The similarity of the human condition throughout the ages is one of the forces that brings together all the spiritual traditions of mankind and enables them to communicate with one another on the most profound level, even in present times. Modern man has become increasingly conscious of the agonies inherent in the human condition... Other peoples, knowing that they could do THE INFLUENCE OFWORLD RELIGIONS 35 little to alter the human condition externally, built up a spiritual capacity to sustain themselves as they worked toward final triumph over this condition... In many ways he [modern man in seeking external control] has only aggravated his life tension while lowering his spiritual capacity to absorbthe afflictions inseparable from his existence as man.5 This latter quotation points not only to Berry's contention of an existential basis for the emergence of the different religions, but also to his interest in modern existential questions. As already mentioned, Berry seemed to have a keen awareness that the modern world was profoundly changing. He saw it to be in crisis, "not working." Hence, his...