People and Planet

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People and Planet – unprecedented change Blog #4

September 2, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

The consistent and persistent theme of my writing for a number of years regardless of what titles were used at different times is as follows.  The goal of these posts is to give a brief overview of developments that have relevance for us in the early 21st century, particularly in seeking solutions for pressing people and planet problems.  This is the primary reason why I have a blog.  Blog #4 will be slightly longer than my typical goal of about 500 words once a week if I can manage it.

I thought that I would reconsider a post that I wrote in June 2008 since it puts in a nutshell where I stand regarding the need for change.  It is slightly edited for timely reasons.  In my limited and humble opinion, it speaks to one of the inventions in history that Tom Doyle wrote about when he described some of the trappings of clericalism.  I am digressing from Rue’s book momentarily to once again emphasize Doyle’s remarks because ultimately they are a part of seeking solutions for pressing --- problems.  The trappings of clericalism extend to the papacy itself.

A Post for NCRcafe: New Search For Ultimate Reality

By Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Vol. 2 No. 1 June 2, 2008

The goal of these posts is to give a brief overview of developments that have relevance for us in the early 21st century, particularly in seeking solutions for pressing people and planet problems.

Greetings café confreres!  New Search For Ultimate Reality has a name change.  It will be called Exit To Entrance.  In these posts I will be attempting to strengthen my claim that in the twenty-first century we are moving from the end of an Axial Age religion to a post- Axial Age faith (for those who consider themselves as faith seekers).  The term, “post-axial age,” is a provisional description.  The journey itself will reveal the nature of this age, also characterizing in time, the name of this age. 

I speak not as a scholar or researcher but as an ordinary laywoman (now retired) with an MS in education, specializing in nursing and health from a well recognized university.  The discipline of nursing relies on an interdisciplinary approach to solve actual and potential health problems.  It is obvious that nursing along with many other disciplines has essential relevance for pressing people and planet solutions to problems. So in these posts I use a variety of sources from researchers, scholars and other experts, employing an integrated approach to strengthen my claim and its rationale.

The following is a quote taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s recent speech to educators during his visit to the United States.  It was put on the Internet by The College of St. Catherine. 

[The following location was taken from the Internet 8-31-10.

Meeting With Catholic Educators

Address Of His Holiness Benedict XVI

Conference Hall of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Thursday, 17 April 2008

The original speech in its entirety is online.]

 “In regard to faculty members at Catholic colleges universities, I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom.  In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you.  Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission; a mission at the heart of the Church's munus docendi and not somehow autonomous or independent of it.” [Munus docendi means, roughly, teaching office].

From my view the above quote expresses the heart of the problem.  With the greatest and most humble respect I say that the papal request itself appears to have an inadvertent inconsistency.  For in fulfilling the Pope’s injunction to pursue the truth “wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you” we need to employ critical thinking skills, scientific knowledge, biblical/historical research and philosophical assessment, especially epistemological (theory of knowledge and justification) and logical examination.  But these tools of academic freedom do seem to lead to positions that contradict the faith and the Church’s teachings.  Thus the Pope’s words leave us with no resolution of the long-standing debate between academic freedom and the munus docendi. 

The resolution must come in the pursuit of truth.  It must take precedence over the teaching office of the Church. The ‘fierce urgency of now’ compels a further extension of the Church’s thinking.  The intellectual tools that enable the pursuit of truth are necessary for both a productive Church-wide discussion -- a discussion that would involve the genuine learning presupposed in the idea of munus docendi -- and for commitments beyond the Church, commitments to the world at large.  Even a review of the relevant Church documents shows that the Vatican itself has changed its thinking regarding its understanding of its teaching authority in contemporary times to keep in step with the intellectual revolutions that academic freedom in the pursuit of truth has achieved.

As the tension between the pursuit of truth and obeying the teaching authority of the Church relaxes, the discrepancy between the results of academic freedom and the teachings of the Church fades.  The result is that we will exit one age and begin another.  Exiting the Axial Age religion known as Christianity, specifically Catholicism, we enter a post-Axial Age faith.  Because of the work of experts in well-developed and emerging fields of scholarly endeavor Homo sapiens has made a giant leap forward in the last 2000 years since the founding of Christianity.  The sciences and other disciplines are converging to show that Christianity had a beginning that now appears to be leading to its ending.  Humanity’s faith in the future as elaborated in Christianity is once again metamorphosing into a new faith -- a post-Axial Age one.  This process is part of our cultural evolution.  Evolutionary theory has preempted the assumed dichotomy between the hypothetical sacred and secular realms.  Sacred and secular reality and truth are one. 

More later.  Marie.  

People and Planet

People and Planet – unprecedented change Blog #3

August 26, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

In case you did not see this post that I responded to for Tom Doyle’s blog, I want to include it here because it gets to the fundamentals of why I have a blog.

8-22-10 I have to respond again to Fr. Tom Doyle’s essay because I think that he’s getting at the heart of some of 21st century Catholicism’s problems.  It surely is an excellent start. 

Esteemed progressive Catholics, we have to go back to the beginning.  If we do that, I think ‘reform’ will become further ‘progression’ and progression will metamorphose like a pupae or a tadpole.  An evolution is occurring.  I think that we are in transition from an Axial Age religion to a post-Axial Age faith phenomenon.  Tom Doyle speaks to some of the inventions in history.

But we need scientific biblical-historical scholarship like the kind Pope Pius XII promulgated because we need to get to the very early issues, as fundamental as the incarnation and resurrection beliefs.  While talking about scientific scholarship we also need to move to the relevant sciences for a twenty-first century faith.  This identifies our belief as a post-Axial Age faith not an Axial Age religion.  This will become more apparent as we study the issues.  I think the evolution is as dramatic an evolution as an ancient polytheistic system being superseded by a monotheistic system.

We also need philosophical reasoning (epistemology) to get to belief, justification and knowledge issues.  And we need other philosophical reasoning such as critical thinking skills and logic.  Catholicism is beset with assumptions that must be challenged.  The synod of the baptized is coming up.  But a conference even more basic is needed in the future for an authentic transformation that is as radical as is required for the evolution that is at stake.

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Now back to my regular blog.

Rue having addressed the central features of human nature in the

Evolution Of Behavior, brings us to chapter 3 The Education Of Emotion.  Human nature is shown by how we came to exist and how we persist.  By way of evolution, complex and interactive behavior mediation (support) systems manage our ability to persist or carry on in meeting the challenges of daily living.  The emotions are vital both to an understanding of human nature as well as to an understanding of religion.  That is why Rue focuses on the emotional systems.

He says that the central importance of emotion studies in academic (scientific) psychology has been recognized only in recent times.  He gives a brief but very important historical summary of the indispensable nature of the emotions.  “Emotion and cognition are now viewed as “partners in the mind.”  Once considered obstacles to reason, the emotions are now considered essential to rationality.”

The emotions are of even more importance to an understanding of religions whether the tradition is Christian, Buddhist, or other traditions.  In fact Rue argues that religious traditions may be seen as schools for educating the emotions.

More later.  Marie

People and Planet

PEOPLE AND PLANET -- unprecedented change Blog #2

August 19, 2010

Marie Schickel Rottschaefer

Retired RN BSN & MS (Nursing Education)

Rue translates ‘psychological and social organization’ as personal wholeness and social coherence.   Spiritual traditions have personal wholeness and social coherence as their foundation and goal as I understand this book.  Rue takes an evolutionary perspective as his infrastructure.  His trajectory is comprehensive from the beginning of the universe to our present doomsday foreboding times.  A significant part of the book demonstrates evolutionary success from the standpoint of physics, chemistry, biology, as well as culturally, religiously, and in other domains.  But in the final pages he speaks of our inclination to fail, -- nevertheless with hope always present.  He brings us to an ironic ending that causes one to look further for a satisfying sequel, either his or elsewhere.  To me, that is a measure of fine reading.

To attempt to answer the question in abbreviated form why the positive, why the negative (?) that I mentioned in my first blog, I will itemize the chapters by including at least one outstanding point he makes in each chapter.   Rue’s book and a preceding book of his called Everybody’s Story – Wising Up To The Epic Of Evolution are for me ‘base camp’ for my publications’ journey.   People and Planet -- unprecedented change, as the title of this blog, and as already stated starts with a book that goes to a situation before the beginning of planet and people.  But before the ‘beginning’ let’s start with his initial remarks.

Introduction: “Edward O. Wilson has rescued the concept of consilience from historical obscurity to characterize the ultimate prize of inquiry: a coherent, unified meshwork of ideas that renders intelligible the full scope of human experience.”

Part 1 ON HUMAN NATURE

Chapter 1 The Epic Of Evolution

He uses Holmes Ralston’s Science and Religion, New York: Random House, 1987 model of cosmic evolution: An Ontological structure/process -> as the vertical line and Historical time -> as the horizontal line.  In ascending order the graph looks like it’s at a 45-degree angle (wavy line outline).

I. Matter: Plasma, Energy Particle, Star, Element, Compound, Crystal, Formational molecule.

II. Life: Informational molecule, Cellular organism, Multicellular organism, Ecosystem, Sentience, Experience.

III. Mind: Thought, Person, Society, World History.

Chapter 2 The Evolution of Behavior

This robust chapter takes us through living systems: molecular, neural, reflex, perceptual, physiological drive, learning/memory, emotional, cognitive, symbolic, various sub-systems, and finally to human nature and the meaning of life.

At the end of the chapter he summarizes the central features of his sketch of human nature.  “ Human beings are star-born, earth-formed creatures endowed by evolutionary processes to seek reproductive fitness under the guidance of biological, psychological, and cultural systems that have been selected for their utility in mediating adaptive behaviors.  Humans maximize their chances for reproductive fitness by managing the complexity of these systems in ways that are conducive to the simultaneous achievement of personal wholeness and social coherence.”

Responding to this difficult challenge is the purpose of spiritual traditions.

Chapter 3 The Education of Emotion

This chapter is a powerful introduction into how effectively and adaptively religious traditions provide for us.

More later.  Marie.

People and Planet

People and Planet -- unprecedented change   Blog #1 August 12, 2010

For many years I have been writing either in print or online about people and planet issues.  I thought it was time to redo some of what I have written and add to it as well.  The writing evolved under a number of titles.  But the goal was to give a brief overview of developments that have relevance for us particularly in seeking solutions for pressing people and planet problems. 

My motivation for doing this was that as a Catholic Christian I felt that I might be of some help to some people in sharing some of my life experiences.  Little did I dream that in the telling, my own religious belief system would change significantly.  My work in nursing and health and my husband’s work as a professor of philosophy gave me an access to reading a variety of sources from books, journals and other resources.  This privilege shaped my goal to work on people and planet issues in a new way.  In responding to Rosemary Radford Ruether’s recent talk that was put online by The Progressive Catholic Voice, I had no idea that I would end up having my own blog!  What a privilege.

When I started writing in 2006 for the online NCRcafe (The National Catholic Reporter), the title of my contribution was a New Search for Ultimate Reality.  The lead question that I posed was: Is Christianity the beginning and the end of humankind’s search for the ultimate meaning of life?  Or, is it a link in the chain of evolution of humanity’s search for Ultimate Reality?  I continued by saying that my intent was to explore what good thinkers are saying.  This does not mean that these thought-providers are infallible (surely not), totally correct necessarily, and certainly not the last word.  No, rather, they take their place with appropriate background and in good faith to contribute to humankind’s search for truth and understanding.  The relevant sources that I give are for anyone who wants to delve deeper into the issues.  Some of these sources can be purchased, borrowed from the library, or found online.  My hope is that those who post in response will opt for a constructive contribution for all readers at large.  We represent some of those seeking solutions for pressing people and planet problems. 

I began as follows.  According to Loyal Rue, Religion is not about God: How spiritual traditions nurture our biological nature and what to expect when they fail (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ: 2005), the Axial Age religions appear to have run their course.  Rue says that the Axial Age began about the 6th century B.C.E.  Its influence is with us to the present.  For now we can speak of it as “the age that transformed the psychological and social organization of the human species.”  As I understand, the Axial Age is one indicator that perhaps Christianity is a link in the chain of evolution of humanity’s search for Ultimate Reality.  Notice Rue speaks of “the age that transformed the psychological and social organization of the human species.” And he speaks of how spiritual traditions nurture our biological nature and what to expect when they fail, in his title.  This captures a major part of his thesis: success and failure.  Why the positive, why the negative?

More later.  Marie.