22 minute read
Lent After the Anthropocene
By Rev. Dr. John G. Mathews, priest of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, India
We are living in a decisive period of history where geologists term it as an Anthropocene age. Anthropocene is not a neology rather it has become a hot topic for the last two decades. In simple terms, it conveys a condition of the significant influence of a single species on the planet. In recent times, the Anthropocene has become the broader context and the Covid pandemic the immediate context for human engagements. To address these issues are vital because it unravels the role and vulnerability of human community. Anthropocene depicts the human domination whereas pandemic unravels the human vulnerability and emphasizes the entangled nature of human with the non-human entities. The recent pandemic exposed the deleterious power of a tiny virus creating irrevocable changes in human lives. It not only deciphered the interconnectivities beyond species level but also made our lives constrained with various complications. This forced us to rethink and rediscover new ways to address the current situation. Practices such as wearing mask, social/physical distancing, hand sanitisation have in a way become new rituals in our lives to keep us safe. Thus, it points us to rethink our traditional rituals like spiritual practices to be a means to address multiple issues of the new situation. Through this paper, I discuss the need for refounding lent in an epoch of the Anthropocene. Lent is a spiritual practice of all religions and this has the potential not only to touch the transcendental realm but also to engage in the mundane realities.
After the Anthropocene
Anthropocene takes the central role in many recent studies. It is said that, in the geological time scale we are living in the Anthropocene age where human beings play a decisive role. The term Anthropocene was popularised by Paul Crutzen to distinguish the present age from the Holocene. In 2000, during a meeting at Mexico to a growing frustration of human induced changes in the Holocene, Paul Crutzen said that we are no longer in a Holocene age, rather, in an Anthropocene age. In his article Geology of mankind he writes, “it seems appropriate to assign the term ‘Anthropocene’ to the present, in many ways human-dominated, geological epoch, supplementing the Holocene — the warm period of the past 10–12 millennia. The Anthropocene could be said to have started in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when analyses of air trapped in polar ice showed the beginning of growing global concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane.” 1 He further interconnects the date with the design of the steam engine by James Watt in 1784. There are multiple views regarding the beginning of the Anthropocene age. Some consider a period tracing back to 12,000-15,000 years when agricultural revolution and sedentary human societies occurred, and others claim a time of atomic bombing in 1945. But the suggestion of Crutzen brings more rationale to the term because it connects to the events that accelerated geological changes, i.e., the innovations in industrialisations and radical changes through European Enlightenment. Even though Crutzen emphasized the shift of Holocene to Anthropocene, it took some time for its wider acceptance. More clarity and conformity emanated for the word in the last decade.
Scholars who discussed the decisive role of humans in the creation of Anthropocene narrates that, “the earth, which at a certain moment of its history produced a being that seemed at first more or less insignificant, but became more and more important, this Earth becomes now the pure object of the activity of this totally oversized being, which recognises no limits to himself.”2 Now the oversized being took the central role and objectifies the earth, creating radical changes more than unprecedented ways on the Earth. The human-induced changes brought forth unpredictability on the substrata making it evident the transition of the Holocene to the Anthropocene. Thus, the Anthropocene era is the radical influence of humans on the geological substrata causing uncertainties and irreversible changes. In other words, the earth which is interwoven with a spider like human and their secretions impacts the earth surface with deleterious effects. One of the deleterious effects is the environmental change that became unequivocally huge. The changes impacted all the physical, chemical and biological realms. Some of the major features of the environmental adversities are increase in oxides, hydroxides, widespread pollution, inorganic crystalline compounds, concrete (the signature rock of the anthropocene age), carbon dioxide, mass extinction of species and evolving of many new mutated biological strains. These changes in turn aggravated the global temperature, glacier melting and loss of biodiversity. In recent times, the dominating impacts are permeating to all life systems and it creates huge havoc and contributes to the Sixth Extinction as emphasised by Elizabeth Kolbert.
“After the Anthropocene” is considered because of two reasons, first, the humans who are the dwellers of this planet are facing irrevocable disasters due to the over domination and exploitation of resources, and, Second, to explore the possibilities of how humans can engage in settling the deleterious effects. “After” is not in terms of linear or temporal dimension rather a means to analyse the Anthropocene with critical reflections. The deleterious impacts felt are not only settled by human beings but also by the active interaction of other earthlings. Thus, locating the anthropocene is very vital for every engagement because it deciphers the role of human beings as the major geological force as well as it challenges the centrality and exceptionalism of ‘huMan’. This bio-genetic age is a generative tool to rethink the interaction between human and non-human agents in the planetary level. In sum, “the concept of the Anthropocene is particularly helpful, as it provides a lens to understand (1) the pace at which post-industrial humanity has altered the planet and (2) how bodies are ethically and politically situated within material environments.”3
As aforementioned, at a time of Anthropocene, there is insurmountable havoc all around the world, the recurring axiom that flashes up is, there are no alternatives possible. But the recent Covid pandemic brought us to a new situation where we were forced to adapt new ways of living for survival. We moved from a world of “no alternatives” to a time of “new living”. It created a possibility of how “we” can evolve to live within the new normal. New normal is not a completely new social structure, rather, it is an adaptation to the new living in a new life setting. In this context, many studies have shown that spiritual practices play a pivotal role in bringing dynamic changes in the individual as well as in the community lives. Spiritual practices are crucial for reforming and transforming the vulnerable situations. This can be further explained through two different eastern traditions. Heup Young Kim in his book Theo Dao discusses about Ugŭmch’i phenomenon. For this, he adopts the story of a Korean poet Kim Chi Ha, where he narrates how he used to wonder at some of the fish which were trying to jump over ten big cement stepping-stones placed across the stream. They were attempting to swim upward against the turbulent flow. Some of them moved upward very smoothly depicting mysterious skill. He explains that this happens due to the sin-ki (vital energy) of the fish uniting with the sin-ki of the water. The flow of the water occurs in both the directions at the same time. The yin of the water runs upward whereas the yang runs downward. Thus, the feeble fish aligns with the sin-ki of the water in order to swim upwards. There is a conscious effort of combining the sin-ki of fish with the sin-ki of water. Further, Kim elucidates that in every demonic situation, the aligning of the sin-ki with the opposite current is an option for survival.4
Similarly, Paulos Mar Gregorios, an Eastern Christian theologian discusses the theological anthropology based on Gregory of Nyssa (33-395). In his theologisation, he elaborates extensively on “diastēma” and “metousia”, the words used by Gregory to deduce the continuity and discontinuity between the Creator and the creation. Gregorios posits that diastēma is central to the thoughts of Gregory to depict the discontinuity between the Creator and the creation. According to Gregory, the gap between the Creator and the creation is ontological and epistemological. It is impossible to objectify God or know God as an object. Therefore, diastēma cannot be conceived within space and time. There is no way to comprehend this gap intellectually but only through experience. This does not suggest that human beings have any faculty to comprehend the divine essence. Further, Gregory suggests that God cannot be comprehended but the human beings can apprehend God with some “mystical faculty.” On the other hand, metousia is used for discussing the continuity between the Creator and the creation. It denotes the participation of the creation in the will of the Creator. Creation cannot exist without participating in the will of God. And the creation participates in the energia of God. We participate in the being, goodness, and life which is given to us through the energia of God. It is the energia of God that brings us to life, sustains and leads us in goodness. This is a possibility for humans to interact with the Creator and the creation.5 For this, a conscious exercise is needed and he proposes the need of askēsis or a disciplined spiritual practice.
Both these traditions open an inroad to new living at times of vulnerability. In such instances, human beings possess a unique role to play as the mediator between the Creator and the creation. Feeble fish overcomes the opposing current of water by aligning with the sin-ki of the water. Similarly, at times of vulnerability human beings can overcome the situation by realising the vital energies within them and the cosmos. These vital energies i.e., both cosmic and divine energies can be realised through spiritual practices. Here, the spiritual does not merely allude to a mystical experience rather a participatory union and engagement with the divine energies. As aforementioned, lent is one of the spiritual practices of every religion and there are good reasons to relook with purpose so that it can open multiple ways for engaging in this epoch of Anthropocene.
Refounding of the Lent
Refounding is the process of returning to the original founding of a particular engagement and to respond creatively with radical new ways. Gerald A. Arbuckle references Adolf Nicolas who posits that,” refounding is an invitation to transcend chaos in a double movement: backward to the original emptiness; forward to a new creation.”6 Therefore, refounding of lent pertains to rediscovering it as an important spiritual practice in our present liminality and bringing forth fresh ways of engaging in the chaotic situations. Lent is not a substitute for any particular engagement, rather it is a spiritual practice for which there is no substitute. Every Lenten period is related to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and His salvific plan. It is a means of repentance, reconciliation and renewal. ‘Saumo/Sawma’ is the word for ‘lent’ in Syriac and it means fasting. Lent is always characterised by fasting which is a spiritual exercise. But it is not merely fasting rather more than that. Fasting helps us to discipline ourselves and be conscious about reality. Another nuance of lent originates from its etymological understanding, i.e., lencten which connote to the “spring season,” a time to bloom and blossom. Thus, it possesses multiple nuances. In the book of Genesis, we see the breaking of fast as the transition in the entire creation narrative. Human beings disobey God and this disobedience comes through food and thus the early church emphasised fasting as one of the important spiritual practices. In the Old Testament, especially in Joel 2, Jonah 3, and Esther 4, the people of God observed fasting when they became vulnerable. Similarly, in the New Testament, Jesus affirms the power of fasting when he became vulnerable to the temptations. Thus, from the biblical vantage point, there are many reasons to rethink and rediscover the purpose and power of fasting.
Lent is very significant in the eastern lectionary and the Indian churches who uphold Eastern Christian heritage mainly commemorate five Lenten seasons. They are 25-Day lent remembering the incarnation of Jesus Christ and fulfilment of the promise, the 3-Day lent remembering the repentance of Jonah and the Ninevites, the 50-Day lent remembering life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Apostle’s lent remembering the life and leadership of the Apostles in spreading the gospel and the 15-Day lent remembering the life and witness of Virgin Mary. As aforementioned, lent is a disciplined spiritual practice for a new living at times of transitions and vulnerability. It helps us to co-exist and participate with the vital energies of the cosmos and the divine. But in this current world of scientific explosion, there is a strong feeling of incredulity towards religion. This incredulity towards institutionalised religion culminates in the increased desire for spirituality. Thus, spirituality has attained multiple nuances. Today, spirituality is not only conceptualised in theistic vantage point rather in non-theistic perspective also. According to Rosi Braidotti, in the age of new materialism, spirituality is comprehended as “vitalist materialist spirituality,” and she elucidates it as affirmative and nontheistic in nature, i.e., an affirmation of the rebirth of immanence, joy, or life, as creation.7 It possesses a sense of intimacy with the world, sense of entanglement, sense of multiple forms of ethical accountability, sense of affirmation. This conceptualisation is an extension of the theistic perspective but relegates the role of the Creator from every discourse. Whereas, the Eastern Christian heritage does not contradict the proposal of new materialism but extend it by affirming the presence of the Creator. In this tradition, the roles of the Creator, creation and human beings are affirmatively exhibited. Creator is at a time transcendent as well as immanent. Gregorios describes Creator as distinct as well as in conformity with the creation. According to him, matter is the abode of God. His articulation of presence of God in all matters is not an idea of panentheism but a conceptualisation to experience God within all matters.
This does not exhaust the understanding of God rather provides multiple nuances. By affirming matter as the abode of God, he explicates that the depth and breadth of matter is God and both the transcendence and the immanence can be experienced through matter. Thus, like new materialists the place of matter is reaffirmed. Even though, transcendent manifests through matter, it is always distinct from matter. Further in his conceptualisations, human beings exhibit a mediatory (methorios) or the frontier role between the Creator and the creation. Human beings participate in the energeia of God and not in the ousia. Thus, human becomes the mediator between Creator and creation. Human at a time is creation and creator. A concept similar to Created co-creator of Philip Hefner. The emphasize of Creator, creation and human beings are the thrust of this tradition.
According to this tradition, lent leads us to truth. It leads us to the knowledge of the Creator, creation and human beings. Gregorios emphasizes that, “truth is a quest, not a concept, not an idea or a proposition. … Truth is a state of being rather than a statement of fact.”8 Lent is an experience to comprehend truth. This spiritual transformation does not culminate in the realisation of the truth rather it promotes transformative actions. According to Foucault, spirituality possesses three characteristics. The first characteristic is the transformation of the subject. The second is the ascending or enlightening movement in the subject through spiritual practices which changes the present condition and the status of the subject. And the third characteristic is the effects produced when one gets access to the truth.9 For such an experience, Foucault emphasizes the necessity of conscious efforts by a subject. Lent being a spiritual practice, it is a conscious effort which leads to formation and transformation of the subject and the mundane realities. As every lent is aligned with the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, it forms and transforms our everyday lives. The arrangement of feasts, fasts and lent are classified either as daily practices or yearlong practices. Seven canonical hours of services are arranged according to the special hours on the crucifixion day. Thus, the thrust of such observances is a means to walk with Christ every day, every hour and at every time. Karen Barad, one of the new materialists writes in What Flashes Up: Theological -Political -Scientific fragments, that the Jewish people counts the time/months by the moon. As the Great Lent is a moveable feast, therefore the date of Easter is calculated on the basis of full moon, i.e., first Sunday after the full moon in the month of March or March Equinox. She writes, “in Hebrew the word “month” (Hodesh) is from the same root as “new” (“innovation”) (Hadash): the new moon – which marks the beginning of the month – brings renewal, not mere repetition, but iteration.”10 Any calculation basing on lunar calendar is different from that of Julian and Gregorian calendars, as it brings forth renewal, a new rhythm and the possibilities for change. It provides a discontinuity and a provision for repeated renewals. In addition to that, the first act of the Great Lenten period is the “Service of Reconciliation” or Shubkono. Here, the observants are reminded the need of reconciliation with the Creator, creation and the self before the lent begins. Thus, through the refounding of lent, three aspects are reaffirmed, i.e., reformation, renewal and reconciliation. This refounding caters for further engagements.
Situating the self for a transformative action
Foucault, while analysing the Greco-Roman and Christian traditions, proposes a concept called the “technologies of the self” to understand the human subjects. According to him, the self-care and self-knowledge are related and the fourth century Christianity develops a unique penitent expression of self-knowledge i.e., practice of obedience and contemplation. This gave rise to self-examination and verbalisation of thoughts in an individual. This emphasizes a hermeneutical relationship with oneself and to become the master of the new technology of the self. Lent, the spiritual practice is a technology of the self to understand oneself and to respond creatively to the signs of the time. It is a search, practice and experience for necessary transformations in order to situate oneself. The self is not a “deep self” as comprehended by western rationality rather it is the entangled self. At a time of the Anthropocene and advanced capitalism where transhumanist technologies are all set to transport biological brain to non-biological substratum and attain posthuman condition, lent situates the self to the politics of the location. Thus, this spiritual practice embellishes the realisation of the self as an interconnected, embedded, embodied and intertwined assemblage.
Situating the self is very vital for the transformative actions in the Anthropocene age. Self as the entangled assemblage proposes the complexities of the human composite. We are not mere entities rather an activity who can mediate within multiplicities. But, with the development of modern science, there took a repositioning of human beings as the measure of all things. This approach disfigured the planetary scope of human beings. The Eastern Christian tradition highlights human goodness and oneness of humanity without negating or undervaluing the rest of creation. Gregory of Nyssa considered human beings as cosmic in nature and as an intermediary between God and the creation. This caters the space for transformative actions. Basing on the thought habits of Gregory, Gregorios posits that the
essential nature of humanity is “to enjoy the created world and the uncreated energies of the Creator at the same time”11 This is contrary to the modern version of human as the sole master of the creation. Enjoying the creation without disfiguring and participating in the energeia of God enhances a planetary scope for transformative actions. Lent is a technology of the self, which equips the human beings to locate within the creation and to participate in the energeia of God which brings forth transformations in the vulnerable situations. Like the feeble fish in Ugŭmch’i phenomenon, participating in the energeia of God equips the human beings to navigate against the current and become the agents of transformation.
Co-existing within the New Community
In this Anthropocene age, lent is also a call for reinventing and reconfiguring a new community. Donna Haraway in her book Staying with the Trouble, discusses the opportunities and responsibilities endowed with the times of trouble. For her, it is a time for kin making. She writes, “staying with the trouble requires learning to be truly present, not as a vanishing pivot between awful or Edenic pasts and apocalyptic or salvific futures, but as mortal critters entwined in myriad unfinished configuration of places, times, matters, meanings.”12 As Haraway propose, staying with the trouble is a means to be truly present by discerning the signs of the time. The Anthropocene and the pandemic have become a context for everyone to be truly present which energises us to reconfigure our connections and engage in kin making. It is a time to be truly “living” in the present. Spiritual practices equip and revitalizes every individual to respond to the time. Lent is not merely a mystical experience of an individual rather it is a ‘participatory union’ in and with the divine. This is the thrust of the Eastern heritage and Gregorios reiterates on the participation of the individual with the energeia of God through spiritual practices.13
Participating in the energeia of God can be witnessed at times of vulnerabilities. During the pandemic, many reacted spontaneously rather than rationally. Many a times, the modern man respond and deliberate in a rational way but pandemic made the emotions and instincts surpass the rational nature. Similarly, in the Anthropocene epoch human beings need to be very conscious about the context and should respond by discerning the planetary signs. Renewal of the connections is a means to address many unforeseen catastrophes of the Anthropocene. Fritjof Capra emphasizes the maintenance of web of life through spiritual practices. The Eastern tradition highlights lent as a time of honing our instincts and training our emotions so that we engage in cultivating true Christian responses to the immediate context. It is a period for abandoning ignorance, lust, harmful thoughts and imbibing forgiveness, self-denial and good works.
Re-enchanting the earth
The embedded, embodied, interconnected and transversal nature enables the human beings to explore new hermeneutics of engagement. These natures help the humans to co-exist with the non-humans of both the organic and the inorganic. The modern scientific leap created disenchantment and it needs to be recovered through re-enactment. The present vulnerability through the Anthropocene should equip us “to stay with the trouble of living and dying in response-ability on a damaged earth.”14 Therefore, Haraway emphasizes on sympoiesis rather than autopoiesis which will enable the human to participate in the ongoingness which is both continuous and discontinuous. Here, the proposal by Haraway is a possibility of bringing surprises in the ongoingness. This postulation ensemble the re-enchantment in the ongoingness.
11 Gregorios, Cosmic Man, 225. 12 Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016), 1. 13 Paulos Mar Gregorios, The Human Presence: Ecological Spirituality and the Age of the Spirit (Amity, New York: Amity House, 1987),92. 14 Donna Haraway, “Chthulucene,” in Connected-ness: An Incomplete Encyclopaedia of the Anthropocene (Denmark: Strandberg Publishing, 2020),101.
Eastern Christian tradition considers liturgical life or spiritual practices as important factors in the scientific and technologically empowered world. Gregorios always asserted for a balanced combination of these two streams, a sympoietic participation to understand the reality and truth. But at the same time, he was significantly much concerned about the ways in which European Enlightenment has reduced science and technology into a sphere of mere rational thinking and a means of dethroning God. Therefore, he proposes the need to focus on the element of mystery which is more sacramental and beyond the Western sense of sacrament. According to him, mystery means “rising above the dimension open to our senses, into participation in a transcendent community where communion with the transcendent is experienced historically through the liturgical action of the transcendent in the community, by word and deed, by sign and symbol, by body and soul as well as by mind and spirit.”15 Here, he theorizes that the liturgical action of a situated community in history is to experience the communion with the transcendent by interlinking to the mundane realm. In this engagement, there is a possibility to develop a reverent-receptive attitude. The reverent-receptive attitude is “being open to fundamental reality as it manifests itself to us through visible, audible, sensible realities in creation.”16 By holding mystery and mastery together as well as attaining reverent-receptive attitude will provide the space for re-enchanting the earth in the Anthropocene age.
Conclusion
Lent is a spiritual practice which focus both the transcendent and immanent realms. It is a technology of the self to attain the realisation of the truth, thus prospering towards the transformation of the self as well as the community. Re-founding of the lent is the necessity of the hour which will focus on the founding principles such as reformation, renewal and reconciliation. This technology of the self enables the human beings to live in the present by engaging in kin making. Kin making is a powerful source of re-enchantment in the Anthropocene age. It enables each one to situate their self within the politics of the location as well as to co-exist with other critters. Human beings perform a mediatory role between the Creator and the creation, and lent provides the source for such performance. Therefore, in the present vulnerable situations, the lent cannot be overlooked rather should be considered with utmost importance for refounding it. As the feeble fish in Ugŭmch’i phenomenon, human beings need to inculcate the power of aligning the sin-ki with the opposing current as well as enjoy the freedom of participating in the energeia of God. Gregorios proposes a spirituality for the technologically ubiquitous milieu, basing “on prayer, meditation, worship, and sacramental life; on loving service and unostentatious self-sacrifice, on humility and graciousness; on overcoming acquisitiveness and aggressiveness; on transparency to each other and to the transcendence.” Such a spirituality is befitting for the Anthropocene age, and embodying the same will in turn become the transformative spiritual practices for the vulnerable situations.
Rev. Dr. John G. Mathews received his PhD from Yonsei University, South Korea. He can be contacted at johngachen@gmail.com
