​Art for Ecological Civilization

evocations of hope in a time of need
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Our times necessitate and invite a way of living together, a new and different kind of civilization, in which people live with respect and care for one another and the larger web of life.  Those of us in the process world call it Ecological Civilization.  In Laudato Si, Pope Francis calls it integral ecology.  The Earth Charter calls it living with respect and care for the Earth Community.  This new way of living together is about how we treat the more than human world and how we treat one another.  The new way is incarnate in healthy family life and healthy agriculture, whole person education and education for a whole planet, a politics of love and a politics of sustainability.  At the Cobb Institute we sometimes speak of four hopes, four guiding ideals, that can inspire our lives today: whole persons, whole communities, a whole planet, and holistic thinking.  An Ecological Civilization is about all four hopes. 

We can contribute the emergence of this kind of civilization in many ways: as a small business owners, public policy makers, parents, poets, farmers. and, as illustrated below, artists.   The art offered below is illustrative.  All the images and the song evoke hope in our time of need and provide glimpses of the four hopes actualized.  The first set of images comes from the Ministry of the Arts (MOTA) of the the Congregation of Saint Joseph in LaGrange Park, Illinois, USA, and is dedicated to the evocation of the values of Laudato Si.  The second comes from Susannah Stubbs, elementary school teacher and artist in residence at Open Horizons.  Its aim is to introduce a process understanding of the world.  And the third, a video and a song ("The Solstice") was created by Hope Montgomery, musician in residence at Open Horizons.  She introduces the process understanding of God and, through her song, the idea that we can indeed live from hope.
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- John Cobb and Jay McDaniel
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Civilization

Civilization@Mary Southard, www.ministryofthearts.org. used with permission

​Civilization Transforming into Peace

Civilization Transforming into Peace@Mary Southard, www.ministryofthearts.org. used with permission

Butterfly Garden
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Pat Willems@Butterfly Garden. www.ministryofthearts.org. used with permission

Children

Children 5@Pat Willems, www.ministryofthearts.org. used with permission

Bright Wings
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Bright Wings@Mary Southard. www.ministryofthearts.org. used with permission

Introducing Process Theology

images created by Susannah Stubbs,
artist in residence, Open Horizons
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God

created and narrated by Hope Montgomery
Musician in Residence, Open Horizons

The Challenge, the Urgency,
​& the Most Precious Gift

from David Korten's essay on Ecological Civilization

The Urgency

The current scientific consensus gives us less than 10 years to achieve significant progress in a transition from Earth exploiters to Earth healers, if we are to avoid harms to Earth from which it could take millions of years for Earth to recover. The changes required may seem impossibly difficult. Yet, we know from current experience that previously unimaginable change can come with extraordinary unanticipated speed. And we can be encouraged by the fact that the changes we must navigate are based on a readily observable self-affirming insight of our early ancestors who recognized the essential inherent interdependence of life. It is an insight now affirmed by the leading edge of the physical, biological, and social sciences.

The Most Precious Gift
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The most precious gift of our human experience is the opportunity to feel the joyful exhilaration that comes from fulfilling our responsibility to share in the care of life. Too many of us are denied this opportunity because of a system that isolates us from one another and nature as it reduces us to a constant struggle for survival. None of us will be secure in our opportunities to experience the special joy of being human until we act together to secure such opportunities for all....​To be born human is to be gifted with an extraordinary potential to experience wonder, beauty, love, and the satisfaction of contributing to the learning and wellbeing of life. No human should be denied the opportunity to actualize that potential...​Humanity’s positive potential and our current destructive path define a choice: embrace the possibility of transforming our relationships with one another and Earth; or perish. That choice constitutes an epic opportunity to accept the responsibility that comes with our nature as beings with distinctive abilities.