Coming Back to Earth: From Gods, to God, to Gaia

According to Lloyd Geering the doctrines of Incarnation and Trinity, which began as attempts to reflect the indwelling of God in human beings, were soon distorted to proclaim the reality of a sacred realm in the heavens. But the collapse of supernaturalism, he says, has produced a new and different pattern of reality: the self-creating universe, the self-evolving human species, and the emerging global consciousness. In light of these changes, he asks, 'Is Christianity going anywhere'? His answer, simply put, is that Christianity will not survive unless it can be harmonized with the secular global world. He further observes that all religious traditions must incorporate a concern for the present ecological crisis. And, he insists, any credible faith tradition must embrace a secular or humanist spirituality. Geering concludes that the most credible scenario for Christianity's future depends on accepting the Gaia concept as a powerful modern myth that will sustain individual humans spiritually, and our planetary home ecologically.