Introduction

The Emerging, Holistic Worldview

Awakening and Transformation of Consciousness

Reconnecting to Nature

Health and Healing

Socially Engaged Spirituality

Historical Worldviews

The period from roughly mid 13th century to the early 16th century in Europe was characterized by what might be called the “scholastic paradigm”. This was a period when the Catholic Church was a dominant international power with great influence on the European monarchies. An infallible pope was seen as God’s appointed representative on Earth. In the universities, the ancient teachings of Aristotle were almost sacred and unquestioned. Society was relatively stagnant intellectually. This year was like last year and next year would be like this year. Earth was seen as the centre of the universe blanketed by a heavenly firmament that obeyed different laws from earthly life. While the heavens seemed to be in motion it was seen as unchanging because the speed of movement was constant and Aristotle did not distinguish between change and motion. It is very difficult for modern persons to understand this mindset.

A major blow to the scholastic paradigm was Martin Luther’s challenge to the pope’s infallibility in 1517, which led eventually to the Protestant faction leaving the Catholic Church, shaking its very foundation. A second event was the work of Copernicus, who claimed that Earth was not an unmoving centre, but rotated around the sun. A third shock to the old paradigm was the discovery of the “New World” by Columbus in 1492, which opened up an entirely new dynamic. Thus began what Kuhn calls a period of “abnormal science”, a period of radically new insights.  Such abnormal periods between major paradigms can last a long time, in this case about 150 years until Newton’s work in the 1670s.

Several pioneering scientists and philosophers contributed to the paradigm shift. Giordano Bruno brought the Italian renaissance to France and England. He tried to create a science of life by removing the superstitions of the time and create a religion of love but was incarcerated by the Catholic Church and burnt at the stake. Bruno’s writings are still banned by the Vatican. Francis Bacon introduced the then novel idea of learning from nature by experimentation and observation.  Galileo and Kepler confirmed and extended Copernicus’ work. Descartes introduced the idea of humans as separate from Nature, which was seen as something external in an objective universe.

Newton developed the mathematical methods and physical laws of motion that would become the foundation of a new paradigm, sometimes referred to as the Cartesian/Newtonian paradigm, which dominated European culture for over 300 years, and is still the dominant way of looking at the world by part, but not all, of the scientific communty. In this view, the universe is seen as a mechanical clock, gradually unwinding, with no divine plan behind it. Processes are broken down into smaller parts which can be analyzed separately with Newton’s methods. Nature is seen as a resource to be exploited and conquered, an attitude some have called “a science of death”. Thus was laid the foundation for the industrial revolution and advancement of science with great material progress. While Bruno, Bacon, Newton and Descartes were all very religious men, there was a tendency for religion to be gradually separated from science, culminating in the 19th century dispute between Darwinists and creationists and the rise of atheism in the West.

Some of the people who have influenced our worldviews

Ptolemy’s worldview of Earth in the center and planets circling around her.

Giordano Bruno. He wrote 40 books laying the foundation for a more holistic science in the late 16th century. His significance has not yet been fully recognized.
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Mechanistic World View: Life is determined to be a linear system in which all events can be reduced to and explained as matter in motion.