This Issue savage science, the rapacious industries, the
The institutionalised religions have failed to recognise or restrain the anti-religious expansion and centralisation o f our political and economic activities. They have failed to put a spiritual content in the social body; they have ignored human happiness, community relationship and existential fulfilment, all o f which have been largely destroyed by industrialism and economic materialism. Perhaps, in consequence, no one needs more o f religion than the religious bodies themselves.
The helplessness and powerlessness o f religious institutions has left the political and economic institutions to operate in a moral wilderness and as a result we face a possible breakdown o f our social relationships, the destruction o f this beautiful planet and an end to natural wealth and resources.
But the failure o f religious institutions is by no means the failure o f the religious spirit or the death o f religious experience. The wild technology, the monstrous political institutions, the impersonal bureaucracies are the root causes o f much o f present-day human problems and we have to find human solutions. This is the relevance o f religious and spiritual values we are exploring in this special issue.
The Ecologist and Resurgence have come together in this joint issue to grapple with those traditions and rituals where faith is not divided from everyday living. Religions which have not become materialist (.and are not trapped in the Establishment and large institutions) such as the indigenous religions o f African peoples, Zen Buddhism, radical Christianity, mystical Sufism and meditative Hinduism, may give us some clue to a new value system. These help us to create stability, continuity and harmony in our human communities and provide a spiritual context for ecological living. £2 S.K.
Journal of the Post Industrial Age TheECOLOGIST November 1974
Volume 4 Number 9 73 Molesworth Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 7DS Tel: Wadebridge 2996/7____ AS WE APPROACH THE POST INDUSTRIAL AGE A totally new set o f solutions is required to the problems that confront man today: — poverty — unemployment — disease — malnutrition — crime — war — pollution etc. The need is for ecological solutions rather than technological ones, solutions that do not require the massive expenditure o f ever scarcer resources, that solve problems rather than mask them by eradicating their symptoms, that lead to stability rather than instability and collapse. The Ecologist — Journal o f the Post Industrial Age, whose editors wrote the now famous Blueprint for Survival (V o l 2. 1. Jan. 1972) has for more than three years published articles that contribute to this end. Editors: Peter Bunyard and Edward Goldsmith Associate Editors: John Davoll, Jimoh Omo-Fadaka, Lawrence D. Hills, Brian Johnson, Andrew MacKiHop, John Papworth, Graham Searle, Robert Waller, Richard Willson Publisher: Edward Goldsmith Business & Subscription: Ruth LumleySmith Advertising: Interpress, 19 Anne Boleyn's Walk, Cheam, Surrey. Telephone 01-642 5826 Annual Subscription £4.75 (10 issues per year) USA $12.00
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CONTENTS A Prophet Ignored
313 Geoffrey Ashe
Hunting Peoples: harmony between community and environment
315 Robert Allen
Message from the Universe
318 E.F. Schumacher
Religion in a Stable Society
321 Edward Goldsmith
Make Religion Vanish into Reality 9 326 Frederic Spiegelberg
Hands in the Soil and Heart in Prayer 14
327 Dunstan McKee
Our Gradgrind Society
329 Robert Waller
Twelve Dolls of Summer
332 Nicki Jackowska
The Holy World of the Hindus
333 Satish Kumar
We are the Children
Anon. Psalm
Andrew Darlington Brother Sun, Sister Moon
335 St. Francis o f Assisi
We Diminish
336 Hugh Sharman
Ancestor Power
Jimoh Omo-Fadaka,
337 Robert Parsons
Following Nature
340 Colin Hodgetts
City of God?
341 John Papworth
Wales Story
344 Leopold K o h r ,
Practice and Utopia
345 June Mitchell
The Map
345 Ashoka
Alternative Economics
346 Stephanie Lenz
The Earth’s Energies
346 Frances Howard-Gordon
The Weaving Experience
348 Alice & T im o thy Willcocks
349 Things
351 Classified Advertising
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Printed by Penweli Ltd., Parkwood Callington, Cwll.
Journal of the Fourth World RESURGENCE
November—December Volume 5 Number 5 275 Kings Road, Kingston, Surrey, England Tel: 01-546 0544 Resurgence publishes articles on alternative life style, human technology, ecological—organic living, and small, simple, decentralised power structures. Regular columns by E.F. Schumacher and Geoffrey Ashe. Frequent contributions by Vinoba Bhave, Peter Harper, Leopold Kohr, John Papworth. Next issue will include Anatol Murad: What is money? Why inflation? John Hubley: What is happening in Bihar, India? J.P. Narayan and the students' movement to overthrow the corrupt government by nonviolent means. Guy Dauncey: Human Ecology, Social Ecology, Spiritual Ecology. Four pages o f book reviews and lots o f poetry. Editor: Satish Kumar Editorial Group: Brian Bridge, Tony Colbert, Geoffrey Cooper, Clive Harrison, Stephen Horne, Steve Lambert, Thomas Land, June Mitchell, Jimoh Omo-Fadaka, Terry Sharman, Anne Vogel Associate Editors: Ernest Bader, Danilo Dolci, Leopold Kohr, Jayaprakash Narayan, John Papworth, E.F. Schumacher Publisher: Hugh Sharman Distributor: Seearjo Ltd., Leicester Advertising: Interpress, 19 Anne Boleyn's Walk, Cheam, Surrey. Telephone 01-642 5826 Annual Subscription £2.50 (6 issues per year) Overseas $7.00, Airmail $10.00