Public event
"We are trying to say the same thing from different entry points," said Mark Verkerk during the panel discussion after the presentations of the On Sacred Nature public event on March 30th. All the participants (including those in attendance) echoed each other by stressing people are part of the complex web of life and are just as connected to this planet as every other organism we share it with.
In an evening hosted by VU's Jan Jorrit Hasselaar and the University of Humanistic Studies' Manuela Kalsky, religious scholar Karen Armstrong, Professor of Planetary Health Pim Martens and filmmaker Mark Verkerk were able to comment on their different approaches to research on human interaction with the planet. Their studies were clearly unified by results that show humankind, particularly in the Western World, has lost contact with greater organism that sustains us.
Both Armstrong and Martens spoke about their latest books, which are published under the same name, Sacred Nature (Heilige Natuur). Pim Martens' book was created out of research with representatives of 12 different religious worldviews about their understanding of their connection of people to the non-human world. Armstrong’s book comments on various non-Western perspectives
of connection to the world and, through their wisdom, implores us to take time and reconnect ourselves with it. The clips from Mark Verkerk's film, Onder Het Maaiveld, vividly illustrated the Earth's interconnectedness by documenting the complexity of life under the ground.
Echoing a comment from one of the interviews in his book with a Native American chief, professor Martens explained how we need to understand that "we are all native to this world" and "we need to step outside our academic towers" and "learn to see with different eyes".
Ms Armstrong concurred. By taking time for 'kenosis' (purposefully emptying ourselves) to connect with the planet, and consider our relationship to it, we can see, "how utterly precious [it is] and dependent we are on it".
Despite the sober warnings discussed, there was a strong call to focus on the positives of the planet, to reconnect with wonder and not to simply dwell on the doom and gloom.
Reflecting on the event, dr. Hasselaar commented that he had only heard positive responses from the attendees. He hopes bringing these three different perspectives together would encourage more cross-faculty discussion and reflection on this topic with the goal of recognising how different perspectives can complement each other when considering this pertinent subject matter.