RADICAL LIFESTYLES John West argues for a “radical simplicity” of living and introduces Sea of Faith to the Life Style Movement: a way of living “as if God and his Creation were still true”.
Making those Waves of Positive 0 join the Sea of Faith is a kind Te liberation. It frees you from the tyranny of outdated dogma, from the necessity of all those secret qualifications that you otherwise have to make when you use God-language.
I have my own orthodoxy. I long believed that, as created sons and daughters of a Creator God, we all of us had a duty of care for one another — and for the planet, for that too was a part of his creation. Now that I recognize that “God” and “his creation” are august products of the human imagination there is a very real danger that I might empty out the baby of social and environmental concern along with all that realist bathwater. A kind of moral paralysis can set in.
Habit persuades me that there is still an ought in there somewhere, an imperative to serve. But it is all too easy to fall into the trap of intellectualism. Indeed, my friends often accuse me of being too cerebral and not caring enough of real people.
Still, 1am persuaded by the logic of enlightened self-interest. God, for me, has become those ideals I most cherish and those characteristics of love and warmth that I perceive in those dear to me. Self-interest therefore “Just as SoFers have opted out of revealed religion founded on dogma, so Lifestylers try to opt out of the consumerist society which the devel- oped world has adopted”’. requires of me that I respect the world and its teeming life. It demands that I work for the world’s continuance, as a precious heritage that my generation can pass on to my grandchildren and their grandchildren. Only thus can I feel worthy in my own eyes. It is to act as though the old realist God and his Creation were still true. It is to worship: for, in according worth to the world and its peoples, I accord worth to myself. It’s the second Great Commandment, in fact, loving myself through my neighbour.
William Spray, in his letter (Sea of Faith, Autumn 1997) said it better, with his “fierce waves of positive commitment and action as well as gentle bubbles of intellectual clarification.” The Life Style Movement has many similarities with SoF. Just as SoF was the inspiration of an Anglican priest, Life Style was the “big idea” of another, Horace Dammers in 1972 (later to Action become Dean of Bristol). He argued that everyone in the developed world should strive to Live simply that all may simply live. Just as SoFers have opted out of revealed religion founded on dogma, so Lifestylers try to opt out of the consumerist society which the developed world has adopted. When examined more closely, living simply has its difficulties just as non-realism does. That means that Lifestylers don’t always agree and few of us feel that we live up to the challenges that simplicity presents. Nor have Lifestylers worked out to their own satisfaction how living simply actually enables all (ie everyone else) to simply live. But there can be no question that, in a world of injustice, wars and famines, some kind of gesture needs to be made towards consuming less of the world’s limited and over-exploited resources.
That means trying to live responsibly. More precisely it means thinking through the implications of what we do and consume. You may, for instance, know about the grave injustice being done to Caribbean banana growers because of the removal of trade restrictions by the World Trade Organization. At the very least we can see that we buy only Fyffe, Geest or Five Isle bananas and try and alter the buying policy in our local supermarkets.
Again, you may know that on average everyone in the rich “North” generates between 10 and 25 times as much carbon dioxide as the average Indian. When India and other developing nations try to emulate our lifestyle in the coming century they will find there isn’t enough oil and the world’s atmosphere simply cannot support a further dollop of greenhouse gases on such a scale.
Scientists tell us, for example, that the countries of the developed “North” have to cut their carbon emissions by at least 80% over the next ten years. There are implications for how we use our cars and take our holidays. Some Lifestylers voluntarily relinquish their cars or else decide to limit their annual mileage to 6000.
Clearly we are not isolated individuals, we are individuals who share a common vision with others, we are a community. So we have to work in concert: perhaps by pressuring our MP or MEP to support green policies; perhaps by pressuring the local supermarkets in their buying policy; perhaps by giving time or money to our favourite development charity; perhaps by writing letters and articles to newspapers and magazines.
In short, if we broaden our concept of “loving our neighbour” to include generations as yet unborn, then some measure of simplicity must characterise our life. This is a challenge every bit as great as the intellectual challenge of non-realism.
But we have to live with ourselves (don’t we?). Enlightened self-interest, respect for one another, respect for the planet, respect for the future.
That’s the recipe for valuing “that of God in one another”.