The Ecological Citizen: Confronting human supremacy

What is wonder? (A definition)

Many of us have experienced a sense of wonder toward nature, taking flight not with but as a soaring bird or breathing with the lush trees in a forest. Such moments can make life worth living, yet it is sometimes difficult to parse what they tell us about our fellow Earthlings given their often elusive and fleeting character.

Wonder is fundamentally relational since some person, place or phenomenon is always the subject of our joy or astonishment. And for any relationship to occur, there must be differences and gaps to be bridged. Such connections extol the radical uniqueness of the enchanting other, for whom we wish only continued prosperity. Thus, far from being only a precursor to fuller knowledge, wonder reveals mysterious inner lives through an experience that is simultaneously rooted in the world and deeply unplumbable. This sensuous, pluralistic and perspectival understanding opposes two prevailing worldviews, which disenchant by dividing life into the purely spiritual or material.

Religious supernaturalism locates ultimate meaning in a transcendent source above or added to nature, devaluing the phenomenal world and all its concrete particulars. Monotheism is particularly problematic since it has upheld a singular and universal way to truth beyond Earth, as well as having restricted wonder to certain accepted theistic conclusions. Scientific materialism on the other hand disenchants when it seeks underlying causes or processes deemed more significant. Attempting to solve the puzzle of nature, it morphs into faith-based scientism. Both approaches therefore glorify the will over non-instrumental wonder. And wonder for its own sake has no sure footing when the attainment of further control is at stake. However, religion at least acknowledges existence's ineffability and retains a spiritual dimension to life, while secular modernity has attempted to abolish both on highly anthropocentric terms.

A stance of wonderment is best expressed through animism. Rather than viewing nature as a series of partially dissected objects, an animist ontology sets us within a more-than-human world comprised of myriad potential subjects, each with their own experiential realms and agendas. This form of sacralisation enhances the relational dynamics of life and sets limits to our reach, inciting us to act ethically in our encounters with other-being.

Animism can play an important role in a post-secular and Earth-centred ethics of sacrality, especially in tandem with a revitalisation of the other in society and the acknowledgment of the centrality of wonder to our lives.

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For further reading, see: Curry P (2019) Enchantment: Wonder in Modern Life, Floris Books.

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The Ecological Citizen: Confronting human supremacy

What is wonder? (A definition)

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