A Critical Examination of Two Myths That Drive Culture: The Axial Age and Dark Green Religion

Speaker(s): Iain Provan
Date: March 12 2014
Length: 52min
Product ID: RGDL4402D

Purchase Options:

MP3 Download - $5.00

Description

The contemporary world has been shaped in part by two important and potent myths. Karl Jaspers' construct of the 'axial age' envisions the common past (800-200 BC), the time when Western society was born and world religions spontaneously and independently appeared out of a seemingly shared value set. Conversely, the myth of the 'dark green golden age' as narrated by David Suzuki and others asserts that the axial age, and the otherworldliness that accompanied the emergence of organized religion, ripped society from a previously deep communion with nature. Both myths contend that to maintain balance we must return to the idealized past. In this lecture, Iain Provan engages critically with both myths, explaining why we should not embrace them and why it matters if we do. This was recorded at the University of British Columbia Graduate and Faculty Christian Forum.

See All Audio by Iain Provan

Iain W. Provan is the E. Marshall Shepherd Professor of Biblical Studies (Old Testament) at Regent College. He has previously taught at King's College London, the University of Wales, and the University of Edinburgh. He is author of Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why it Matters, Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was, commentaries on 1 & 2 Kings, Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs, and Lamentations, and co-author (with V. Phillips Long and Tremper Longman III) of A Biblical History of Israel. He is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge.

Related Audio

Details / Buy

Jesus Rediscovered: Meditations on the Four Gospels

Speaker: Eugene Peterson

Details / Buy

The Unnecessary Pastor: Counter-Cultural Soul

Speaker: Eugene Peterson, Marva Dawn

Details / Buy

The Kingdom, Spirit & the People of God: Expositions from 1 and 2 Corinthians

Speaker: Gordon Fee

Details / Buy

Kingdom Spirit & the People of God

Speaker: N.T. Wright

Details / Buy

Dying with Dignity? Negotiating the Moral Debate on Assisted Suicide

Speaker: Jeffrey Greenman

Details / Buy

Beyond the Monday Blues: Equipping People for Vocations in the Workplace (Pastor's Conference 2016)

Speaker: Regent College

Details / Buy

Theology of Leadership

Speaker: Alister McGrath

Details / Buy

The Pastor & the Prophetic Ministry of Jesus

Speaker: Marva Dawn, Rikk Watts

Details / Buy

The Pastor & Healing

Speaker: Darrell Johnson, Rod Wilson

Details / Buy

Hope for Re-evangelizing the West: Missional Church as Foundation, Not Fad

Speaker: Ross Hastings

Details / Buy

Movements of Grace: Three Conversions in the Life of the Leader

Speaker: Maxine Hancock