In an increasingly insane world, we urgently need communities that foster generosity, creativity and kindness. Author and Anglican priest Michael Wood* reflects on a new book by American writer Margaret Wheatley exploring how sanity can be lived communally and restored to humanity.
In many of my conversations, I often detect a general level of despondency in people about challenges facing humanity and the planet. Everything seems so huge that we hardly know where to start. And yet most of us try to be hopeful. The question is, in what and whom do we place our hope?
Hope, in the Christian tradition, is rooted in a trust that God has the big picture in hand and is drawing all things to Godself. We pray, and hope, for the emerging Kingdom of God on earth. Yet even in such hope, there lurks a couple of shadows.
The first shadow lies in unconsciously creating an image of God as a cosmic magician who will make everything work out despite our actions. Things ‘working out’ usually means meeting our expectations for a comfortable lifestyle, at least in the wealthy western world. We don’t need to do much about the planet because, in the end, God will sort it out.
This flies in the face of the Christian vision of God in Jesus. In Christ, the image of the invisible God, we find that the only power (and it happens to be the ultimate power) is vulnerable, co-suffering and co-creating love, embodied in relationships. These relationships flow from, and are part of, our participation in God’s life - our expression of the Mind of Christ.
St Paul writes, “Set your mind on things that are above” (Colossians 3:2); and “let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). This is a mind of compassionate and engaged action.
If the first shadow is ‘leave it all to God,’ a second, and almost opposite kind of shadow is thinking that “it all depends on our own efforts”. This was vaguely expressed in a well-meaning but theologically disastrous comment I heard repeatedly when I was a child, “God helps those who help themselves”. God becomes the personal assistant to our own efforts.
But following this line to its end is a recipe for absolute hopelessness because we know that the challenges besetting humanity are simply too big for us, not least in the apparently insurmountable acquisitive and competitive desires which come with being human. We just love consuming stuff, and at an exponential rate.
So, how can we be genuinely/theologically hopeful? We do need to trust that God is holding it all – lovingly and beneficially – and is drawing everything to God’s self, while not falling into naïve optimism in “God the magician,” on one hand, or our own impossibly superhuman heroism on the other. What is within our means and capacity? How can we trust that this is “sufficient” to the gift of the faithfulness of Christ?
In reflecting on these questions, I have been encouraged over many years by Margaret Wheatley’s work. This started with reading her article, “Leadership in an age of complexity: From Hero to Host” which has been such a liberation for many who are engaged in Christian leadership. Wheatley is a veteran practitioner and author in the field of leadership and complex systems.
Wheatley’s most recent book is ‘Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity and Kindness in Ourselves, and Our Organisations’ (SF: Berrett Koeller, 2024). This elegant little book is a series of short, almost pithy, insights based on a lifetime of work, involving both mindset and practices. I want to suggest that these insights and practices can fuel and support our hope.
Wheatley’s work is informed by a Buddhist ethos, but as I read her book, I found myself easily making Christian theological translations.
The first key idea which frames the book is a question. Do we believe that all humans, given the right conditions, prefer to be generous, creative, and kind? (As Christians our mind will probably go straight to the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)).
Wheatley observes that our present way of life is fostering conditions which are anything but generous, creative, and kind. As a Buddhist, Wheatley does not use the language of ‘Sin,’ but I found myself thinking of the mimetic desire, rivalry, competition, violence and scapegoating, which Christians summarise as “sin.” However we diagnose the problem (and Wheatley does not dwell on this), the way forward, according to Wheatley, is the creation of what she calls ‘islands of sanity.’
An Island of Sanity is a gathering of people who commit to a shared life, with a common purpose, fostering the virtues of generosity, creativity, and kindness. An Island of Sanity needs to be based on a clear-eyed reading of the reality of the times we are living in, and commitment to make a contribution, with others, to do something constructive together which is within our means, passions, and capacities.
This is underpinned by a relentless attention to the quality of relationships. The book contains a range of ‘how do to it’ guidelines on crucial aspects of our common life, from defining shared purpose through to how to manage and navigate conflict (the latter being inevitable because we are human).
Wheatley points out that an Island of Sanity is not meant to be isolationist – quite the contrary. Rather, the metaphor of an island works to remind us that any community is ‘bounded’ by its values and goals. If we want to foster conditions of sanity (generosity, creativity, and kindness) then we need to set ourselves apart from the insanity of the dominant culture just enough to become and remain well. She reminds us that an island has permeable borders – people can still go in and out as they need to.
The Christian reader will probably notice many connecting points with the Christian tradition … such as the church as ‘ecclesia’ (a ‘called out assembly’); and the community as the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27).
How does it seem to us to imagine the church as an ‘island of sanity?’ If our church does not seem to be an island of sanity, what might we do? Wheatley’s practical handbook of practices could help us.
What about Christian meditation gatherings – could these be imagined as the seedbeds of islands of sanity – containing the potential for a shared life of trust and service which flows out of the commitment to meditating together? St Stephen’s Anglican Church in Richmond, Victoria, has recently started a regular Sunday evening contemplative prayer service at 5pm which has this gentle aspiration*.
Could the church, conceived as an island of sanity, provide hope for ourselves and others? The church is Christ’s body, constituted by frail flesh. The church is a divine-human meeting place. We will never be perfect, but we can be hopeful. It does not all depend on us but our efforts to retain sanity are important. This may help us to avoid slipping into one of the shadows mentioned above. This island of sanity may lead to creative, hope-filled, imaginative possibilities.
Michael Wood is Associate Priest at St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Richmond, Victoria, Australia and works as a professional facilitator. He is author of “Practicing Peace: Theology, Contemplation and Action (Oregan: Wipf and Stock, 2022) which was shortlisted in the Australian Christian Book of the Year Awards in 2023.
*In addition to offering a 5pm contemplative service on Sundays, St Stephen’s Richmond is running a free 10-week course, ‘Meditation and Mindfulness in the Christian Tradition’, 3-4.30pm starting on Sunday 11 May. It will be facilitated by contributing editor of Living Water, Roland Ashby, and meditation teacher Ottavia Pittella. For more information and to register, see: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1280284668909?aff=oddtdtcreator