style of entertainment for its ability to desensitize people to horrific acts, preparing them for battle. The fact that we now use our stadiums for football rather than blood sport is a testament to Christianityâs effectiveness as an early form of social activism.
Whether or not youâre moved to join the religion Jesus inspired, his life is historically and culturally significant, especially when you consider the wisdom of the pastoralistâs perspective. Jesus actively reinforced a nomadic, nonpredatory philosophy at one of the most brutal times in history: He was born in a stable and laid in a manger. He encouraged people to give up their possessions and wander the earth, letting God through nature take care of their needs. He abhorred violence, even for self-preservation, yet he faced tragedy with a fierceness capable of challenging injustice without sacrificing compassion. Ultimately,his method of influence came, not through force, control, or even convincing intellectual arguments, but through communion â an act so intimate it was symbolized by the human consumption of his flesh and blood. These surprisingly effective gestures challenged the basis of Greco-Roman civilization, allowing Christ to turn the tide of increasing violence with a mere thirty-three years of earthly existence. If he and his followers had only accomplished the eradication of Roman blood sport, that in itself would have been an admirable achievement.
However, as Christianity was adopted by the sedentary, hierarchical culture Jesus felt called to change, the powerful movement he started began to lose something important, succumbing to âCainâs forgetfulnessâ as the religion was adopted by Romans, Greeks, and Europeans who had never experienced the pastoral lifestyle. Even so, the early Catholic Church was adamant that the Bible should be preserved as originally written, as the indisputable âWord of God,â ensuring (perhaps inadvertently) that its deeper meaning remained accessible to anyone with âeyes to see and ears to hear.â
Putting the Bible back into its psycho-social-historical context releases all kinds of information hidden from a predatory, conquest-oriented mind-set. Actually spending time with nonpredatory animals leads to further insight. With the resurrection of this ancient wisdom comes a host of sophisticated lessons on leadership, cocreation, and authentic community building â pastoral skills that are surprisingly progressive compared to the two-dimensional command-control model we inherited from early city dwellers. In the meantime, those old dominance-submission habits still hold sway over us, thwarting, daily, our attempts to realize anything close to a functional democracy, let alone a truly free society with liberty and justice for all. Cainâs technical feats are brilliant and seductive, to be sure, but they remain disconnected, dangerous, and at times simply meaningless without Abelâs fluidity, compassion, and earthy interpersonal genius. Itâs high time we wrest that long-suppressed knowledge from its current state of arrested development and, well, evolve, for Godâs sake.
Chapter Eight
HERD POWER
T rue pastoralists are among the bravest, savviest leaders youâll ever meet. Not because theyâre trekking through the wilderness protecting calves from carnivores â though thatâs certainly part of the job â but because, from a very young age, these people learn to move with uncommon ease, power, vigilance, and grace among large herds of potentially dangerous animals.
The key word here is herd. Milking a cow or riding a well-trained Thoroughbred takes more nerve and skill than most people imagine, but negotiating with a group of gregarious herbivores demands an entirely different set of social competencies. When you step out of the saddle, you realize that all those horses could run you over or break your leg with a single anemic kick.
Whether or not youâre moved to join the religion Jesus inspired, his life is historically and culturally significant, especially when you consider the wisdom of the pastoralistâs perspective. Jesus actively reinforced a nomadic, nonpredatory philosophy at one of the most brutal times in history: He was born in a stable and laid in a manger. He encouraged people to give up their possessions and wander the earth, letting God through nature take care of their needs. He abhorred violence, even for self-preservation, yet he faced tragedy with a fierceness capable of challenging injustice without sacrificing compassion. Ultimately,his method of influence came, not through force, control, or even convincing intellectual arguments, but through communion â an act so intimate it was symbolized by the human consumption of his flesh and blood. These surprisingly effective gestures challenged the basis of Greco-Roman civilization, allowing Christ to turn the tide of increasing violence with a mere thirty-three years of earthly existence. If he and his followers had only accomplished the eradication of Roman blood sport, that in itself would have been an admirable achievement.
However, as Christianity was adopted by the sedentary, hierarchical culture Jesus felt called to change, the powerful movement he started began to lose something important, succumbing to âCainâs forgetfulnessâ as the religion was adopted by Romans, Greeks, and Europeans who had never experienced the pastoral lifestyle. Even so, the early Catholic Church was adamant that the Bible should be preserved as originally written, as the indisputable âWord of God,â ensuring (perhaps inadvertently) that its deeper meaning remained accessible to anyone with âeyes to see and ears to hear.â
Putting the Bible back into its psycho-social-historical context releases all kinds of information hidden from a predatory, conquest-oriented mind-set. Actually spending time with nonpredatory animals leads to further insight. With the resurrection of this ancient wisdom comes a host of sophisticated lessons on leadership, cocreation, and authentic community building â pastoral skills that are surprisingly progressive compared to the two-dimensional command-control model we inherited from early city dwellers. In the meantime, those old dominance-submission habits still hold sway over us, thwarting, daily, our attempts to realize anything close to a functional democracy, let alone a truly free society with liberty and justice for all. Cainâs technical feats are brilliant and seductive, to be sure, but they remain disconnected, dangerous, and at times simply meaningless without Abelâs fluidity, compassion, and earthy interpersonal genius. Itâs high time we wrest that long-suppressed knowledge from its current state of arrested development and, well, evolve, for Godâs sake.
Chapter Eight
HERD POWER
T rue pastoralists are among the bravest, savviest leaders youâll ever meet. Not because theyâre trekking through the wilderness protecting calves from carnivores â though thatâs certainly part of the job â but because, from a very young age, these people learn to move with uncommon ease, power, vigilance, and grace among large herds of potentially dangerous animals.
The key word here is herd. Milking a cow or riding a well-trained Thoroughbred takes more nerve and skill than most people imagine, but negotiating with a group of gregarious herbivores demands an entirely different set of social competencies. When you step out of the saddle, you realize that all those horses could run you over or break your leg with a single anemic kick.