A sample entry from the

Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature(London & New York: Continuum, 2005)

Edited by

Bron Taylor

2005 All Rights Reserved

Taylor, J. Garth. The Arctic Whale Cult in Labrador.tudes/Inuit/Studies 9:2 (1985), 12132.

Turner, Edith. American Eskimos Celebrate the Whale:Structural Dichotomies and Spirit Identities among theInupiat of Alaska. The Drama Review 37:1 (1993), 98114.

See also: Animals; Biocentric Religion A Call for;Cetacean Spirituality; Dolphins and New Age Religion;Elephants; Hyenas; Nile Perch; Primate Spirituality;Radical Environmentalism (and adjacent, Rodney Coro-nado and the Animal Liberation Front); Watson, Paul and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society; Whales andJapanese Culture.

White, Lynn (19071987) Thesis of

The Lynn White thesis, articulated in its most well-known form in Whites The Historical Roots of OurEcologic Crisis, (1967) was one of the most importantinterpretations of history to come out of medieval studiesin the second half of the twentieth century. Linking theethos of medieval Christianity to the emergence of whatWhite called an exploitative attitude toward nature inthe Western world during the Middle Ages, Whites ideasset off an extended debate about the role of religion increating and sustaining the Wests increasingly successfulcontrol of the natural world through technology. Theexplosiveness of this debate, which still reverberates, wastouched off by a conuence of factors: urgency in the late1960s and 1970s over the newly discovered environ-mental crisis, Whites ability to reach an audience beyondthat of professional historians, and the perception thatWhites ideas constituted an attack on Christianitywhich needed to be answered before additional damagewas done to the value of conventional religious beliefs.Alongside and to some extent at odds with this debate,were the responses to Whites work by medieval historiansand historians of technology. These historians, concernedwith specic issues raised by historical evidence andmethods, found much to criticize about Whites argu-ments, yet acknowledged White as the founder and shaperof the new eld to which they themselves now belonged.Whites ideas, and the range of responses to them, consti-tute an essential chapter in contemporary discussionabout the relationship of religion and attitudes towardnature.

Lynn Townsend White, Jr. was the rst American his-torian seriously to examine the role of technologicalinvention in the Middle Ages. Although best known in thelarger world for his ideas on the causes of contemporaryenvironmental problems, within the scholarly communityhe was regarded rst and foremost as a pioneer in the eldof medieval technology. After receiving his Ph.D. fromHarvard in 1938, he taught briey at Princeton and Stan-

ford until becoming president of Mills College in 1943. In1958 he left Mills and until his retirement in 1974 wasProfessor of History at the University of California at LosAngeles, where he published Medieval Technology andSocial Change (1962), demonstrating the profound effectsof technological innovation on medieval society, andMedieval Technology and Religion: Collected Essays(1978). He continued to write and engage in intellectualdebate until his death in 1987.

Whites work was informed by his view that not onlywere the Middle Ages the decisive period in the genesis ofWestern technological supremacy but that the uniquelyactivist character of medieval Christianity provided thepsychic foundations of modern technological inven-tiveness. White was hardly the rst scholar to associateChristianity with the birth of Western science and technol-ogy. Max Weber, Robert Forbes, and Ernst Benz, amongothers, had earlier suggested general causal links. How-ever, White rened these arguments by pointing not onlyto broad elements within the Judeo-Christian tradition(the biblical mandate of Genesis 1:28 giving humankinddominion over the Earth, Christian compassion, thedestruction of pagan animism, and the notion of matter asinert material) but also to the specic characteristics ofWestern monasticism as the fundamental cause of Westerntechnological development. European monks, Whiteargued, believed work to be an essential form of worshipand embodied this assertion not only in the Rules govern-ing their lives but also in their practice of their faith.Monastic communities spearheaded new technologicaltechniques. Their cathedrals, in marked contrast to Byzan-tine churches, were typically equipped with mechanicalclocks and organs, two of the most complex machinesknown prior to the early modern period. Additional evi-dence that medieval Christianity sanctioned technologicaladvance can be found in manuscript illuminations, amongthem a ninth-century illustration of Davids army using arotary grindstone driven by a mechanical crank to sharpentheir swords while the heathen enemy uses an old-fashioned whetstone, and a fteenth-century illustrationof a personication of the virtue of Temperance, standingon a windmill, a bridle and bit in her mouth, spurs on herfeet, holding eyeglasses and wearing a clock on her head.This kind of evidence, taken together with the record ofmedieval technological invention, White argued, demon-strated that deep-seated values embedded within LatinChristianity made the pursuit of technology appear mor-ally virtuous, leading ultimately not only to Western tech-nological dominance but also to the continuing impact onthe environment of an aggressive stance toward nature.

Whites ideas on the relationship of Christian values,technological dynamism and environmental decline canonly properly be understood within the context of hisoverall approach to the study of history. White believedthat religion was perhaps the most important force

White, Lynn 1735

shaping human societies and, furthermore, that religiousvalues often operated below the level of conscious expres-sion yet had direct effects on human behavior. As amedievalist, he was inclined to see the Middle Ages as thewellspring of Western culture. He also thought that thestudy of history was not a merely antiquarian enterprisebut held meaningful lessons for the present. Finally,despite his negative assessment in Roots, elsewhere hefrequently asserted that technology was a fundamentallyhumane and liberating force, and he implicitly suggests animage of an inherently dynamic, progressive and ChristianWest in which values rather than politics or economicsdetermine history. These underlying views informed hiswork, giving it a power and resonance beyond narrowerhistorical interpretations.

The impact of Whites thesis on the community ofenvironmentalists, philosophers of technology, andreligion scholars concerned with environmental issueswas immediate and long lasting. In the twenty years fol-lowing the publication of The Historical Roots of Our Eco-logic Crisis, over two hundred books and articles usedWhites ideas as a focal point. His ideas penetrated thepopular press, appearing in Time Magazine, Horizon, TheNew York Times, The Boy Scout Handbook and The SierraClub Bulletin. The great bulk of these responses were toone particular aspect of Whites argument, his claim inRoots that Christianity inculcated a specicallyexploitative attitude toward nature and consequentlythat Christianity bore a great burden of guilt for thecurrent environmental crisis. Biblical scholars and eco-theologians, among them James Barr, Carl Braaten, JohnCobb, and Joseph Sittler, argued instead that the Judeo-Christian tradition could more accurately be described asmandating a care-taking or stewardship relationship tothe natural world; Christianity therefore was not part ofthe problem, but part of the solution to environmentalissues. Guidance should be sought from those many elem-ents within the Judeo-Christian tradition that mandatedthat humans should be the guardians of nature, not itsdespoilers. Paradoxically, although many eco-theologiansargued vociferously against White, they could use histhesis to reinforce the view that environmentalism was atbottom a religious and ethical movement. Like White, theybelieved that religious values were the most effective anti-dote to environmental degradation and, like White, whohad suggested that St. Francis be made the patron saint ofecologists, they believed that Christianity was a sufcientrepository of environmentally sensitive attitudes.

Among historians and philosophers of technology,however, Whites thesis stimulated a rather differentdebate. These scholars called for a closer look at the his-tory of Western attitudes toward nature, labor and theenvironment and questioned whether Whites characteri-zation of medieval values might be overdrawn. In com-pany with the eco-theologians scholars such as Susan

Power Bratton, Paul Santmire, Roger D. Sorrel, and Clar-ence Glacken White found an appreciation for nature onits own terms and a sense that human use of nature andanimals should be governed by spiritual and moral obliga-tions found to be normative within medieval theology. Adetailed study by Jeremy Cohen of the medieval exegesisof Genesis 1:28 showed that medieval commentators typi-cally dealt with questions of Gods covenant and humansexuality, bypassing the issue of technological dominionof nature altogether. George Ovitt, Jr. argued, againstWhite, that by the thirteenth century most monastic ordersno longer directly performed work with their hands and,far from elevating manual labor in and of itself, consist-ently subordinated it to spiritual ends. A number ofscholars provided evidence that non-Western and pre-Christian cultures also had records of environmentaldamage. Other scholars, including Carl Mitcham, JohnPassmore, Robin Atteld and others, found a sympatheticattitude toward human control of the natural environmentin Classical, chiey Stoic, writers, similarly cutting intoWhites argument that Christianity had a uniquely aggres-sive approach to nature. Finally, some writers questionedwhether White had done more than show an associationbetween Christianity and technology in an age in which areligious perspective permeated every dimension ofhuman life. Had White shown that religion was a cause oftechnological development, or simply that technologicaldevelopment taking place for economic and politicalreasons was framed in Christian terms by medieval andlater people?

This broad range of responses demonstrated that thelinks between religion, technology and environmentaldecline were hardly as direct or straightforward as Whitehad made them appear. Nevertheless, Whites powerfuland original reading of history, which has shaped a gener-ation of scholarship, remains the touchstone for currentand future discussion.

Elspeth Whitney

Further ReadingHargrove, Eugene C., ed. Religion and Environmental Cri-

sis. Athens, GA and London: University of GeorgiaPress, 1986.

Livingstone, David N. The Historical Roots of Our Eco-logical Crisis: A Reassessment. Fides et Historia 26(1994), 3855.

Ovitt, George, Jr. The Restoration of Perfection: Labor andTechnology in Medieval Culture. New Brunswick, NJ:Rutgers University Press, 1987.

White, Lynn, Jr. Medieval Religion and Technology: Col-lected Essays. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University ofCalifornia Press, 1978.

White, Lynn, Jr. The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Cri-sis. Science 155: 3767 (10 March 1967), 12031207.

1736 White, Lynn

White, Lynn, Jr. Medieval Technology and Social Change.London: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Whitney, Elspeth. Lynn White, Ecotheology, and History.Environmental Ethics 15 (1993), 15169.

See also: Ecology and Religion; Radical Environmental-ism; Religious Environmentalist Paradigm; ReligiousStudies and Environmental Concern; Sittler, Joseph A., Jr.

Whitehead, Alfred North (18611947)

Alfred North Whitheads life and work can be divided intothree relatively distinct phases: an early period of math-ematics and logic (18851913), a middle period of epis-temology and philosophy of science, (19141924) and alater period of constructive metaphysics (1924ff.).

In 1885 Whitehead became a fellow of Trinity Collegein Cambridge where he remained until 1910. His Treatiseon Universal Algebra in 1898 won him election to theRoyal Society in 1903, but the mathematical period wasepitomized by Principia Mathematica IIII (19101913),co-authored with Bertrand Russell, Whiteheads earlierstudent. Principia Mathematica argued that mathematicalsymbols are derived from intuitive schemes of logical rea-soning. This rooting of abstract mathematical concepts inbasic human activities anticipated a tenet in his later con-structive metaphysics, as did his distinction between pureand applied mathematics, laid out in An Introduction toMathematics (1911), which can be seen as a forerunner ofthe later distinction between eternal objects (EOs), or merepossibilities, and the actual occasions (AOs), whichembody specic congurations of order.

In his middle period Whitehead worked mostly in Lon-don, where he taught mathematics at University College(19101914), and held a professorship in Applied Math-ematics at the Imperial College of Science and Technology(19141924). Already in The Concept of Nature (1920)Whitehead aimed to overcome the bifurcation of nature,which is the result of a mindbody dualism but also fol-lows from the epistemic dichotomy between real natureand mere phenomena. Whiteheads way here departedfrom Russells. Since the apprehension of the world is partof the way the world is, knowledge is ultimate (White-head 1920: 22). Whitehead here laid the ground for hislater doctrine of panpsychism (the view that mentalproperties apply to all things, including atoms).

In 1924 Whitehead moved to Harvard University wherehe remained Professor of Philosophy until his retirementin 1937. In Science and the Modern World (1925) he set outto account philosophically for the new physics of relativ-ity and quantum theory. With relativity he argued thatthere is no simple location of things as assumed by New-tonian physics; space-time-matter makes up a uniedeld of internally related energies-and-events. With quan-tum theory he argued for a temporal atomicity, according

to which the constituents of matter are not solid sub-stances but ephemeral events (cf. Plancks Constant). Thisview was later developed in his main work, Process andReality (1929). In contrast to a mechanical view of nature,however, Whitehead endorsed a panexperientialist pos-ition. Actual occasions prehend their immediate pastenvironment and possess a freedom in the process of theirbecoming; immediately after their actualization theyperish and become the stuff for future processes ofemergence, or concrescence.

Since Religion in the Making (1926), Whiteheadassumed three ultimate principles, 1) creativity, or thechaotic energy presupposed by all actual occasions, 2)eternal objects as the source of information or possibility,and 3) actual occasions which combine creativity withsome specic combination of eternal objects. Neither cre-ativity nor eternal objects exist on their own, but only asingredients in actual occasions. God is the chief exampleof these metaphysical principles. Just as anything else,God is an actual entity with both physical and mentalaspects. Gods consequent nature is derived from thepast occasions of the world, while Gods primordialnature is derived from the divine envisagement of eternalpossibilities.

As said in Process and Reality, God is both a creature ofthe world, and the worlds creator (Whitehead 1978: 348).Accordingly, God is not the creative source of all that is (asin the Abrahamic traditions), but the formative source oforder and novelty in the universe (as in Plato). God istherefore not omnipotent, but has the consistent will ofstimulating the growth of complexity in the universe byoffering divine lures to each actual occasion. God is onlyone agent among others, but is a formative cause in allworldly events. Moreover, God is one actuality amongothers, but God is unique by being an everlasting actualentity who never perishes. As everlasting, Godencompasses all past reality, which achieves objectiveimmortality by being preserved and evaluated in theconsequent nature of God.

Whitehead considered his own thought as an inver-sion of Kants philosophy. The world cannot be construedon the basis of a perceiving subject; rather, mind and sub-jectivity are superjects which are co-determined by theirenvironment and immediate past. Whitehead termed hisown philosophy organicism, but his metaphysicalscheme seems to be inuenced by mathematics and phys-ics more than by evolutionary thought. It has been up tolater process thinkers such as Charles Hartshorne, John B.Cobb, David Ray Grifn and Charles Birch to develop theevolutionary and ecological aspects of process thought. Inthe sciencereligion discussion, Whiteheads philosophyhas been carried forward by Ian Barbour.

Niels Henrik Gregersen

Whitehead, Alfred North 1737