Understanding Rabindranath Tagore’s Spirituality as Deep Ecology, Deep Anthropology and Political Theology

Abstract

<p>The subject of this paper is the relevance of Rabindranath Tagore’s spirituality to the challenges we face in the world today. Tagore’s mission was ‘to work towards the true union of East and West’. The spiritual worldview Tagore brought to the West from 1912 onwards has been defined by Bengali scholars as ‘the integration of man and nature and God’. This can be expressed in more modern terms as ‘deep ecology, deep anthropology and political theology’, themes that run through the texts of the lectures Tagore gave on his foreign tours. He warned that the machine age would be disastrous for planet and people and urged a return to traditional village based society. He predicted that the dehumanising and destructive modern systems would come to an end, making way for a ‘new chapter in history’. The present crisis of democratic capitalism could lead to disruption or disaster, or else be an opportunity for relocalisation such as Tagore advocated. Movements for world change today focussed on taking responsibility for looking after ourselves and the environment directly through community involvement and decision making could be encouraged and affirmed by association with one of the greatest thinkers of the modern age.</p>