by Sister Cecilia Hudec

Choosing Earth, Humanity’s Great Transition to Mature Planetary Civilization, Duane Elgin

One of the ways of understanding humanity’s great transition is by viewing our journey through the lens of our level of collective maturity. For 30 years Duane Elgin has spoken with audiences, asking them what life-stage they think the human family is in. From business leaders, women’s groups, spiritual leaders, student groups and more at home, across Europe and internationally, the response was the same. Three-quarters said that humanity, taken as a whole, is in its adolescent years!

If people around the world are accurate in their view that the human community is in its adolescence, it explains much of our current behavior and it suggests how we could behave differently as we move collectively into our early adulthood. Adults give priority to others before themselves, are able to keep long-term commitments, have a greater sense of humility, take charge of cleaning up after themselves.

In the coming decades, we will need to shift from division to reconciliation, from reckless consumption to conscious stewardship, from a human-centered perspective to a life-centered one, from rebelling toward nature to designing ourselves back into nature as an integral part of the natural world, from feelings of immortality to that of vulnerability and humility, from passivity and tolerance of exploitative media to seeking of accountability, from desiring government to “fix” it to greater self-reliance at the local level.

The author walks us through the paths we will need to take in growing up. Now the human community must rise to a higher level of maturity and cooperation — choosing to work together for the well-being of the entire Earth — or lose it as a healthy life-support system. Choose it or lose it!

Choosing Earth looks a half-century into the future to explore our world in a time of unprecedented transition to a mature, planetary civilization. Decade by decade, it describes the stages of great transition that lie ahead, offering a new and large context for understanding what is happening in our world. It also looks deep into the psychological and spiritual dimensions of change and describes a new paradigm emerging from the convergence of science and spirituality. 

Duane Elgin explores seven evolutionary choices at the foundation of a future of great transition. Our great turning is a time to choose, together, a future beyond “only not dying” and to surpass ourselves by becoming more fully alive. As we awaken aliveness at the core of our being, we are simultaneously connecting with the aliveness of the universe.

Overall, Choosing Earth awakens our social imagination and looks past a future of crisis and collapse to a future of great opportunity. This book reveals a promising pathway ahead that is sustainable and calls forth our higher human potentials. This is a carefully researched book that builds on more than 40 years of research, writing and community organizing by the author.