Sacred Quest: The Evolution and Future of the Human Soul

Having read Leggett's The Sacred Quest (1987) which deals, with paradigm shifts in human consciousness, I was fascinated to find Keck's Sacred Quest dealing with similar transformations from different perspectives. The early chapters provide an easy-to-read summary of the type of approach developed by William Irwin Thompson, who followed Gebser's (1985) interpretations of cultural epochs (archaic, magical, mythical, rational and integral) as mirrors of the evolution of human consciousness. Without citing these authors Keck leads a historical tour of the late Paleolithic and Neolithic, characterized as Epoch I (Childhood) and Epoch II (adolescence). These correspond with the epochs of self-releasing and self-locking consciousness proposed by Bouratinos (2000). Drawing on sound archeological evidence Keck argues that Epoch I (35,000-10,000 BP) was a time of matriarchal non-violent communion with nature, whereas Epoch II (10,000-present) has been depressingly violent and patriarchal by comparison. Human-kind at this juncture is somewhat of an oxymoron.

Nevertheless, Keck, a former university medical school academic and Methodist minister, writes with infectious, evangelical enthusiasm, leading us to believe that we are on the threshold of transformation into Epoch III (maturity), when we shall accomplish the spiritual equivalent of walking upright. This is undoubtedly a book for optimists. Keck uses the label "deep-value research" for his probing of collective human soul values: our metaphorical quest for the soul's DNA. Enamored by catchy buzz-words and cliches such "soul-quake" and "gender fault lines" he uses (and borrows) them with provocative optimism to talk of "original blessings" as well as original sin or "original trauma."

Keck's metaphor for present paradigm shifts is: "the Epoch II caterpillar (has) entered the chrysalis for its transformation into the Epoch III butterfly." The narrowness of Epoch II consciousness is all too apparent. Theologically, intellectually, philosophically "patriarchy is history" (his story) not the whole story. The bible has been used in the same way a drunk uses a lamp post "for support rather than for enlightenment" or worse to justify inhumanity: what Huston Smith and Pete Seeger called "Bible Libel." Keck quotes Czech President Vaclav Havel: "our conscience must catch up with our reason -otherwise we are lost" and repeats Einstein's affirmation that mysticism is "the sower of all true art and science." Keck addresses the ecological quest to "re-member" nature and not estimate its monetary value as 33 trillion $US a year as done by the journal Nature in 1997! Let's move from "the presumption of consumption to the attitude of gratitude."

Cliches aside, and presumably they are an occupational hazard of preaching, the message resonates well and I found my self looking forward to the next clever wise crack. Keck's anecdotes about his personal maturation and some remarkable encounters with bears and mountain lions where he and his family make their home in the Colorado Rocky Mountains speak to a genuine "whole hearted" celebration of life.

Keck distinguishes Epoch III Panenthesim (God in everything and everything in God) with wholeness, whereas Theism or Pantheism (God is external or synonymous with Nature) are seen more as relics of Epoch II. I enjoyed a stirring passage on "atonement" (= "at-one-ment") which is not conferred by some institution but "is freely given by the love and grace of God so to speak, because that is the way the universe has been created." Keck is also brisk and clear on the Epoch II history of power, war and slavery (and the "fathering" done by American founding fathers) and the present rise of democracy and personal empowerment ("author"-ization).

Keck concludes with a chapter on the spirituality of time, using the concepts of chronos, kairos and eternity. Humanity's primitive consciousness registered cyclic time, which always brought us back to the eternal present. Then Judaism invented history, linear time (chronos) and the promise of novelty. Yet we still want to transcend chronos, mortality and death for the security of the eternal hereafter. "E" words like Entropy and Evolution reveal our consciousness of time's downhill and uphill arrows, while Eternity (and Einstein) speak to the security blanket of steady states. But, as Keck notes, Einstein blundered with his "cosmological constant" and recanted. Quoting Ilya Progogine's "science of becoming" we see the end of determinism and certainly as the price to pay for novelty and new creations, which punctuate eternity quite unpredictably when the time is right (kairos). Thus, ultimately, we can not predict when the Epoch III butterfly will emerge from its chrysalis. We could commit teenage suicide, but - you guessed it- Keck is optimistic that we won't.

My verdict is that this is an extraordinarily clear and optimistic synthesis of what many Epoch III visionaries often say with twice the scholarly verbiage and half the zeal. I loved the humorous energy of the cliché festival and the reminder that language and meaning are inextricably linked. Perhaps it has something to do with the rarefied Rocky Mountain air above 8000 feet, where I also live. From here I see the "imago" coming round the mountain. I'm with Keck's optimism. "I'm-a-go."