By Paul Harrison. Boston: Element Books, 1999. 131 pages.
Robinson Jeffers said "poetry is an instrument of discovery, like a telescope," and Jeffers used poetic discovery much like the Hubble telescope which, high in orbit, avoids the distortions of the earthly atmosphere to better perceive the universal truths. Jeffers's poetry was conceived in a contemplative state far removed from the distortions of the human-centered atmosphere of the early 20th century with its purely modernist and reductionist orientation. Jeffers's spiritual intuitions were formed from this instinctive approach, and he was reti-cent to bring these feelings to a fully conscious level except in poetic form. When asked about his philosophy he replied, "I don't want to think about it too much, for if it were perfectly conscious and a system it would cease to be a source of poetry—which seems to me a better thing than philosophy . . . in saying this I don't mean to suggest an antithesis between truth and poetry. They belong together." It was from this detached and meditative perspective that he realized his greatest achievement, his consistent and thorough pattern of belief which he labeled pantheism.
In the latter half of this century there has emerged in the spiritual realm a renewed respect for contemplation as a source of spiritual truth and also an increasing interest in finding a common basis for all religions. At the same time, many in the scientific community, confronted with the mysteries of quantum physics and cosmology, have found austere atheism no longer plausible. In-creasing numbers of scientists, rid of the hubris and reductionistic trends of the last century, speak of their profound reverence and awe for the wonders of the universe itself. The time seems right, therefore, for the publication of the only general survey in print of the history, theory, and practice of pantheism. In this small book (just over 100 pages), Dr. Paul Harrison includes two historical chapters which contain many germane pantheist quotes from major texts. The first covers the development of pantheism in the Eastern and classical worlds. The second covers the post-classical West, from the pantheistic strands in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, through Giordano Bruno and Spinoza, to the romantic poets and philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Here Jeffers is listed with a quote from his letter to Sister Mary James Power in which he described his "religious attitudes." Jeffers's pantheistic stand is de-scribed as being "identical to that of the World Pantheist Movement." Subsequent chapters cover the core beliefs of pantheism grounding the divinity and unity of the universe and of nature in philosophy and modern science. The book explores pantheist ethics and offers examples of ceremony, meditation, and mysticism. A description of the diversities of pantheistic belief follows, with a decided emphasis on a scientifically based pantheism. In the ninth and final chapter Harrison makes a rough, but seemingly reasonable, estimate of the number of people in the world today who are essentially pantheist in their orientation and concludes that, if organized as a world religion, pantheism would rank fourth or fifth, with 200 to 350 million members.
It has been nearly 10 years since Dana Gioia wrote his article, "The Coming Jeffers Revival," in which he predicted that not professors but young poets would be the impetus to this resurgence of interest in Jeffers. Jeffers sought no followers yet his poetry does fulfill the requirements Carl Sagan indicated necessary to influence a new religion. In Sagan's words: "A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge." It now appears that the Jeffers revival must also include those followers of a growing spiritual movement.
Dr. Paul Harrison is the founder and president of the World Pantheist Movement. He is the author of many books on environment and development, including Inside The Third World, The Third Revolution, and Inside The Inner City. He has degrees from Cambridge in European languages and literature, and in sociology from the London School of Economics, with a doctorate from Cambridge in geography and earth sciences. He has received a United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Award for outstanding services to the environment and was made an honorary fellow of the Institute of Community Studies. He lives in Hampstead, London.
John Courtney is a member of the Tor House Foundation Board.

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