Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
Want to Read
Rate this book
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Preview
Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
by Wendell Berry
4.19 · Rating details · 1,063 ratings · 132 reviews
"[A] scathing assessment…Berry shows that Wilson's much-celebrated, controversial pleas in Consilience to unify all branches of knowledge is nothing more than a fatuous subordination of religion, art, and everything else that is good to science…Berry is one of the most perceptive critics of American society writing today." --Lauren F. Winner, Washington Post Book World
"I am tempted to say he understands [Consilience] better than Wilson himself…A new emancipation proclamation in which he speaks again and again about how to defy the tyranny of scientific materialism" ---Colin C. Campbell, Christian Science Monitor
"Berry takes a wrecking ball to E. O. Wilson's Consilience, reducing its smug assumptions regarding the fusion of science, art, and religion to so much rubble. --Kirkus Reviews
In Life Is a Miracle, the devotion of science to the quantitative and reductionist world is measured against the mysterious, qualitative suggestions of religion and art. Berry sees life as the collision of these separate forces, but without all three in the mix we are left at sea in the world. (less)
GET A COPY
KoboOnline Stores ▾Book Links ▾
Paperback, 176 pages
Published April 19th 2001 by Counterpoint (first published 2000)
Original TitleLife Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
ISBN1582431418 (ISBN13: 9781582431413)
Edition LanguageEnglish
Other Editions (4)
Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
All Editions | Add a New Edition | Combine
...Less DetailEdit Details
FRIEND REVIEWS
Recommend This Book None of your friends have reviewed this book yet.
READER Q&A
Ask the Goodreads community a question about Life is a Miracle
54355902. uy100 cr1,0,100,100
Ask anything about the book
Be the first to ask a question about Life is a Miracle
LISTS WITH THIS BOOK
Papyrus by John GaudetA Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo LeopoldEcology, Community and Lifestyle by Arne NæssSoil and Soul by Alastair McIntoshDeep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century by George Sessions
Deep Ecology
70 books — 34 voters
The New Testament Documents by F.F. BruceApologetics to the Glory of God by John M. FrameMere Christianity by C.S. LewisChristianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham MachenBeyond Death by Gary R. Habermas
Desiring God Recommends #2
96 books — 1 voter
More lists with this book...
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
Showing 1-30
Average rating4.19 · Rating details · 1,063 ratings · 132 reviews
Search review text
English (129)
More filters | Sort order
Sejin,
Sejin, start your review of Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition
Write a review
Werner
Mar 18, 2008Werner rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: All readers who care about serious questions
Shelves: other-nonfiction
Wendell Berry is a well-known author of prose and poetry; sometimes a college teacher of English (a field in which he has a graduate degree); a Kentucky farmer who tills land that's been in his family for several generations and who advocates for sustainable farming practices and environmental stewardship; and a public intellectual who thinks seriously about important social and philosophical issues. To date, this is the only one of his numerous books that I've read (though I definitely intend to read more!); but I've now read it three times, most recently because I've long really wanted to review it, and felt that because of the depth and complexity of the thought, it deserved a review written with the benefit of the freshest possible engagement. Even so, it will be a challenge to summarize it within the scope of a review.
Berry is a classical Christian believer, whose faith shapes his view of the world and universe around him and undergirds his thought. Moreover, in the present book, he's making the case that human life in the world is essentially miraculous, and that it has an inescapable spiritual dimension. That said, however, he does not base his arguments here on appeal to religious authority as such, nor present them in narrowly "religious" terms. Rather, he's arguing for a basic philosophical position, and a basic way of living in the world on the basis of that position, that can be shared by persons of a wide variety of faiths, and even by persons who have no specific faith as such, but who approach the natural and human world from an existentially humble perspective that recognizes the mystery and complexity of the universe and values individual humans, communities, and natural spaces. For this reason, although I originally shelved the book with "Christian life and thought," I think "Other nonfiction" would be the more accurate classification --not because his thought isn't Christian, but because he's writing from the perspective of philosophy, not theology, and writing to all of his fellow humans who share the common graces of conscience and ability to reason.
While this is a short book (153 pages), addressed to general intelligent readers rather than academic specialists, not burdened with scholarly apparatus and expressed in as clear a style as possible, and although it is a relatively quick read, it's not AS quick as one might initially expect. The content is pithy, and covers a lot of ground at short length, but significant depth. Berry illustrates and supports his points with examples from literature, especially Shakespeare (the first chapter has an extended discussion of King Lear --which I have never read-- and the book's title comes from Edgar's words to his suicidal father, "Thy life's a miracle...."), references to history and current events, and quotes from other serious thinkers. While he's primarily concerned with the concrete and practical side of life, he necessarily addresses some significant abstract ideas that bear on how we approach the concrete and the practical; the writing demands thought and attention. Full engagement with it can be demanding.
Published in 2000, the book is a specific response to the 1998 book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by Edward O. Wilson, much-honored Harvard Univ. biologist, secular humanist philosopher (and avowed "environmentalist") and general pillar of the intellectual establishment. In that book (which I admittedly have not read; I believe Berry represents it accurately and that his numerous quotations from it are not out of context, but in any case the viewpoint Berry describes is a common establishment party line that most readers have already encountered frequently) Wilson argues for the equation of "science" with positivist materialism and denial of the existence of anything not empirically material, for the ability of Science thus defined to ultimately explain all of reality, and for the reorganization of all human knowledge and academic disciplines into a supposedly "consilient" whole subordinated under the overarching philosophic guidance of this super-competent Science. Berry begs to differ; but while he develops his own position in response to Wilson's, his book has value, IMO, as a positive statement on its own terms, not simply as a refutation of Wilson (so it can be appreciated on its own terms whether you've read Wilson or not).
To summarize some of Berry's main positions in capsule form, he maintains: that human knowledge is not solely rationally deductive-empirical, but can be intuitive, emotional, and/or the product of wholistic experience over time that's not reducible to mathematical formulas or "data;" that organisms and machines are two distinctly different things, and that the former, and the world and the universe generally, are not properly conceived by trying to reduce them to the latter; that the "scientist" is not a detached observer of the "environment" but a part of it, and that the instant you set up a false dichotomy between the two you're fatally undercutting any genuine commitment to the "environment;" that humans are not mechanically or chemically determined but have genuine free will (not the "illusion" of it), which means that we make choices, and that if we don't, appealing to us to make environmentally-friendly choices makes no sense; and that while the proper goal of all sciences and arts is the healthy flourishing of humans and their communities, the goal of science as practiced in contemporary academia is maximizing the profits of the wealthy corporations that pay for the research, with results generally inimical to human flourishing. He devotes a chapter to the concept of "propriety," which he defines as "the fittingness of our conduct to our place and circumstance" (and which has a wealth of applications to present-day behaviors); and he emphasizes the importance of commitment to the local and particular, rather than grandiose subordination of the local and particular to 'globalized" operations. But there's much more content, and more food for thought, here; I've only scratched the surface rather briefly!
My read of the book this time, and writing of this review, was of course in the shadow of the current pandemic, a situation that heightens and accentuates the urgency of some of Berry's themes. The virus is a "problem" that many people are looking to Science to "solve;" but of course science had a great deal to do with creating the "problem" and the conditions under which it's spread, and deified "Science" isn't going to give us moral and spiritual resources for getting through the "problem," explaining it or making sense of its consequences in anything but a reductionist sense, or helping us decide what sort of social reality we want to build or rebuild in its aftermath. Those are things that don't call so much for technical expertise as for virtue, faith, wisdom, and community. A blog post written 20 years after this book was, and which doesn't mention Berry or this book, may seem an odd thing to link to in closing; but that's what I'm going to do, because I think Billy Coffey's conclusion there puts in simple words much of what Berry is saying here. https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog... . (less)
flag27 likes · Like · 6 comments · see review
David
Aug 05, 2012David rated it really liked it
As a scientist and a university faculty member, I found some parts of this essay stinging. Nevertheless, I found, on the whole, much of the commentary cogent and useful. At first, this essay seemed like some form of Luddite treatise. But what actually emerged was a well thought out challenge to the primacy of science in the modern world. Although the author issues this challenge directly at the Ecologist E. O. Wilson, in response to Wilson's thesis entitled Consilience, Wendell Berry rarely misses an opportunity to broaden his attack against Science (with a capital S). Nevertheless, I found the points of attack well articulated and rarely gratuitous.
In sum, this text made me (actually, allowed me) to look at science from a fresh perspective. Such opportunities are rare, when one has been in a given field for many years. For this, I am indebted to this author. (less)
flag16 likes · Like · comment · see review
Karson
Feb 04, 2008Karson rated it really liked it
Wow. I didn't think the whole thing totally ruled, but there are certain quotes that are probably going to stick with me forever. He just has a different point of view than i have ever been exposed to. He really values the particular. Particular places, particular people, particular animals, particular things. This is across the spectrum from me. Like most Americans I value big, novel things. I think big trips rule, big mountains, big states, even big animals. I like moose more than birds. Mountains more than streams. Adventurous trips more than everyday life. I want to love particular "mundane" things, and Berry knows a lot more about that then I do. He'd rather stay one place his whole life and fully appreciate its depth and richness, than briefly skim all the world without a deep understanding of any one place. The particular and mundane scare the shit out of me, but this guy revels in it. Holy crap. (less)
flag13 likes · Like · comment · see review
Jon
Dec 19, 2008Jon rated it it was amazing
Gotta give this one 5-stars just for sheer audacity. Berry takes on modern science and its materialistic and mechanistic world view, and he has E.O. Wilson and his book Consilience in his sights. Berry suggests that something is lost when we only focus on the reductionist perspective at the root of modern science. We are, he is suggesting, more than can be explained by modern science, and he suggests the dominance of the modern scientific paradigm represents a threat to those ineffable or irreducible characteristics that make us uniquely human.
We are, he is suggesting, more than machines:
"The most radical influence of reductive science has been the virtually universal adoption of the idea that the world, its creatures, and all the parts of its creatures are machines--that is, that there is no difference between creature and artifice, birth and manufacture, thought and computation" (p. 6).
In response to that model he suggests that, "life, like holiness, can only be known by being experienced" (p. 8), and that "Our daily lives are a daily mockery of our scientific pretensions" (p. 33). And again, "Directly opposed to this reduction or abstraction of things is the idea of the preciousness of individual lives and places" (p. 42).
The book does bog down a bit in the middle, but then there will be a line like this to catch your attention:
"To define knowledge as merely empirical is to limit one's ability to know; it enfeebles one's ability to feel and think" (p. 103).
Or this:
"'Survival value', it seems to me, must deal in minimums, since any species dependent upon maximums would be too vulnerable to survive. The human race has survived because of its ability to survive famine, not because of its ability to survive feasts" (p. 110).
Or this:
A work of art says what it says in the only way it can be said. Beauty, for example, cannot be interpreted. It is not an empirically verifiable fat; it is not a quantity (p. 117). (less)
flag9 likes · Like · comment · see review
M.G. Bianco
Feb 15, 2018M.G. Bianco rated it it was amazing
Shelves: non-fiction
One of the best book of essays from Wendell Berry that I've read. Intriguing and compelling at every point, he hits his biggest home run (for me) when he considers the different kinds of knowledge and then the distinctions between art and science, and the necessity for both to work together from a common ground.
For those of you who have heard his speech on Wallace Stegner's idea of the "boomers" and "stickers," he elaborates on that more in this book as well. (less)
flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review
Evan
Nov 06, 2008Evan rated it it was amazing
Berry continues to astonish me. This is not a fast and easy read; you have to work and pay attention. But Berry writes as a prophet of our times and has put his finger on a core - maybe the root - cause of dis-ease in our century.
He writes a critique of rationalism and scientific thought that we need to pay attention to.
A few memorable passages:
"For a while I proposed to myself that the only things really explainable are explanations. That is not quite true, but it is near enough to the truth that I am unwilling to forget it.
"What can be explained? Experiments, ideas, patterns, cause-effect relationships and connections within defined limits, anything that can be calculated, graphed or diagrammed. And yet the explanation changes whatever is explained into something explainable. Explanation is reductive, not comprehensive; most of the time, when you have explained something, you discover leftovers. An explanation is a bucket, not a well.
"What can't be explained? I don't think creatures can be explained. I don't think lives can be explained. What we know about creatures and lives must be pictured or told or sung or danced. And I don't think pictures or stories or songs or dances can be explained. The arts are indispensable precisely because they are so nearly antithetical to explanation." (p113)
"The time is past, if ever there was such a time, when you can just discover knowledge and turn it loose in the wold and assume that you have done good.
"This, to me, is a sign of the incompleteness of science in itself - which is the sign of the need for a strenuous conversation among all the branches of learning."
"In our present economic predicament, ethics, ecology, environmental law, etc. won't as specialties have much corrective force. They will be used to rationalize what is wrong." (p145)
(less)
flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review
Joel
May 18, 2011Joel rated it really liked it
Wendell Berry: my constant antidote to graduate school.
Berry dislikes scientific reductionism, argues for the uniqueness of art and religion as ways of knowing, being, doing, etc, and adds some important objections to the "scientific" enterprise as it is carried out today: it is essentially colonial, imperialist, and in bed with a number of environmentally destructive forces.
He also comes down pretty harshly on the way academic disciplines are organized and the way universities are run. This makes a lot of sense to me, but leaves me with some questions about how to proceed with my own chosen field. I am so surrounded by people who do research and scholarly publishing as their livelihood that I forget it's something I've never wanted.
Berry writes in another book, Standing by Words:
"If one wishes to promote the life of language, one must promote the life of the community—a discipline many times more trying, difficult, and long than that of linguistics, but having at least the virtue of hopefulness. It escapes the despair always implicit in specializations: the cultivation of discrete parts without respect or responsibility for the whole."
I'm knee-deep in theory about language and social worlds, yet too much of it, in the end, for me feels like a spinning out into nothing. It is not too late, perhaps, for me to imagine getting much more involved with language and literacy teaching at local, grassroots levels. For all our talk about the Local, currently fashionable ideas in applied linguistics seem rarely to be produced by scholars who are genuinely committed to living and working in a place, rather than an archipelago of universities.
Obviously, this book has provoked thinking beyond its subject. Which I suppose is another thing it has going for it. (less)
flag3 likes · Like · 2 comments · see review