Iain Provan: Two Myths that Drive Culture: The Axial Age and Dark Green

Regent College’s Dr. Iain Provan will give a lecture at UBC on two myths that drive culture in our contemporary world: the axial age and dark green religion. Provan recently released a book on this topic last fall called Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was.

About the Lecture

The contemporary world has been shaped in part by two important and potent myths. Karl Jaspers’ construct of the “axial age” envisions the common past (800–200 BC), the time when Western society was born and world religions spontaneously and independently appeared out of a seemingly shared value set. Conversely, the myth of the “dark green golden age” as narrated by David Suzuki and others asserts that the axial age, and the otherworldliness that accompanied the emergence of organized religion, ripped society from a previously deep communion with nature. Both myths contend that to maintain balance we must return to the idealized past. In this lecture, Iain Provan will engage critically with both myths, explaining why we should not embrace them and why it matters if we do.