EQUINOX Reading Tools

This chapter and the next aim to show how the modern paradigm of growth and possession has identifiable philosophical roots in the Western Enlightenment project. Only by identifying those roots can we see why and how the seeds of a new tree must be planted. In the biblical book of Proverbs—that collection of wisdom sayings common to much of the ancient Near East—we read, “Where there is no vision the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” The overall theme of the chapter in which this saying occurs, ch. 29, is the contrast between a society with wicked rulers (“the people groan under an intolerable burden as injustice and violence flourish unchecked”) and one with godly rulers. Striking a familiar theme in the Torah, v. 7 emphasizes “the rights of the poor,” which here means, “to actively promote justice for the poor.” The above quoted v. 18 uses the Hebrew word chazon, literally a “prophetic vision.”No doubt “vision” here encompasses all aspects of revelation, prophecy and law, which are “essential to the harmony and well being of society and the individuals within it.”