John White

God and Cultural Evolution: Beyond Western Civilization to Global Community John White

Publisher Marketing: This mini-book is a chapter from my forthcoming book Enlightenment 101: A Guide to God-Realization and Higher Human Culture. The book looks at the experience of enlightenment for the individual and the race. This chapter was begun in dialogue with an online correspondent who argued against what she said is my Eurocentric perspective on culture and in favor of the actions of some environmental extremists seeking to halt Western civilization. It continued with a friend who disputed my claim for the inherent superiority of America in the process of cultural evolution. It begins: Dear C: You disagree with me when I criticize the environmental movement for magical thinking and what Ken Wilber calls retro-romanticism or a yearning for innocence and simplicity through the naive belief that it can be attained via regression to a childish state. Magical thinking, as defined by psychologists, is a stage of the developmental process in children. At an early time in life, before they have attained the capacity for logical, rational thought and formal mental operations, children think in terms characterized by fantasy and by ignorance of various natural laws, such as cause-and-effect in physics. In magical thinking, inanimate objects can become living and personified, the laws of physics suspended, and childish wishing elevated to the status of a cosmic principle... Contributor Bio:  White, John John White was born in Liverpool, England, on March 5, 1924, and grew up in Manchester. After serving as a reconnaissance photographer in the Fleet Air Arms during World War II, he completed medical training at Manchester University. He later participated in a variety of short-term missions efforts (including Bible smuggling!) and capitalized on many opportunities to encourage Christians behind the Iron Curtain during the beginning of the Cold War. On June 25, 1955, White married Laureate May O'Hara. From 1955 to 1964 he served as a medical missionary with New Tribes Mission. Later he was appointed associate general secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students of Latin America. White emigrated to Canada with his family in 1965 and later completed his residency in psychiatry in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He next filled the post of associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and also served locally as pastor of Church of the Way. He wrote 25 books as well as numerous articles and study guides. A much sought-after speaker, he lectured around the world at churches, conferences and leadership events. During his later life, White moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, helping to plant a Vineyard church there (Surrey Vineyard) and becoming involved in the larger Vineyard Christian Fellowship. John White died in 2002, but his written ministry lives on, with over 1.5 million of his books in print.