BOOK REVIEW: The Knight & the Gardener – Worldviews Make Worlds.
I was recently introduced to the book by Cassidy S. Dale: The Knight & the Gardener – Worldviews Make Worlds. I was deeply challenged as I contemplated where I fit in as I explored his explanation of the two worldviews (knights or gardeners) that so often shape our worlds of faith, missions, and spirituality.
This is NOT a book that simply contains INFORMATION but a book that should lead to INTROSPECTION. “What view best describes my spirituality?” should be the one question we should ask upon reading this book.
The book is freely available on the internet with permission to share it, print it, send the link (see below) and copy it. The only thing you can’t do is sell it, change it, add to it, or claim it’s yours.
REVIEW
Dale starts the book by explaining that worldviews, or the lenses we look through when we explore the events around us, will either present itself as a great conflict in which we are a hero (the knight) who can help win a great victory and save the world from deception and corruption; or a world that needs an inventor, explorer or pioneer (the gardener) who can solve a critical world problem through nurturing, care and initiatives to make the world a better place.
In the book Dale unpacks those two worldviews and how they have shaped or affected our public and private lives today in religion, relationships, politics, and war and peace.
Knights, according to Dale, see themselves—and all people and things—as part of a great, cosmos-spanning war between truth and falsehoods, the forces of divine good and demonic evil or instead, say, between enlightened reason and destructive ignorance. Knights believe the primary calling of good people is to undertake crusades—moral, spiritual, and political—to protect the innocent and defeat the forces of evil. Knights categorize people as allies or enemies, and see most situations as zero sum games. Any combative or competitive endeavor is a Knight’s endeavor. Christian Knights, for example, spread the Gospel to save people from the consequences of their sinful behavior, and seek out ways to eradicate immorality from the world. A Knight looking down on the world from a space capsule would see good, noble paladins fighting great, menacing dragons for control of the world. For Knights, the world—and the terrain of the individual human soul—is a battlefield, always at war.
Gardeners, on the other hand, see themselves—and all people and things—as part of the growth of a great, cosmos-spanning Garden, one that can flourish further if aided by well-meaning and inspired people. Gardeners believe the primary calling of good people is to cultivate the Garden through planting, good planning, the pursuit of transformative discovery, invention and innovation, and artistic revelation. Any constructive endeavor is a Gardener’s endeavor. Christian Gardeners, for example, spread the Gospel to restore broken people so they can rejoin the ongoing creation process, and to awaken others to their meaningful role in tending the Garden. A Gardener looking down on the world from a space capsule would see a great Garden of lush jungles, farms, the construction or rejuvenation of beautiful cities, and new opportunities in the now-barren places. And over the blue parts of the globe, the Gardener would see a shining silver rain fall silently into a swirling silver sea. For Gardeners, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8, all of Creation is involved in one great act of giving birth.
Here are some of the explored differences in the book:
- Knights yearn for the Great Showdown.
- Gardeners yearn for the Great Breakthrough.
- Knights don’t need a God, but must have a Devil.
- Gardeners must have a God—or a vision to strive toward—but need no Devils.
- Knights’ central question regarding conflict is What evil needs to be defeated, eradicated, or pushed away so the world can self-correct? Knights assume that the removal of evil is all that is necessary to fix the world.
- Gardeners’ central question regarding conflict is What needs to be built, planted or cultivated so the world can become better or prevent conflict that threatens Gardens?
- When faced with long-term, seemingly intractable conflict situations, Knights tend to fight the alligators while Gardeners try to drain the swamp.
- Who controls the level of fear in a populace can control that populace. Knights ramp up fear by implying an enemy is at the gates.
- Knights do not understand how they can be perceived from the outside—as people with a hymn on their lips and blood on their hands
- Gardeners do not understand how they can be perceived from the outside— as spineless
- Knights pursue absolute truth to ensure that their crusades are on firm foundation.
- Gardeners pursue the deepest spiritual well to ensure that their Garden is grown from a place of profound vision, true divine compassion, and fertility.
There are two ways of being religious today—the exoteric way and the esoteric way.
- In short, the exoteric way finds divine truth via dogma while the esoteric way finds it via mysticism.
- If the exoteric pursues the “law of God,” the esoteric way pursues the “awe of God.”
Both ways are necessary for another reason. The span of a human life will require both spiritual ways at different times. Imagine the individual life as like a long attempt to cross a river. Each person will need the (esoteric) skill to swim through sometimes chaotic water—and will need the occasional (exoteric) stone upon which to rest.
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