Inteteresting commentary by John Hagel, who reviews two important books:
* Stuart Kauffman: “Reinventing the Sacred”
* Gordon Kaufman: “In the beginning . . . Creativity”
John Hagel on the Big Shift in Spirituality, towards “networked creation“:
“The Big Shift is not just about disruption and profits. It is also about identity, meaning and values that are changing in profound ways. More than ever before, if we just focus narrowly on commercial quests, we will find ourselves blindsided by much broader changes playing out on the global stage.
As we shift our identity from consumers to networked creators, we will find that creativity plays a more and more central role in our lives, especially as our personal and professional identities knit together again. More and more of us will come to realize that creativity is indeed sacred, worthy of respect and reverence. By cultivating a view of creativity as sacred, we reinforce a sense of wonder, curiosity and, most of all, humility that will help us to become even more creative. By honoring creativity and giving it a more central place in our worldview, we will find that it strengthens our perception of possibility, motivating us to create in ways that we previously never thought would be feasible. The focus on agency highlights the potential opportunity we all have to co-create the universe we live in – this is not (just) about watching others, it is us about us working together.
Even more importantly, this reinvention of the sacred represents a move from a static to a dynamic worldview. Rather than the sacred representing perfection already achieved, the sacred emerges as a process of becoming without end. This reinvention of the sacred is profoundly consistent with the broader movement of the Big Shift from a static world of knowledge stocks to a dynamic world continually re-shaped by ever evolving knowledge flows.
Embracing this new notion of the sacred will strengthen us in our quest to harness the forces of the Big Shift to create things never before imagined. Just as the Big Shift is changing our beliefs about ourselves, most certainly it will change our beliefs about the cosmos. Perhaps these new beliefs will provide a common ground where we can all come together – believers in a divine being and believers in a divine becoming – to heal the injuries that have separated us and helping all of us to more effectively achieve our potential.”
I also strongly recommend reading this other blog entry from John Hagel, in which he expertly distinguishes ‘passion’ (as in passionate peer production), from ‘obsession’. Read it here.