Mending the World

Mending the World comes out of two major strands in Kenneth Boulding’s busy life; a deep commitment to the teaching and example of Jesus, especially as exemplified in the Society of Friends, and deep commitment also to the ethic and methods of the scientific community, especially as applied to The World as a Total System and to Human Betterment (the titles of his two latest books). The constant interweaving of these two strands has produced a certain amount of Creative Tension (the title of the biography of Kenneth Boulding published by Cynthia Kerman). How do we combine the commitment to the will to do, and be, good, which is the core of the spiritual life, with the knowledge of how to do good, which requires constant study and learning about the nature of the real world by all the methods by which knowledge is advanced? The reader will not end up with any simple answers. But if the reader ends up with creative tension, the pamphlet will not have been in vain.