E17 "Peace vs. Shalom"

Bible Project: Shalom

English Peace
1) freedom from disturbance; tranquility.
2) a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended.

Biblical Peace is not JUST the absence of something, but a proactive presence of something.

In Hebrew peace= Shalom

In Greek peace= Eirene

Shalom= complete, whole, nothing missing, wellbeing, healthy, a state of balance or equilibrium

To bring shalom= to make complete, to restore, to repay, to reconcile and heal, working together, to cooperate

To truly experience shalom, we as humans must consider what we were made for and what would make us shalom. We must live into the role that God have given us all; to be a keystone species of all keystone species. (Genesis 1:26-29)

What is a Keystone literally: top center stone of an arch. If removed it will crumble.

What is a Keystone species: a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically and cause a trophic cascade.

Trophic Cascade: an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling.

Wendell Berry and road builders: Page 8-13 of "Art of the Commonplace"
Humans can be anti-keystone species destroying shalom. We create trophic cascades in negative ways, but we don’t have to be. It’s not inherent to humans to be destructive, but in post industrial humans it is so common that it may make many of us believe that humans are always anti-keystone.

Ex: Many native peoples learned to live more in line with shalom. The Amazon basin may be an example of native peoples creating a giant food forest.

Wolves in Yosemite

Beavers in the UK

Allen Savory South Africa Elephants

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