In The Tree of Life H.J. Massingham questions the ‘doctrine of progress’ which brings enslavement to time, measurement, quantity and regulations laid down by unaccountable bureaucrats. He sees the birth of Christ into the family of a ‘rural goodman’ as no accident, but rather “a sign to the world only third in importance to that of the Crucifixion and the Logos”. For Massingham, peasant society is fundamental to human society, Although subject to endless change and adaptation, forms of society which link the spiritual with the social and natural worlds – church, home and fields - have timeless qualities with inbuilt sustainability. Other economies, however seemingly sophisticated, flower and fade. They are unsustainable. While Massingham writes from an openly Christian perspective, he is not dogmatic. Rather he recognises the validity of the wide spectrum of societies based upon other versions of the spiritual. He is fundamentally opposed to secularism, the total loss of respect for the spiritual links between the land and its peoples. Secularism brings slavery to the money system, subtly disguised as freedom. True freedom is independence from debt and financial slavery, a freedom reserved almost exclusively to peasant farming societies.
Frances's paper The Tree of Life offers an inter-faith perspective on globalisation.
The Tree of Life has recently been republished and is available from Jon Carpenter Books.