Being at Home in the World

Within the little pile of books in our downstairs loo at home is Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects. You may have heard MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, recently presenting the excellent Living With The Gods series on Radio 4.

The most dog-eared chapter of the book refers to a remarkable piece of sculpture representing two swimming reindeer, one behind the other. Carved out of a mammoth tusk, it’s an exquisite piece of 10,000 year-old ‘Ice Age art’. It’s a genre that has always intrigued me, conjuring up images of easels set up next to sluggish glaciers and posing sabre-toothed tigers.

It is easy to imagine that the object was simply created by a Neanderthal hunter sitting on a rock with plenty of time on his hands, perhaps making a toy for his children. But there’s something about it, an ethereal, abstract and oddly engaging quality, that suggests something altogether different. 

A fascinating commentary by Rowan Williams, ex Archbishop of Canterbury, advocates an overtly religious motive behind the sculpture: ‘it’s really a desire to get inside and almost be at home in the world at a deeper level’. Williams believes the object represents an early recognition of the harmony and ties between living things that evokes a sense of togetherness and collective purpose in the world. The reindeers are not being seen as creatures to be hunted down and consumed, more fellow beings of the same homeland that are to be respected and cherished.

Looking ahead to Christmas, these are important concepts to be reminded of. In the hustle and bustle of modern living, it is easy to regard religion as something conveniently separate from our everyday existences, something associated with specific places and tangible artefacts such as churches, crosses and stables full of farm animals.

But surely religion at this time of the year is most potently manifest in the way we relate and interact with each other as decent human beings, through the active demonstration of values such as compassion, trust, friendship and love. I think this is what it means to be truly at home in the world.

Wishing you a happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.