Last week I wrote of how blessed we were to share a planet with two stalwart lovers of Mother Earth and her creatures, Joanna Macy and Jane Goodall, both of whom died recently. I shared some of the teachings of Joanna Macy, and promised to share some from Jane Goodall.
Here is one from late in Jane’s life: “Herein lies the real hope for our future: we are moving towards the ultimate destiny of our species—a state of compassion and love.” This echoes the dream of Teilhard de Chardin very vividly; and also, of course, that of Jesus and his promise of the arrival of the “kingdom/queendom of God.”
In my book, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, I propose that the “second coming” is not about Jesus coming on a cloud, but about humanity waking up and becoming its better self, such as Jesus called us all to when he called us to compassion and justice.
Are we any closer to that “second coming” now than we were 2000 years ago? One would hope so. One would hope that healthy democracies properly adapted to 21st century realities might make that possible. As always, its arrival depends our our inner and outer work to bring it about.
A recent article with an appropriate title of “The Indomitable Jane Goodall” contains reflections and stores from a book published on the occasion of her 90th birthday. Called Jane Goodall at 90: Celebrating an Astonishing Lifetime of Science, Advocacy, Humanitarianism, Hope, and Peace, it is edited by Marc Bekoff, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and Koen Margodt who both knew her well.*
They call her a Jane-of-all-trades—globe-trotting, eclectic English woman—that is how diverse she truly is. She was a magnet who easily attracted diverse people of all ages and cultures into her global umbrella of caring, compassion, empathy, dignity, wisdom, and hope.
One of the “astonishing” methods she employed toward animals was her habit of naming each chimpanzee she studied. “She felt that every individual counts” and each chimp had their own unique personality. She was criticized of course by the scientific establishment, who numbered the chimps they studied and refused to acknowledge that they had their own personalities. Naming them was considered “unscientific.” Of course, the scientists’ research was taking place in various kinds of captive settings.
The authors tell us that “the most important thing that Jane did was to narrow the gulf between us and animals,” and she changed science in the process. Thanks to Jane’s work, “we are now allowed to consider animals as subjects, not objects, and to recognize that their individual personalities are extremely important to study.”
Pete Singer, author of Animal Liberation Now, said that she “has changed forever the way we think about ourselves and other animals.”
Jane evolved from scientist to activist by her own admission. When she visited SEMA, a laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, and saw how chimps were treated, she responded: “I shall be haunted forever by…the eyes of the infant chimpanzees I saw that day” in cages behind bars “above, bars below, bars on every side.” She made a pledge “to speak out for the hundreds of chimpanzees who, right now sit hunched, miserable and without hope, staring out with dead eyes from their metal prisons.”
Her prophetic voice on their behalf eventually put an end to the use of chimpanzee experiments in the US.
Singer and songwriter Dave Matthews tells of how he and Jane were part of a Live Earth concert broadcast from Giant stadium, with about 100,000 people in attendance. Confessing that she wasn’t used to speaking to so large a crowd, she began with sounding the call a chimp makes to greet its fellow chimps across the jungle. The crowd hushed and then “some primal response rose to a deafening joyful roar.” She “blew the roof off a stadium with nothing but her voice.”
Peter Biro, past chair of the Jane Goodall Institute, says, “Jane is possessed of—indeed, defined by—what Hannah Arendt called “amor mundi”—love of the world….She makes all the difference in the world.”
* Mark Bekoff, “The Indomitable Jane Goodall,” Newsbreak, October 2, 2025.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: Baby Chimpanzee in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. Photo by Roland. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How do you remember Jane Goodall? Are you also possessed of “amor mundi,” love of the world? How do you keep it alive?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance.
Confessions: The Making of a Post-denominational Priest.
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation, by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox.
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action, by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jen Listug.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
4 thoughts on “Wisdom From Jane Goodall: Some Teachings, Actions & Stories ”
I feel like Jane Goodall is my inspiration. I have always felt what she lived and taught, and it was such a relief to see that someone of her grace and perception pioneered it so intelligently, and so kindly. Whatever time is left to me, I put to her causes. She joins Hildegard as a light in heaven for us and all creatures and the earth. Thank-you, Matthew, for highlighting her.
Photo of macaque monkey, not actually a chimpanzee, in the article. Either way, very sad.
One way I keep amor mundi alive is through poetry—through writing it myself in honor of the beauty of the world, but mainly through the writings of actual poets. I am also blessed by living in a small-town neighborhood in the pines and junipers where animals often amble by. I am blessed to have windows that look out into the surrounding (though tamed) forest where I see javelinas, deer, and flocks of wild turkeys pass by. Besides skunks, bobcats, and raccoons living nearby, this summer we have twice seen a fox run across the road. I’d never seen a fox in the wild before and he or she absolutely delights me as it dashes by, once stopping to drink from the bucket of water I’d set out during our drought. Four times, I’ve seen a cougar, luckily not up too close. Once I had a family of three hawks take up residence in a pine tree, and once a beautiful snake lived in my compost’s straw-bale. Whenever I am given the chance—at a restaurant or someone’s home—I choose to be outside. If I could, I’d have a home of all windows with a small enclosure inside where I could change clothes. Nonetheless, about twice a year, I need to “go north” to the high deserts of Arizona where I can be surrounded by canyons and buttes—Grand Canyon or Monument Valley or some other wild place full of vistas. I recognize how blessed I am.
Beautiful DM today Matthew on the heritage and philosophy of Jane Goodall (‘Good for All’) — Spirit of “amor mundi” (Love of the world, Hannah Arendt). Thank you for putting into words the Spirituality of the mystics, saints, prophets, artists, and social justice workers/warriors in the ongoing tradition of Creation Spirituality, yourself included. I’m realizing I’m also possessed in my own humble human and Divine unique way by the Spirit of “amor mundi”/ Divine Love~Wisdom~Creativity… for Our Beautiful Sacred Mother Earth/Her living creatures/graceful abundance and All living spiritual physical/nonphysical Beings and spiritual dimensions within, through, and among Us in Our evolving Cosmos Co-Creation and subtle Angelic spiritual realms — LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS of Our COMPASSIONATE CHRIST~BUDDHA CONSCIOUSNESS in the Sacred Divine Flow of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….