Announcing the launch of The Web of Meaning

I’m excited to share with you news about the upcoming launch of my new book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe.

As our civilization careens toward climate breakdown, ecological destruction, and gaping inequality, the dominant worldview of disconnection has passed its expiration date. It’s not just dangerous—it’s based on a series of flawed assumptions that have been superseded by modern scientific findings.

The Web of Meaning—which may be considered a “sequel” to The Patterning Instinct—offers a coherent and intellectually solid foundation for an alternative worldview based on deep interconnectedness, showing how modern scientific knowledge echoes the ancient wisdom of earlier cultures.

Weaving together findings from modern systems thinking, evolutionary biology, and cognitive neuroscience with insights from Buddhism, Taoism, and Indigenous wisdom, it offers a rigorous and integrated way of understanding our place in the cosmos that can serve as a philosophical foundation for a life-affirming future.

The book has received a number of enthusiastic early endorsements from luminaries such as Gabor Maté, Bill McKibben, Joanna Macy, Fritjof Capra, Dan Siegel, Frans de Waal, and Satish Kumar, among others. You can read them all here.

The book will be released on June 17 in the UK and July 13 in the USA/Canada. It’s already available to preorder: Amazon UK | Amazon USA. If you’d rather avoid buying on Amazon, here are other options: Bookshop.org, New Society Publishers, Profile Books (multiple UK choices).

You can read more about the book on my website where you can explore its themes and download the Introduction.

WATCH THE TRAILER

SELECTED ADVANCE PRAISE

“One of the most essential and compelling books of our time. It invites us to rethink at the deepest level who we are as a species and what we might become.”
— David Korten, author, When Corporations Rule the World

“A profound personal meditation on human existence and a tour-de-force weaving together of historic and contemporary thought on the deepest question of all: why are we here?”
— Gabor Maté M.D., author, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction

“We need, now more than ever, to figure out how to make all kinds of connections. This book can help-—and therefore it can help with a lot of the urgent tasks we face.”
— Bill McKibben, author, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

“The opportunity to plunge into this book will change my life. My gratitude, like spirit, is endless.”
— Joanna Macy, author, World As Lover, World As Self

“Lent is one of today’s most eloquent cultural observers. I highly recommend this inspiring book to anyone concerned about the future of humanity.”
— Fritjof Capra, author, The Web of Life, coauthor, The Systems View of Life

“Moving from the ancient Tao to modern neuroscience and everything in between, Lent boldly weaves deep insights together to envision a better world.”
— Frans de Waal, author, Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

“This thoughtful and passionate work is an important contribution to the urgently needed cultural shift from domination to partnership.”
— Riane Eisler, author, The Chalice and the Blade, The Real Wealth of Nations, and Nurturing Our Humanity.

“An important and rationally argued primer for universal flourishing.”
— Douglas Rushkoff, author, Team Human

“A beautiful synthesis of wisdom and empirical knowledge, this erudite journey offers an important way to construct a new narrative of our shared lives.”
— Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., author, Mind, Aware, and IntraConnected

“A good place to sit for anybody interested in binding the wounds of thoughtless progress and allowing the emergence of new patterns of being.”
— Tyson Yunkaporta, author, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World