![[Stephen-Jenkinson_For-The-Wild_Guest.png.jpg]] --- **Stephen Jenkinson** (born c. 1954) is a Canadian author, teacher, cultural activist, and farmer. He is best known for his work on [[Grief]], dying, and the reclaiming of elderhood in Western [[Culture]]. A former palliative care worker and programme director in a major Canadian hospital, Jenkinson rose to wider prominence through his philosophical reflections on [[Death]], tradition, and the collapse of [[Meaning]] in modern societies. He is the founder of the **Orphan Wisdom School**, located in Ontario, where he teaches on themes such as ancestry, [[Language]], ritual, and the deepening of culture. ### **Early Life and Career** Stephen Jenkinson was born and raised in Canada. He holds a Master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard University and a Master’s in social work from the University of Toronto. His early career combined social work, counselling, and palliative care, during which he became deeply involved in accompanying the dying and their families. His professional background helped shape his critique of institutional responses to death and grief. ### **Philosophy and Work** Jenkinson’s teachings draw on a wide range of influences, including [[Indigenous]] traditions (though he is not Indigenous himself), ancient European folkways, mythology, theology, and poetic philosophy. He frequently critiques the modern West’s approach to death, which he characterises as “death-phobic” and “grief-illiterate.” His central argument is that by medicalising and outsourcing death, Western societies have cut themselves off from a vital form of wisdom. A major theme in Jenkinson’s work is the **reverence for limits**, both personal and civilisational. He sees grief not as an affliction to be cured but as a skill of deep living—a way of honouring what has been lost. He also challenges popular conceptions of heroism, legacy, and purpose, urging a more grounded and communal understanding of dying well. His lectures, writings, and interviews often blend poetry, lamentation, [[storytelling]], and philosophical inquiry. He is known for a slow, deliberate speaking style and the use of mythopoetic language. ### **Notable Works** - _Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul_ (2015) – A philosophical treatise on death, dying, and the cultural loss of meaning. - _Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble_ (2018) – A polemic on the erosion of true elderhood in Western societies. - _Money and the Soul’s Desires_ (2002) – A reflection on the moral [[Economics|economy]] of commerce and spiritual integrity. - _A Generation’s Worth_ (2022) – A poetic examination of cultural responsibilities in an age of unraveling. He also collaborated with filmmaker Ian MacKenzie on _Griefwalker_ (2008), a National Film Board documentary that portrays his work with the dying. ### **Views on Science and Immortality** Stephen Jenkinson has consistently warned against the technological and scientific framing of human life and death. While not opposed to medicine or empirical inquiry per se, he contends that **modern science has increasingly abandoned the moral dimension of dying**, reducing the end of life to a series of problems to be solved, rather than mysteries to be lived. **In light of this**, it is likely that Jenkinson would view modern science’s **pursuit of immortality or radical life extension with grave suspicion**, or even sorrow. From his perspective, such efforts reflect a deep cultural refusal to accept the finitude of human life—a refusal that, rather than being brave or visionary, is ultimately a symptom of a [[Civilisation]] unskilled in grief and unable to [[Knowledge/Love]] the world as it is, and as it must end. > _“To live forever,” he might say, “is to abandon the privilege of being claimed by life, and therefore to forfeit the ability to be claimed by love.”_ ### **Legacy and Influence** Stephen Jenkinson has had a growing international audience among those disillusioned with modernity’s spiritual void, especially in fields such as death doula work, [[Ecology|environmental]] activism, cultural revivalism, and grief education. His style and message have been particularly influential among younger generations seeking alternatives to materialist and individualist paradigms. He continues to teach at the Orphan Wisdom School, travel for public speaking engagements, and publish writings that challenge conventional understandings of age, culture, and death. --- ![[StephenJenkinson.png]] `Concepts:` [[Ecology]] `Knowledge Base:` [[Culture]], [[Hope|grief]], [[Meaning]], [[Death]], [[Language]], [[Indigenous]], [[storytelling]], [[Knowledge/Love]]