Thomas Berry (1914 – 2009) was one of the twentieth century’s most prescient and profound thinkers. He lived through some of the most remarkable and rapid changes in recorded history; his constant question was: “What is progress, and what is its real cost?” He believed in the power of story to transform the fractured relationship between humans and nature.
On Wednesday, July 24 at 7:00 pm at The Well Spirituality Center in LaGrange Park, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, co-authors of the first biography of Thomas Berry, will offer an evening of immersion in the life and thought of this great man who was their close associate and friend. Whether or not one is already familiar with Thomas Berry, this program will shed new light on the context in which he lived, and his unique contribution in engaging humans in the great questions: where have we come from, how do we belong, why are we here?
For those who despair during this perilous ecological time, fearing it is too late to alter our course of destruction of the Earth, Thomas Berry offers hope, an engaging new narrative of a universe evolving in which humans become “mutually enhancing participants in the life community.” He called this new period in human history the Ecozoic era, and believed that it was not only possible but already emerging.
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim teach at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Yale Divinity School, where they direct the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. They worked closely with Thomas Berry for over thirty years as his students, editors, and literary executors.
Praise for Thomas Berry: A Biography:
“Most biographies illuminate the past, but this one helps chart the course for our future.” Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
“To a bewildered world, Thomas Berry offers a moral compass. To a fragmented world, he offers the convergence of scientific and spiritual worldviews in a new story of the evolutionary unity of humans and the cosmos. For a despairing world, he offers meaning and hope.” Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change