A MINISTRY OF
ST. COLUMBA'S INVERNESS
COUNCIL FOR ECOLOGICAL DISCIPLESHIP
P R E S E N T S
AN ONLINE BOOK STUDY
Tuesdays
November 19
& December 3, 17
4:00 - 5:30 PM PT
Come explore with Cultural historian Thomas Berry his ideas and thoughts on the human influence and our significant impact on the natural world. Berry, who was heavily influenced by the writings of Pierre de Chardin, the French Jesuit Priest, geologist and paleontologist takes Chardin’s evolutionary theology to the next level. Berry calls for a new story, a bigger story, a new cosmology that recognizes and embraces modern science. He acknowledges that we humans have moved away from an intimate relationship with the natural world, and this is at the root of our destructive influence on Mother Earth. We now threaten her very existence as well as our very own as well. Berry’s challenge to us is to move from a disrupting force on Earth to a benign presence. He says the work of our time is the “Great Work.” This Great work involves a “new seeing,” a shift from viewing natural resources as objects to be squandered to more reverent relationships with all of creation, a movement towards “mutually enhancing” relationships with all creation. Thomas Berry’s call is not one of doomsday and despair, but one of great hope.
Please join us for the book study of Thomas Berry's book The Great Work: Our Way Into The Future, facilitated by Steve Lyman, CED member. Discussions will be held Tuesdays on Zoom from 4:00-5:30 PM PT on November 19, December 3, 17.
FREE TO ALL
Suggested donation of $20
Thomas Berry (1914–2009) was one of the twentieth century’s most prescient and profound thinkers. As a cultural historian, he sought a broader perspective on humanity’s relationship to the Earth in order to respond to the ecological and social challenges of our times. The first biography of Berry, this book illuminates his remarkable vision and its continuing relevance for achieving transformative social change and environmental renewal.
Berry began his studies in Western history and religions and expanded to include Asian and Indigenous religions, which he taught at Fordham University, Barnard College, and Columbia University. Drawing on his explorations of history, he came to see the evolutionary process as a story that could help restore the continuity of humans with the natural world. Berry urged humans to recognize their place on a planet with complex ecosystems in a vast evolving universe. He sought to replace the modern alienation from nature with a sense of intimacy and responsibility. Berry called for new forms of ecological education, law, and spirituality and the creation of resilient agricultural systems, bioregions, and ecocities. At a time of growing environmental crisis, this biography shows the ongoing significance of Berry’s conception of human interdependence with the Earth within the unfolding journey of the universe.