In November 1999 Thomas Berry’s new book, The
Great Work, was published by Bell Tower/Random House.
The book represents a culmination of Berry’s critique
of contemporary industrial society and points the way
toward more mutually enhancing human-earth relations.
Berry suggests that we need to move from an exploitative
and extractive economy to an understanding of nature’s
economy, recognizing its limits and its resources. Berry’s
comprehensive vision draws on his life long study of the
world’s religions as well as his investigation into
the story of evolution as an orienting context for humans
in the next millennium. Comments from the book jacket
follow:
“Great Work indeed! Thomas Berry offers us the
benefit of a lifetime of clear-headed, clear-hearted
reflection. And by so doing he shows us where our task
lies, shows us the particular test that we must face
just as our ancestors faced their own great challenges.
It’s a work to stir the blood.”
—Bill McKibben
author of The End of Nature
“As we close out this century, Thomas Berry has
demonstrated once again that he is one of the few great
religious minds to be reckoned with.”
—Wes Jackson
president of the Land Institute
“Thomas Berry is the bard of the new cosmology.
He unerringly finds the mythic dimension and the moral
significance behind the scientific facts.”
—Theodore Roszak
author of The Voice of the Earth and Ecopsychology
This panel consisted of theologians and historians of
religion as well as those versed in scientific disciplines.
|
| Chair |
| Mary Evelyn Tucker |
Bucknell University |
|
Panelists |
| Rosemary Radford Ruether |
Garrett Theological Seminary |
| Larry Rasmussen |
Union Theological Seminary |
| Robert Neville |
Boston University |
| Stephanie Kaza |
University of Vermont |
| Ursula Goodenough |
Washington University |
|
| Respondent |
| Thomas Berry |
Fordham University, Emeritus |
| |
| |
|
