Thomas Berry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, in 1914. He was widely read in Western history, and he also spent many years studying the cultural history of Asia. He lived in China and traveled to other parts of Asia. He authored two books on Asian religions,
Buddhism and Religions of India (distributed by Columbia University Press). From his academic beginnings as a historian of world cultures and religions, Berry developed into a historian of the Earth and its evolutionary processes. He describes himself as a "geologian."
For two decades, Thomas Berry, CP directed the Riverdale Center of Religious Research in Riverdale, New York, USA. During this period he taught at Fordham University where he chaired the history of religions program and directed 25 doctoral theses. His major contributions to the discussion on the environment are in his books
The Dream of the Earth (Sierra Club Books, 1988 reprinted, 2006),
The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (Random House, 1999) and, with Brian Swimme,
The Universe Story (Harper San Francisco, 1992). His latest collection of essays is
Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community (Sierra Club Books and University of California Press, 2006).
"The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with,
not objects to be exploited.
Everything has its own voice.
Somehow we have become autistic.
We don't hear the voices."
--Thomas Berry in Listening to the Land: Conversations About Nature, Culture and Eros by Derrick Jensen
Tributes from from the Community
Roberta Shoemaker-Beal, MFA, ATR-BC
Father Thomas Berry contributed greatly to my life by describing a deeply held feeling/belief that we needed to go beyond what my traditional Christian up-bringing to establish a relationship with all the surrounds me/us each day, as a resident of our Home Planet, the Earth. My favorite Saint was always Saint Francis, whose stories of living and walking on the Earth told of a greatly expanded relationship, beyond the human community, relating us to all others, and the ground beneath our feet. Anytime, I heard Father Berry speak, or read his works, and saw the films, The Great Story, about his work, I felt a new hope that more of humanity would be awakened to a more loving and harmonious relationship we could live out, among us, and with all that surrounds us each day in our lives. Berry's comprehension of the great long line of human history, reperceived the majestry of a newer, more informed Creation Story. moving my understanding from a child-like creation story to an adult creation story, without losing the majesty and wonder of the life we live upon this Earth.
