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"A fascinating exploration of the earth's history."--"Library Journal""Amazing...ariticualte[s] nothing less than a coherent new story of the evolution of life on our planet...executed with verve, imagination, and deep concern for restoring ecological balance to our endangered planet."--Riane Eisler, author of "The Chalice and the Blade""["The Universe Story"] could be the antidote to fragmented commitments and nihilism--the narrative from which future generations can live appropriately to our real natural-historical situation."--Dr. John Cobb, Professor Emeritus, School of Theology at Claremont""The Universe Story "begins the long overdue process of teaching modern humans who we are, where we came from, and about the beautifully complex cosmoecological dance that sustains us."--David Perry, Professor, Ecosystems Studies, Oregon State University
Product Description
A rich retelling of how the universe was formed, from the big bang to the present--for general readers, poets, and scientists alike.
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ORIGINATING POWER BROUGHT forth a universe. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
ORIGINATING POWER BROUGHT forth a universe. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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13 reviews
34 of 42 people found the following review helpful
The Universe is the Hero.
29 July 1999
Format:Paperback
It's been a while since I've read this book, but I can say that it's one of the most important books I've read. It's not a book to be read for entertainment, or for a "wow" experience. And yet I certainly didn't find it dull. I don't think the book is for "overly intellectual" people. But I would say it's a book for thought and reflection, as well as for knowledge.
This book was written because, "In the modern period, we are without a comprehensive story of the universe. The historians ... deal not with the whole world but just with the human, as if the human were something separate from or an addendum to the story of the Earth and the universe. The scientists have arrived at detailed accounts of the cosmos, but have focused exclusively on the physical dimensions and have ignored the human dimension of the universe."
In their account, the authors take a mythological approach to the story of the universe, "humanizing" the various stages of its development, but also basing all that they write on the best knowledge yet uncovered by science. The deliberate, and successful, result is the growing feeling that the universe is at last telling its own story, though us. We ourselves are part of the universe. The universe evolves! It hasn't always been as it is now. This fact may appear boring to some of us, but in a broader perspective, this idea is a radically new and exciting idea -- unthinkable in times past.
Told in this way, the story is one of familiar (i.e., mythological) forces and processes interacting at each stage, but with each stage being yet more complex and intelligent than the last. The universe doesn't just change, it evolves. And as we discover its story we see how much a part of the universe we are, and that our own awareness is also a part of it.
I believe that these ideas are essential for our own human evolution, and our ability to invent our own next leap, together, into the future.
20 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Powerful antidote to the Western world's destructive ways.
8 April 1998
Format:Paperback
The Universe Story begins to fills a vast void in Western experience. The telling of our evolutionary story has been marked by the reductionism of science. This is how our scientists are trained -- not to attempt to interpret data within their narrow disciplines in a way which might be meaningful. The idea of relating the remarkable oddessy we have been on as a story is precisely the antidote we need to turn things back from our destructive ways. Telling it as a story embeds us in the evolutionary process, giving the human a role, rather than relegating our species to some (non-existent) meaningless exterior process. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have made a remarkable first attempt and should be applauded for their courage. Almost all scientists and most theologians have not had the fortitude to take us down this path. Tell it is a story! How preposterous! It's not preposterous. It's finally acknowledging that we humans are an integral part of the incredible creative event that is still unfolding all around us! And it may be the only thing which will get through to the human mind the necessity for an active compassion toward ourselves and our fellow travelers on this Earth. Swimme and Berry celebrate this and give us a new faith at a time when many despair that the human will survive the despoiling of our beautiful planet home. The science in The Universe Story is impeccable. Swimme's background as a physicist and mathematical cosmologist provides the much-needed grounding in scientific data that makes this book stand a shoulder above many other books which have attempted to place the human within the larger story. But rather than downplay the great turning points in evolutionary history through analytical reductionism, the authors give us an opportunity to feel awe and wonder at the astounding array of events that had to take place to bring us into existence. Not the least of these is to impart how important it is that the human is the way in which the Universe reflects upon its own beauty through conscious self-awareness. We are not just simply somehow "outside" looking in. We are the Universe "tasting itself." Thomas Berry, who calls himself a "geologian," is renowned the world over as a cultural historian. In his deep concern for the Earth community and his call to "put the Bible on the shelf for 20 years in order to read the primary scripture of the Natural World" in order to regain some of our lost widom, he is one the great prophets of our age. If the evolutionary past could be taught like this -- as a wondrous story -- in all our schools, our attitudes might turn around and we might learn treat the Earth with respect, coming out of a deep awareness of our interconnectedness to all life. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in thinking in a new way about our role in the universe and for staying on the leading edge of eco-theological thought.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
dserves 5 stars for what it tries to do
28 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback
The book is great in its aim. The story of the universe and our planet can inspire and inform. I simply wish the authors had kept to mainstream science a bit more in places. They also have a tendency to tell rather than show. I get a little uncomfortable when they preach. If they had done a better job of showing, they wouldn't have had to preach.
Some reviewers were offended by the phrase, "The well-being of the Earth is primary. Human well-being is derivative." They seem to think that this means that human well-being should be sacrificed for the good of the Earth.
However, when you consider our intimate interconnectedness with the planet, you will see that human well-being is impossible without the Earth doing well also. Until we can get along without eating, drinking, and breathing, we are going to need to take care of this planet also. The sentence means what it says. We are part of the Earth; the Earth is part of us. We're constantly exchanging atoms with Earth and its systems. Our interconnectedness isn't poetry of or pious wish, it's a simple fact. The tears you cry today were rain in the mountains last year; the breath in your lungs was breathed by the dinosaurs.
Peace!
steve
Some reviewers were offended by the phrase, "The well-being of the Earth is primary. Human well-being is derivative." They seem to think that this means that human well-being should be sacrificed for the good of the Earth.
However, when you consider our intimate interconnectedness with the planet, you will see that human well-being is impossible without the Earth doing well also. Until we can get along without eating, drinking, and breathing, we are going to need to take care of this planet also. The sentence means what it says. We are part of the Earth; the Earth is part of us. We're constantly exchanging atoms with Earth and its systems. Our interconnectedness isn't poetry of or pious wish, it's a simple fact. The tears you cry today were rain in the mountains last year; the breath in your lungs was breathed by the dinosaurs.
Peace!
steve
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