The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future

This review is long, and my apologies, but this book is potent and spells-out what is one of the most important subjects of the 21st century- our drifting from physical reality and responsibilities and the need to wake-up and realize this dilemma and how we can accomplish that possible , but daunting task. Thomas Berry does this with eloquence and wisdom here and this is truly, a "Great Work"! Thank you, Mr. Berry! In his earlier book, "The Dream of the Earth", Thomas Berry so eloquently stated the need for humanity to realize what a beautiful foundational life-support gift we have in planet Earth and the need to treat it with the profound sense of respect and good stewardship it deserves and needs in to order to provide a healthy life-sustaining platform. An understanding of the dynamics of Earth's resource cycles and regulatory systems can teach us how to live sustainably and regeneratively- most importantly, carrying that understanding into the formation and dissemination of religion, politics and economy. We see God's handy-work, i.e., the blue prints and operating system for Earth through the dynamics of Nature's regenerative, life providing bounty and we then see what is required to maintain this perfect system. Indeed, we are entering the "Eco-zoic" faze of our existence- the realization and implementation of an ecologically sustainable reality. So how could Berry top that beautiful piece of work? Almost ten years after "The Dream", he comes out with "The Great Work", a powerful and compelling continuation of the earlier theme of a beautiful Earth with attentive humans at the helm and with proper stewardship, only now with an exacting historical dialogue of how the Earth formed, settled and eventually became a biological life-support system and where we, as humans have lost our original awe and respect of God's creation through the many distractions of living in a human only, "civilized" and complex material world, forgetting our interconnectedness to all life. This separation has culminated in an insane, parasitic and cancerous existence not only for us humans, but for all life on this planet. Isn't it curious that cancer of our bodies is one of our biggest worries and nemesis? Mass over-population, pollution, unsustainable resource use and habitat destruction have left us in a burn-out, dire mess. Our sense of economy is no "economy" at all, rather a predatory take all shark frenzy fully supported by governments through corporate purchase and manipulation and misguided `human only' pseudo-religious zealotry. An un-Godly, reckless "Manifest Destiny" attitude of anthropocentric endeavors has been prevailing since the industrialization of our societies exploded on the human scene, blinding us with delusions of superiority, yet to the detriment of our shared and threatened environment. Exactly in the middle of this fine book, is a chapter called "Ethics and Ecology". Here, Berry relates our combined human sense of making like n

Tom Berry has been called the "Bard of the New Cosmology" and so he is! His thoughts challenge those rooted in authoritarian structures and flatland awareness. His views challenge those who find extreme security in their myths and dogmatic positions. These people have made a career of striking back with an authoritarian thunder when challenged with a more comprehensive unfolding of the Cosmos. Berry's explication brings science and religion together without authoritative fiat rooted in dogma--what Ken Wilbur calls "Deep Religion." Deep religion honors the developmental spirial of conciousness and the EXPERIENTIAL awareness that mystics are privy to and speak of so eloquently and forcefully. Berry's book brings the enviornmental crisis in focus and calls for human transformation of every aspect of human unfolding: political, educational, corporate, sociological, and religious. It is no wonder those who remain rooted in the systems of the Earth's demise so forcefully attack this Great and surely Prophetic Man.

Thoreau. Muir. Leopold. Today I am adding Thomas Berry to this list. He will be remembered as the spokesman for our planet as we entered the new millennium. In this book, Berry insightfully writes, "without the soaring birds, the great forests, the sounds and coloration of the insects, the free-flowing streams, the flowering fields, the sight of the clouds by day and the stars at night, we become impoverished in all that makes us human" (p. 20). "The Great Work" is a collection of 17 deep-ecology essays followed by a comprehensive, 32-page bibliography of "source materials." In his essays (which address, among other things, the environment, economics, politics, and education), Berry encourages us to reflect upon our human role amidst the "wonder" (p. ix) and "magic" (p. 20) of the Earth, "the garden planet of the universe" (p. ix), and move with great effort from our "devastating exploitation" of the planet to a more "benign presence" (p. 7). In one essay, "The Earth Story" (Chapter 3), Berry examines our integral human role on the 4.6-billion-year-old, "radiant blue-white, . . . privileged" planet Earth (pp. 21-22) that hangs in a 14.6-billion-year-old universe. In each essay, Berry encourages us to reexamine our relationship with the Earth--"to dream again"(p. 47), because we are now living in a "moment of grace" (p. 196) as we move into the twenty-first century, which enables us to "be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner" (p. 3). Reading this book could change the way you live your life. G. Merritt